Girl on the River

Ep. 18 In the final episode of Season 1, I'm delighted to bring you the umpires of this year's Boat Races. It's a particularly historic year for the Boat Races, for two reasons. First of all, it's not being held on the Thames, as it usually is, but instead in Ely on the Great Ouse (partly for covid reasons and partly because Hammersmith Bridge is shut for repair). The second reason brings me to my guests - for the first time in the history of the event, there will be women umpires for both the men's and women's races - Olympian and umpire, Sarah Winckless MBE, umpiring the men's race, and World Rowing umpire Judith Packer, umpiring the women's race.

I talk to Sarah and Judith about:

• How they each started in rowing (Sarah at Cambridge; Judith at Oxford)
• Whether they feel like trailblazers
• The response to their arrival on the scene as Boat Race umpires
• The qualities needed in an umpire
• Poetry for problem solving (honestly!)
• What rowing can take from the pandemic and the importance of community and inclusion
• This year's Boat Race and what it will look like
• Dealing with the lack of landmarks
• The umpiring challenges they will be facing this year
• Whether Cambridge will have a home advantage
• Whether the race is likely to return to the Thames next year
• The Boat Race's image problem

Resources:
You can read all about this year's Boat Races including more about the course, the crews and about Sarah and Judith here.
If you're inspired to investigate becoming an umpire yourself, there's more information here.
Find out more about London Youth Rowing here and support Judith's Race the Thames challenge here.

Ep.17 Ian Rivers has spent his life seeking adventure. From a childhood he describes as "feral" right through his career in the SAS, he's always looked for the next challenge, and his life hasn't been short of incident. He's sailed oceans and climbed mountains, been kidnapped in Syria (and escaped, using just the natural world to help him navigate his way to safety).

And now, as a civilian, he's found his next adventure . In May 2021 he will be setting off to row, solo and unsupported, across the North Atlantic using just a sextant and charts to find his way.

I talked to Ian about:

• His early life in London
• Basic training in the army 
• Different physiological responses to the same regime
• Discovering the thrill of the physical challenge
• The type of person that joins the special forces
• Whether he considers himself to be brave
• Learning to navigate by the stars
• Escaping kidnap in Syria and finding his way back to safety
• His Atlantic row and what inspired it
• The route and how he will navigate without GPS
• What he's most looking forward to and what the challenges will be
• The charities he's raising money for
• The challenges of transitioning to civilian life
• How we can follow him on the row

Resources:
Ian's website: Row Sentinel (where you can track him on the row).
You can donate to Ian's fundraising here.
Read more about the SAS Regimental Association, or SASRA, here and about St Michael's Hospice here.

Ep.16 It's very apt that I should have the amazing Pete Reed on the show this week, as things are really ramping up for the Race the Thames challenge which starts on 22nd March. Pete is front and centre of the fundraising, alongside his former crewmate Andy Triggs Hodge (who I interviewed a few weeks ago here) with his Paravengers team.

For those who don't know him, Pete is a three-time Olympic rowing champion (and multiple World Champion), as well as a Commander in the Royal Navy. In 2019 he suffered a spinal stroke, out of the blue, which paralysed him from the waist down, and since then he's been in rehab.

He spoke extensively and candidly to Sir Matthew Pinsent about the stroke and life in the immediate aftermath in a brilliant BBC interview, which you can find on BBC Sounds, so I left that aspect of Pete's life in Matthew's capable hands. Instead, Pete and I chat about:

• Where he is now and life in rehab
• Developing an attitude to cope with change and uncertainty
• What Pete finds most difficult - managing people's expectations
• Whether a rowing coach or a rehab physio is a harder taskmaster
• How being an athlete prepared the way for his current challenges
• Strength of character - nature or nurture
• Life in a wheelchair -  the dos and don'ts when you meet someone in a chair
• Photography and approaching people for portraits
• The progress of his rehab
• *GOTR exclusive* - his new role with the Royal Navy
• Building ethical fitness
• Rowing in a pair with Andrew Triggs Hodge
• Race the Thames

You can support Pete and his Paravengers crew in Race the Thames here.

The crowdfunder started by Andy Triggs Hodge to help Pete to afford basic adaptations and equipment is here.

Ep 15. One of the things I miss most about rowing is the post-rowing chat over coffee, where we just shoot the breeze about rowing, interspersed with plenty of gossip, a bit of serious discussion and a lot of silliness. Which is exactly what this episode is all about.

Rachel Freedman and Tara Morgan are passionate rowers and rowing coaches. They're also the founders of Steady State Network - a superb rowing podcast as well as a movement, a magazine-in-waiting and a network. "Rowing for the rest of us" is how they describe it, and it's just as brilliantly blazer-free as they promise.

In our chat (it's really a chat not an interview) the conversation lets loose, covering:

• Being small as a rower
• How Tara would switch sides for the male GB rowers
• How Rachel and Tara discovered rowing
• How they met and set up SSN (was it a misunderstanding over Rachel's sexuality?)
• The joy of coaching masters rowers
• The Steady State ethos
• Regattas - regatta food and the best events in the US
• Diversity, inclusion and the Changemaker Scholarships
• Tara's work with adaptive rowers with the Seize the Oar Foundation
• Advice for clubs venturing into adaptive rowing
• Quick fire questions including some really quite extraordinary, X-certificate coxing calls

I hope you found this a little slice of rowing heaven to tide you over until you can get back on the water. In the meantime, do check out Steady State, and look out for Rachel and Tara on ZoomErgos on a Sunday (and me on a Wednesday morning!)

This year is a year like no other, and for the first time in its history, the Women's Head of the River Race, or WEHoRR, is being held over Zoom, on rowing machines, spin bikes and other variations on the theme.

In this bite-sized episode I explain everything you need to know about how it's going to work and how to get involved #NotWehorr2021

If you're inspired to sign up yourself (do!), you can do that here.

Ep. 14 This week is Eating Disorders Awareness Week, so I was absolutely thrilled that Dr Carolyn Plateau was able to join me on the podcast. Carolyn is a senior lecturer in sport psychology at Loughborough University. She has a particular specialism in eating disorders and disordered eating in the athlete population and has developed an online training programme to educate coaches about eating disorders and help them to react appropriately if they have concerns about an athlete.
Carolyn and I had a fascinating (and, I think, really important) chat, covering topics such as:

• The prevalence of eating disorders and disordered eating in the population at large and among athletes
• Defining eating disorders and disordered eating
• What causes eating disorders?
• Myths about eating disorders including the fact that 
  • they can happen to otherwise well-adjusted people
  • boys and men can get them (and may present differently)
  • BMI is not necessarily a reliable indicator of whether someone has an eating disorder
• Signs, symptoms and red flags
• What parents and coaches should do if they think their child or an athlete in their care has an eating problem (and why you shouldn't make the GP a last resort)
• Resources for coaches - Carolyn's online training programme for coaches
• Being careful with the language we use
• The single best thing we can do as rowers to protect our young athletes from eating disorders

Resources
You can find out more about the online CPD course here: https://deia.org.uk/about. Discounts on the individual price (£50) are available for groups and organisations - just encourage them to get in touch with Carolyn directly:
[email protected]
Twitter: @CarolynPlateau
University webpage https://www.lboro.ac.uk/departments/ssehs/staff/carolyn-plateau/

 Other useful resources:
TrainBrave website (focuses on RED-S and eating concerns in athletes)  https://trainbrave.org/

B-eat https://www.beateatingdisorders.org.uk/ 

First Steps ED (general eating disorder support): https://firststepsed.co.uk/

Around the Dinner Table - an excellent online forum for parents and carers:  https://www.aroundthedinnertable.org/h2around-the-dinner-table-online-forum-for-parents-and-carersh2-136439
 
Books:

Eating Disorders in Sport by Thompson & Sherman https://www.routledge.com/Eating-Disorders-in-Sport/Thompson-Sherman/p/book/9781138884427

Sport Psychiatry Handbook (Currie and Owen) – gives a nice overview of mental health issues in athletes, including eating disorders. https://oxfordmedicine.com/view/10.1093/med/9780198734628.001.0001/med-9780198734628

Ep.13 I'm still pinching myself that yet another rowing legend has come on the podcast. This time it was my honour to welcome Andrew Triggs Hodge - three-time Olympic champion, multiple World Champion and Boat Race winner.
Despite his incredible rowing prowess, Andy is ridiculously modest (and really good fun) and we had a great chat. We talked about:

• His undistinguished sporting career at school - always the last to be picked!
• His journey into elite rowing
• Why he's not the easiest team mate
• The dynamic with Pete Reed
• The challenge of retiring
• The demands that high performance sport puts on your body
• The work done by London Youth Rowing
• The benefits of rowing and how it can change lives
• Race the Thames - what it is and how you can get involved
• Dressing up as Snow White (no, really!)
• The Tideway Tunnel project and Regatta London
• What we as rowers can do for the environment

Resources
Andy's interview with Martin Cross's on his YouTube podcast, Crossy's Corner, is here.
You can find him on the Broken Oars podcast here.
You can find out more about London Youth Rowing here.
Details for Race the Thames are here.
You can read more about the Tideway Tunnel Project here.

And if anyone has a photo of Andy dressed as Snow White, I think we all should see it!

Other episodes you may enjoy:

Sir Matthew Pinsent, 4 X Olympic champion, on being an Olympian, life after rowing, the Boat Race, the rowing community and Celebrity Masterchef

Zoe de Toledo - cox, Olympic silver medalist, World Champion, medic, mince pie expert

Frances Houghton MBE on being a five-time Olympian and other life lessons

Ep.12 What a joy it was to have Eira Parry on the podcast! A former GB Rowing coach, teacher, founder of High Performance Parenting and stepmother to an Olympic athlete, Eira has seen the life of young athletes from all sides and has so much wisdom to share with anyone involved in the lives of young athletes, whether as coaches or as parents. She has also, excitingly, just been appointed as one of GB Rowing's seven new selectors, a role for which she will be brilliantly suited.

Eira and I had a wonderful chat about:

• Lockdown life and why it's suited her
• Her own early rowing history and how failing to achieve what she wanted has shaped her career
• How the best athletes have come through adversity
• Eira's career history as teacher, rowing coach and coach at the GB Start Programme as a Talent ID coach
• How she came to found High Performance Parenting, supporting parents of young athletes
• How young people benefit from sport - the benefits beyond just the physical and how that can carry through to later life
• What schools can do to engage those children not interested in sport
• Concerns about levels of physical inactivity in lockdown (and the positives in the increase in walking)
• How to make the most of lockdown and turn it into something positive, even if you can't row or do your usual sport

Eira also answered questions from listeners about:

• Coping with the daily demands of being the parent of a young athlete
• Helping your young athlete build resilience and cope with disappointment (and the value of asking the coach for feedback)
• How to help your young athlete build their confidence and deal with competition nerves
• How to get the balance right as a parent between communicating too much and too little with the coach (and how coaches can help with this)
• What to do if your child isn't selected for a crew or team
• What to do if your child wants to give up sport and you think they may live to regret it
• How to help your child juggle all the different demands on their time
• Helping your young athlete to have a healthy attitude towards food and nutrition and body image
• Advice for coaches on helping young athletes to develop a healthy attitude towards winning and goal-setting

RESOURCES
You can find out all about High Performance Parenting and what Eira does here.
You can buy Frances' Houghton's book here. It gets a mention in so many of my interviews - and rightly so - it's brilliant!
The Women's Sport Network Mojo manuals that Eira referred to can be found here.
And looking ahead to next week, you can read all about Race the Thames here.

*Trigger warning * this episode contains discussion of mental health problems and suicide.

This is by far the most significant episode I've broadcast to date. Not because my guest is a household name - in fact you probably haven't heard of him. Nor because he's had a stellar career - he's a 17-year-old school student (although he has wisdom and insight way beyond his years). No, the reason why this episode matters is because it addresses one of the most worrying problems facing our society - mental health problems amongst young people and teenage suicide.

In April 2019, Rui's brother, JJ, took his own life. He was 19 years old. Since then Rui has raised many thousands of pounds for the mental health charity, Mind. In this interview we talk about:

• Lockdown life and what it's like doing school from home
• JJ - who he was, his character and interests and how Rui likes to remember him
• JJ's relaxed approach to rowing and the joy of paddling for the sake of paddling
• Being Captain of Boats
• How and when things went wrong for JJ
• The aftermath of JJ's death and how rowing (and music) helped Rui through
• The fundraising Rui has done
• What schools and universities could do better to support troubled students
• The importance of talking about our feelings
• What we can do for loved ones if we're concerned
• Why anyone struggling with their mental health shouldn't suffer alone
• Rui's hopes for the summer of 2021 and his quest for the seven seat (#RuifortheSevenSeat)

Resources mentioned on the show

The fundraising page set up by Rui's family in memory of JJ is here.

You can find out more about Time to Talk Day here.

Rowing Together for Healthy Minds is most active on Instagram, here.

Check out the mental health charity, Mind, for all sorts of resources and support.

The number for the Samaritans is 116 123 (it's free, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year). They also have a self-help app where you can keep track of how you're feeling, and get recommendations for things you can do to help yourself cope, feel better and stay safe in a crisis.

Ep.10 Steven Dowd insists he's just an ordinary guy. But once you've listened to this episode, I think you'll agree that he has shown himself capable of extraordinary resilience in the face of monumental challenges. Hit by a spinal cord injury at the age of just 37, he has used it as an opportunity for growth and connection. Oh, and he also has the most incredibly soothing voice - I seriously think he should be the Headspace narrator!!!
In this episode we discuss:

• Steven's life before his injury
• The accident that left him paralysed and what followed
• The life-changing clinical trial he signed up for
• His 200 day vow to his wife - and how he achieved it
• His approach to getting through the dark times
• Why there's no hierarchy of challenges
• How the Endurow Challenge was born
• How you can get involved
• What he's learned from his remarkable podcast guests

Sign up for Endurow Challenge here
You can sponsor me here (even £1 would be SO MUCH appreciated)
Find Steven's excellent podcast here.
Learn more about Wings for Life here.
Read about the ISCoPE clinical trial that helped Steven here.
You can find out more about Steven and book him as a motivational speaker here.