My final go at the marathon for the 2006/7 season today, and after having almost talked myself into doing an 'easy' sub 3-hr effort, I changed tack and decided to go all out and try and better my PB of a fortnight ago by a decent chunk and firstly break Mike Channin's PB of 2:45:57.3, and if things went really well, break 2:45

This was a first proper row with Rowpro, hence the incentive to go for a PB so that I could post it on the rankings as a Rowpro row. I was also trying out my new C2 Gripmaster hand pads, which I ordered a couple of weeks ago. On the whole, these worked really well, and my left hand is almost completely unscathed from today's rowing. My right hand fared rather less well, as my little finger (which was already quite badly blistered) didn't seem to be getting full protection from the pad, and is now quite a mess (where it joins the palm and the whole first joint of the finger is one vast blister, and there's a big chunk of skin missing).

Having looked in detail at the Rowpro file afterwards, the first half marathon (to the nearest stroke) took 1:21:37.6, I rested for 1:12.7, and the second half marathon was done in 1:20:55.8, for a total time of 2:43:46.1.

Just how hard I was pushing can be seen from the fact that those are my second and fourth quickest times ever for the half marathon, and it shows I really need to have a go at that PB again soon, when I can row one only a little over a minute slower as the second half of a marathon.

And I believe that it's a new Free Spirits club record for the marathon, which I'm very pleased about. I know Rob Baldwin could row one quicker than this (he's done 2:44:09.7 without even trying, at 22 SPM), and he's not the only one either, but my first completed marathon after years away back in November was somewhere around 3:09, so I've come a long way since then.

Edited to keep Thomas W-P happy... two days after the event, my right hand looks like this: