Thanks all
Actually, although the results on the Oarbits site show DNF for everyone, Gerard, Jorn, Joe Keating and myself all finished on-line and were able to chat afterwards. Joe smashed his own 100k WR by about 4' 30'' coming home in 7:15:05
My own row went better than I'd expected. I had no idea if I could even finish since the furthest I'd ever rowed before was a FM and the longest 3 hours.
This was all uncharted territory for me. I'd done a few 2 and 3 hour rows to try and establish what 100k pace and rating ought to be and had come to the conclusion that 02:09/10 and r16/17 were the numbers.
Nutrition / hydration was a big issue as the test rows had shown that even at that sedate pace, I still sweat over 1 litre per hour! The strategy was to be very well hydrated at the start (as usual) and then stop for 20-30 seconds every hour(ish) to gulp as much of a carb/electrolyte drink as possible, and to stand and "stretch" at the same time. This worked quite well, although I only managed 2.5l in the 5 stops and was 3.8kg lighter at the end
Certainly, there was an "energy boost" about 20 minutes after each drink stop. I've never experienced that before but clearly demonstrates how quickly muscle glycogen stores are depleted.
100k
4k___2:09.2__r17__EHR 129
8k___2:09.2__r17__EHR 129
12k__2:10.3__r16__EHR 132
16k__2:10.0__r16__EHR 129
20k__2:09.8__r16__EHR 127
24k__2:10.7__r16__EHR 126
28k__2:09.6__r16__EHR 128
32k__2:09.1__r17__EHR 127
36k__2:09.8__r18__EHR 130
40k__2:08.9__r17__EHR 126
44k__2:08.5__r17__EHR 129
48k__2:08.4__r17__EHR 130
52k__2:08.6__r17__EHR 135
56k__2:16.6__r17__EHR 131......
call of nature here
60k__2:08.1__r17__EHR 132
64k__2:07.1__r19__EHR 132
68k__2:09.0__r18__EHR 135
72k__2:08.6__r18__EHR 133
76k__2:08.7__r18__EHR 135
80k__2:08.3__r17__EHR 137
84k__2:09.8__r19__EHR 140
88k__2:05.0__r21__EHR 146
92k__2:03.4__r21__EHR 149
96k__2:03.4__r21__EHR 151
100k_2:00.5__r20__EHR 161
100k__7:08:05.1__2:08.4__r18__AHR 133__Peak EPOC 75 ml/kg__TE 3.0
I was very aware that it was likely to be very tough between 60 and 80k and so was quite relieved to be feeling quite "good" at the 60k mark. That didn't last long and by 70k it was getting a bit grim with all sorts of aches, pretty much all over. That said, I was still at target pace (average 2:09.4 I think) and "knew" that I'd finish. Sub 7:15 looked like it was going to be a "given" barring disasters but 30k is still a long way and I didn't want to tempt fate.
By about 85k a sub 7:10 looked entirely possible with the mental arithmatic suggesting that 2:06 pace for the last hour or so ought to be enough. The EPOC was about 10 ml/kg and the TE hadn't budged from 1.9 for the previous 5 hours!
I pushed on a bit and was actually pulling 2:03's for the last 12k very "comfortably".
Realising both that sprinting the last couple of k wasn't going to change the overall time much, but also that I wasn't going to be doing another 100k any time soon, I ended with the last kilo in the low 1:50's.
Very pleased that the race strategy worked very well for my journey into the unknown and with the result.