Vicki Anstey

But yeah, that sort of sudden streak came out.

And, you know, I can't give up on something once I've committed to do it.

So where did I start?

I mean, yeah, just just increasing the training.

How long did you have to prepare?

um so this was back in 2019 and we were planning to do the 2020 great pacific race so what else happened in 2020 major global event that scuppered things slightly and it did

So, yeah, we'd spent over a year preparing, raising all the funding, £70,000.

In fact, we packed our boat up with everything needed for it to be shipped to San Francisco the weekend before we all got put into lockdown.

And then they announced that the race was going to be postponed to the next year, which was just devastating.

And not least because my teammates, who I'd got to know quite well,

um couldn't defer their places and so i was kind of left with this mad project as a non-rower they were both rowing coaches actually so i was learning an awful lot from them um but just with this um you know strong conviction and commitment not least it would have been easy at this point to pull out

But I'm an ambassador for charity Inspiring Girls.

We were raising money for them.

I felt like this huge kind of, you know, duty and obligation to see it through.

And also this was in my head the next chapter of my life.

And this was what I was meant to be doing.

And, you know, the world was just in complete disarray and my business was as well, actually.

You know, we had to take everything online.

You know, remember we did all the Instagram.

The online Instagram classes.