Cayman can proudly claim that Fiona Brander is one of the best in the world at the moment in her chosen sport – which she only took up a year ago.
She currently holds the fastest time ranked on the Worldwide Concept 2 website for this year in indoor rowing. Even though it is in a relatively unknown sport, Brander set a new world best for 2014 in the marathon distance of 42.2 kilometers (26.2 miles) at World Gym on Sunday morning.
Her time of 3 hours 8 minutes 24 seconds beat by 43 seconds the record set by Briton Rachel Harris. The record was ratified on www.concept2.com within hours of being set.
Monitored and paced by her indoor rowing coach Tony Watts, an exhausted Brander fought through pain and fatigue. She was also paced by Jay Sneah on another rowing machine.
Amazingly, Brander had never seriously rowed indoors before August 2013 and has only rowed on water once, a couple of months ago at The Cayman Rowing Club.
She started because injuries in her other sporting interests like rugby, triathlon and road runs meant there were few options.
Her goal in February started with merely to just complete a marathon row.
The time wasn’t important initially, she just wanted to finish it.
“I needed some kind of structure to force me to go to the gym,” she said. “But as I got further into the program and stronger I knew I was going to at least give the big row a go.”
Brander started training with a predicted marathon time of 3 hours 22 minutes judged on her 10k time.
Then, a month ago, the 43-year-old Brit suddenly began to think she could actually challenge some women ranked at the top for this year.
The record row started well on target but just like runners experience when they do the equivalent distance, at 2 hours, 40 minutes, she “hit the wall” still needing about a half an hour to go.
Brander wanted to give up and admits that if Sneah and Watts had not been there, she probably would have.
“They were amazing and rowed alongside me for a lot of it. I really don’t think I would have made it to the end without them.
“So I achieved my goal and I am now ranked as number 1 in the world for this year, according to Concept 2, though I am sure not everyone ranks their rows.”
Now maybe Brander may go for the official world record in her age group of 2:58:39. The British record in her age group is 3:00:45.
Training was exhaustive.
Since last August rowing sessions of up to two hours, five times a week was done, covering over a million meters.
She recorded every session on the Concept 2 website, which was a great way to track personal progress and also to rank herself against others for a variety of different distances.
“That really helped to motivate as I am pretty competitive person even if it’s just against myself.”
Brander is grateful to Watts who suggested rowing as it’s “very easy on the joints, unlike running, and is fantastic for fitness. You can burn over 1,200 calories in an hour.” Since living in Cayman, Brander has spent about five years playing rugby and represented Cayman a few times in the Caribbean Championships.
She played many seasons of touch rugby and Gaelic football, spent years running (slowly), cycling and completed three triathlons (badly) and also spent an enjoyable year at CrossFit 7 Mile.
Then injuries came and she was out of action for the best part of a year.
“I now play in the summer touch rugby league and occasionally get up early enough to go out on my bike. But otherwise it’s all about the rowing at the moment and it doesn’t involve any early weekend mornings at the crack of dawn, unlike running and biking, so that’s a bonus.”
She is grateful to Watts who fine-tuned her technique. Brander felt she was fast and always put maximum effort into sessions but knew she needed extra help.
“Because of my poor technique, I was quite anti-rowing and felt quite depressed at the thought of taking it up but due to my stupid knee I didn’t have many options, or at least none that I liked,” she said.
It is all about good form and being efficient with energy and though it’s an all over body workout, it’s mostly about the legs and not the arms.
“I was lucky as Tony is an experienced indoor rower and very kindly gave me lessons. This made a huge difference and without his advice or encouragement I wouldn’t even have thought about attempting a marathon row.”
Originally from Fareham in the south of England, Brander has lived in Grand Cayman for six years and works for TravelPros.
She lived in Reading before arriving here and used to watch in awe the rowers along the River Thames, never imagining that would be her.
“But I am very excited about the new Cayman rowing club. I have only gone out on the water once but I plan on joining the rowing club now I have completed my marathon and freed up some spare time,” she said.
Anyone interested in outdoor rowing should contact [email protected]
Related Videos
