The race

http://www.woodvale-challenge.com

The race is described as “The Toughest Rowing Race on Earth” by the organisers Woodvale Challenge and requires the teams to row 2500 Nautical miles (2,876 miles, 4630 kilometres) from La Gomera in the Canary Islands to Antigua in the Caribbean. Rowing alternately two hours on and two hours off the team will each row for 12 hours a day.

They will have to overcome the challenges of the Atlantic weather and waves up to 30 feet high and will have to push their bodies to the absolute limit.

Once they have started there are no stops along the way, this means they have to be self sufficient in terms of food and water. If they take a resupply of food, water or equipment from one of the races support boats they will be disqualified from the race. And in order to qualify for a race record they have to row from land to land so cannot accept a tow at the finish to get them into shore.

The crew are competing in the pairs class and are the only mixed pair in their class. They will be racing one female pair and twenty male pairs. They aim to break the mixed pairs record of 57 days and with Micks sporting background and Lia’s knowledge of they ocean they expect to finish in the top third of the pairs fleet.