The list
Red Arrow
Rich Hume & Tom Barnes
Sat 6 Mar 2010 13:40
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Hello everybody. (its a long one,
sorry!)
Im gonna talk about the race first before i talk
about Oli trying to winggle his way into an east twick (not
richmond) household via facebook (yes we know!)......burn!!! The past 48
hours has seen two very diffent sides to our race, but quite a fitting one. 48
hours ago we had a reallly good 24 hour period covering 57 miles towards
antigua. We have followed that by doing a really bad 24 hours, about 42 miles
towards antigua. The good news is that at 10am thismorning we needed to be at
324 to keep us on schedule and we were at 325! Were just experienceing a very
strong southerly wind which we are trying to row along side of, its very
differcult and quite dishartening, but we battled, got ourselves 7 miles into it
and now can spend the day running with it, so hopefully we will make progress.
At 7pm last night we had closed in on HCL and Dream maker but i guess now we
have droped back again, i believe the tracker didnt respond over night, so like
you guys, who knows about our progress!!!
The only bit of drama to tell you about was last
night at about 8pm, it was still light and a tanker came on the horizon. It was
running at 282 degreess when it finally appeared on our AIS. We were running at
281 degrees and would have got munched had i not played chicken and rowed due
north as fast as i could for 10 minutes. We missed it by 400metres or so.
Strangley it was quite peaceful and supprisingly refreshing to smell the fumes.
We havent smelt anything different for 60 days now. What was bad and i find
quite unprofessional was that no one picked up our calls or tried to call us.
They were obviously having dinner and ignoring thier alarms. If one of these
things hits you, they wouldnt know and as we were beside it, they would have
seen us for sure.....very weired.
Ok, the list.
Its no secret that this row was my idea. It was
made up in the lower fifth (14yrs old) at school with my then room mate,
Jos. We decided we would give it a go. But i never actually thought i would do
it. I know that sounds lilke i think we have made it, believe me, i know we
havent until we cross that line, but it reads better this way!!! It was a dream
of mine, ive spent hours thinking about it, my uni notes are plagued with
drawings of the boat etc, it was gonna happen, i just didnt know when.
It was 2007 when the list really emerged.
Sitting in my room in Balham, i wrote down seven, of what i saw, as the greatest
amature sporting challenges out there and gave myself till i was 35 (ten
years to do them). At this point i was already an ironman, maybe that was
the catalyst. So here goes:
1. Ironman triathlon (2.4mile swim, 112mile bike,
26.2mile run)
2. Double iron triathlon (4.8mile swim, 224mile
bike, 52.4mile run)
3. Triple iron Triathlon (7.2mile swim, 336mile
bike, 78.6mile run)
4. Rowing an ocean
5. Badwater Ultra Marathon (135 mile running race
in death valley, 120 degrees heat)
6. Arc de Arc (run from marble arch to dover, swim
channel, bike from calais to arc de tri (paris, just cant spell
it!))
7. Solo RAAM (Bike race across america as a
solo)
8,9,10..........to be decided!
So, 1,2 and 3 are done and 4 is almost there.
5 is the target for 2011 but we will see. But what im trying to get at, is that
dreams have to be there inorder to be achieved and without dreams, whats
the point? I like the fact that when i get up in the morning, im trying to
improve myself and be the best of my ability. I would never critise
anybody who has a job going nowhere, a social group with no ambition or with no
hobbies, but i think they are fundimental in who you are. You need a target
and you musnt be scared to fail. I failed my first marathon in 2005 and it
sucked, but ill go back and try again at somepoint, maybe next year just to put
it to rest.
I hope antigua arrives soon, and we will hit land
sucessful and satisfied. I hope you have enjoyed reading my blogs as ive tried
to tell you how im feeling at that very moment of time wether it be concerns of
the challenge or my toilet movemets (which again arent great, ive managed to put
weight on, maybe im full of s........) whatever is going on during that day. At this pace we should arrive on
friday, a week yesturday. My next blog will be on tuesday and then thursday, the
reason im missing monday will become apparent on monday. I want to talk about
the boat and my final thank yous and i dont want to jinx the trip so that is why
this blog is going now.
Without sounding cheesy, you can achieve whatever
you want, you can dream so high you never thought it was possible to reach your
target. Dreams and desires are there to be strived for, Achieved and then become
stepping stones to the next one. When number 7 is done im sure 8,9 and 10 will
become plausable. It might be a deca ironman (10 ironmen on the trott) or
prehaps the great swim around Manhatten island, NYC. We will see.
I hope i achieve these things, i hope i have a job
that allows me to do it and maybe even a few soponsors along the way. I want to
tell people about them as i think its an important part of the journey. I want
to open kids minds up and i want simply make people believe. Sam Langmead (2 yrs
below at school) is 550 miles behind me having signed up 2 months prior to the
race start. We talked for a few hours everyday and quite simply he was worried
that he might be stepping on my parade. No chance, i helped him believe and
achieve something he wouldnt have thought impossible. Thats enough for
me. We very lucky to be here, even when i rant and want to give up,
ultimatly we are lucky.
Have a good weekend guys, and speak to you on
tuesday.
rich
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