| (1) Since taking up rowing I'd dreamt of | |  |
| winning a gold medal. Relationships, a | |
| ‘proper’ career, money, holidays, and | |
| friends' weddings had all been sacrificed | |
| at the altar of rowing. After having won | |
| two Olympic gold medals I was mentally | |
| prepared to retire. Then television | |
| presenter Ben Fogle bounced up to me at | |
| a party. "I'm doing a rowing race across | |
| the Atlantic. Do you want to do it with | |
| me?" he asked. After discovering he | |
| couldn't row I politely declined, but soon | |
| realised I was missing something: a goal. | |
| I'd had one since I was 16 years old and | |
| felt incomplete without having something | |
| to aim for. So I phoned up Ben and | |
| agreed to enter the Atlantic Rowing Race. | |
| (2) The difference between preparing for a | | just wanted to give up. We'd run out |
| sporting event and a challenge like this | | of water, survived a capsize, lost all |
| became obvious on a number of fronts: | | communication and three stone in |
| practical, financial and emotional. The | | weight. However, by the time we |
| Olympics demanded that I train to the best | | arrived in Antigua I'd learnt how the |
| of my ability and then perform when it | | mind and body can be strong |
| mattered; not easy, but I was supported | | enough to survive any situation. |
| by a coach and several other trained | | (4) After that experience I wanted to |
| specialists. Ben and I only had each other. | | test myself in different ways. After |
| We also had a boat to build, navigation | | swimming the Strait of Gibraltar, |
| tests to pass, radio and sea-survival | | paddling the Channel on a surfboard |
| courses, training and (in Ben's case) | | and making a tandem record attempt |
| learning to row. Getting sponsorship was | | from Land's End to John O'Groats, |
| virtually impossible and my wife wasn't too | | I should be ready to admit |
| keen on me spending two months at sea. | | I [id:86572] challenges. |
| (3) [id:86570] . We only got clearance to race | | (5) What I haven't answered is why |
| 24 hours before the start and | | I want to do these things. A |
| hadn't spent more than two hours | | psychologist I've worked with says it |
| on our boat. We'd totally under-estimated | | takes at least two years to fully retire |
| the psychological challenge of being out | | from sport. Perhaps it's taking me |
| at sea in a tiny boat. There had been no | | longer, but I'm still learning so much |
| discussion about how little we really knew | | about myself and our planet on |
| each other or would function as a team. | | every trip, it feels as if I'm just |
| The first week aboard was spent coming | | starting out on this phase of my life. |
| to terms with the 3,000 miles of | | Telegraph Weekend, 2009 |
| ocean ahead. It was hideous. We | | |
