Emotional...rowing a marathon on the Rhine
7th October 2009
A translation of an article published in the Rheinische Post on 7th October 2009
"Never again" thought Ciara Mullan from BBLRC, as she climbed out of the rowing boat, completely spent. A short while later, her opinion had already changed to "maybe", and as the English girl stood by the landing stage of Germania RC with her first alt beer in her hand, the 27-year old was sure that she'd be participating next year. She'd also try and convince the other English women's only rowing Club, Weybridge Ladies, to enter a crew for the Dusseldorf Rhine Marathon. The Londoner's emotional reaction to the Rhine Marathon was the same for many of the 700 rowers in the 133 boats who rowed from Leverkusen to RC Germania in Dusseldorf. "We'd heard that the regatta was difficult, but we could not have imagined it was this difficult. But the feeling of accomplishment that we've done it is great," says Mullan after her first Rhine Marathon over 42.8km.
Like Mullan, her team mates Katie Cole, Becky Rangecroft and Jess Micallef were also on their first overseas rowing event. "We have done long-distance training on the Thames, but that was for a maximum of 15km. This is three times as long, and we are also not used to the huge waves from the bow and stern of the larger ships," Rangecroft said.
The English ladies had not rowed for very long before the Rhine Marathon, the most experienced of them has only been rowing for two years, so it was obvious that they would mistakes. "We were too fast over the first half," Rangecroft said. "After that, when the wind and waves picked up we just wanted to get to the finish." And all that with increasingly painful hands, backs and legs. They then set themselves smaller, more realistic targets. "We were thinking in one-kilometer steps only, looking at the markers on the banks, and knew it was still a long way to go," Mullan said. Giving up was never an option for the Barnes Ladies. For 2010 their aim is to stay under the three hours. The London ladies came 110th in 3:00.01.
The Germania organisers Ralf Beekmann and Herbert von Holtum have achieved their aim of getting everyone to the finish line without incidents. "We did not have any serious problems. The DLRG (Dusseldorf "RNLI" - MI) did not have to be called out for assistance, and except for the inclement weather, everything went very well", Beekman summarised.
