How I went from rowing novice to UK top 10 in just two months
A tough training regime saw Fiona Tomas discover levels of mental resilience she never knew she had
In the nick of time, I burst into the toilet to expunge the entire contents of my breakfast burrito. This, in its technicolour glory, was the crowning moment of my two-month rowing journey. Save for the odd workout on a machine down the gym, I had absolutely no experience in the sport. But then someone had the bright idea of me – from scratch and with only a few weeks’ notice – competing in the 2,000 metres open women’s event at the Mizuno British Rowing Indoor Championships.
I had succeeded in avoiding throwing up during any of my training. But yesterday’s vomiting was surely my golden ticket to the elite club of physical specimens who push themselves beyond their perceived level of physical exhaustion. I was indeed a rower.
Minutes before, every muscle fibre had been on fire. Lungs? They were reduced to the capacity of a shrivelled grape, a horribly unfair return for reaching the halfway mark of the 2km endeavour. I had burst out of the blocks as fresh as a daisy, spurred on by the whirring noise of rowing machines – called ergometers, or ergs – around me.
The commentary team, to my horror, singled out the journalist who decided to give rowing a try as I simultaneously questioned my mortality two minutes in. The rest passed in a daze as I powered through in eight minutes and four seconds. It was a whole two seconds off my personal best, but I somehow snuck into the top 10 in the UK for my age category. True, there were only 12 competitors, but it is a victory of sorts.
Once the nerves and adrenalin subsided, I inhaled the enormity of this event, which is arguably one of the most inclusive in the country. This year’s edition saw more than 2,300 competitors descend on the Lee Valley VeloPark, from Great Britain internationals to recreational rowers, juniors, para-rowers and older gems still bossing it.
Shelagh Allen is one of those, as the sole participant in the women’s masters 80-84 category. At 81, the West Byfleet resident is the oldest female competitor at this year’s competition, where she will have a crack at another 2km. She has defied a recurring back problem to be here, a day after receiving some last-minute acupuncture and physio to guarantee optimal performance.
“It’s my competitiveness that makes me go,” says Allen, who took up the sport at 58. “I’m only 5ft 3in. Somebody in the gym the other day said, ‘That must be very difficult for you because you’ve got short legs and short arms’. But that’s the sort of remark I need. I get so many endorphins from rowing.”
I ask her what time she hopes to complete her 2km journey in and am besieged by a feeling of terror that this superwoman might beat someone 55 years younger than her. “Well, on the last two occasions I’ve got 10.35,” she says. “But my best was back in May, before my back problem. It was 10.26.” Cheered on by her husband Tom, Allen finished in 10.42 – a time which would shame most.
So what has my two-month experience taught me?
First, that rowing is an unforgivingly brutal sport. It requires a huge amount of discipline and forces you to find levels