Galway rower Gavan Hennigan is almost midway through one of the toughest races imaginable and sits in third place in the Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge.
The 35-year-old is competing solo as he tries to single-handily row across the Atlantic Ocean over a route that will take him through more than 3,000 nautical miles.
Hennigan is competing against crews of three and four people but as he approached the halfway stage of the race is, incredibly, ahead of eight of the other 11 boats racing as they edge closer to the finish line in Antigua.
The Galway man is on track to join the small list of rowers who have crossed the Atlantic solo in 50 days or less, and is more than exceeding expectations as he leaves bigger crews in his wake.
Speaking to RTÉ Sport, Hennigan said: “I’m about three or four days from the halfway point in the absolute middle of nowhere. I’m three weeks in, over 2000k rowed and there’s sort of an end in sight.
“It will probably be the end of January before I get into Antigua.”
Hennigan went through what a typical day for him looks like out on the water and revealed just how gruelling his schedule can be.
“It’s 6:30am here, I got up at 4:45am and have done an hour already. I’ll have a bag of porridge now and then do maybe three or four hours this morning, stop for lunch for an hour and then just go for two hours at a time.
“I’ll take maybe 30 minutes to an hour off all the way through the day until maybe 1am or 2am, which will probably add up to 14 hours on the oars all together.
“It’s a pretty brutal and relentless schedule but that’s why I’m up in third now at this stage and I’m just trying to keep it going."
You can hear Gavan's interview here https://t.co/xkv1V03rp4 He tells me the pic was taken on 20 December, 500 miles out. Best of luck Gavan https://t.co/rjd447VtDH
— Cathal Mac Coille (@CathalMacCoille) January 3, 2017
For Hennigan, now the challenge will be to keep up the pace as tiredness becomes a factor and other teams can draw on their extended crews.
“There’s 12 boats altogether and I’m solo - most of the other boats have twos, threes and fours,” he said.
“There are two four-man boats ahead of me and they’re pretty elite rowers there. There’s one fella’ who’s a world champion flat water rower.
“I’m managed to get myself up into third and I’m beating a few of the bigger teams which is absolutely unbelievable.
“The challenge of doing it solo just seemed like the real tough way to do it and I just gravitated towards that.
“People really sit up and take notice when you say you’re in there in the boat on your own. That coupled with the fact that it is a race against the other big teams, I just fancied a crack.”
