Lara was radiating warmth and energy from the start in our video chat. Appearing in front of a framed picture featuring three sailboats, it was clear that she was excited to be discussing her entry into the impressive Talisker Whiskey Atlantic Challenge. The event involves rowing across the Atlantic Ocean, starting in La Gomera (Canary Islands, Spain) and finishing in Nelson’s Dockyard (English Harbour, Antigua). Each year up to 30 teams take part - these can be solo, pairs, threes or fours. Lara has decided to compete solo in next year’s race.

She explained that her entry into the challenge has been a long time coming. A few years back Lara helped a pairs team complete it; this spurred her into wanting to do it for herself. She said, “I really enjoyed doing all the preparation, navigation and being that kind of on shore support”. Around 5 years later, she now believes that she is in the best position to take on the challenge: “ I’ve had various things going on in my life that have stopped me doing things. I’m now in the position where I can actually physically do it and I’ve got all the support of my family and friends”.

“I really enjoy doing anything which
is going to push me to my absolute
mental and physical limit.”

Not only does Lara aim to complete the race - she wants to try and break the record for the fastest solo woman to cross the Atlantic: “The world record for the fastest solo woman is 49 days at the moment. My goal is to make sure that I break that and then come in closer to 46. I have to because I’m that determined. I’ve waited so long.” The confidence in how she announced this was incredibly admirable and proved that she plans to put her all into the brutal row.

We wondered what Lara’s background was like. She told us that she had a career as a yacht skipper which was actually based in Antigua between 2011 and 2014. This gave her the opportunity to experience rowers finishing the TWAC twice. Reflecting back she said, “It was super super exciting. There were so many people around”. Lara explained how most people, even within the first week of the challenge, suffer from sea sickness: “I’m hoping I won’t because of the amount of time I’ve actually spent on the water. Most of the sailors I have spoken to haven’t.”

Interestingly enough, the year that Lara is competing in the TWAC looks like it's the ‘year of the solos’. Having tracked the challenge for a number of years, Lara was able to recognise a difference: “I don’t know what it is. There’s about 10 of us which is really unusual. Normally there’s about three or four solos and then the rest are pairs, threes and fours”. Lara’s reason behind wanting to row solo next year was understandable - she can push herself to a certain extent but wouldn’t want to push anyone else. But, she didn't rule out the idea completely and said that she might do it again one day as part of a team. For now though, this is her “solo adventure”.

Training for such an event during a pandemic has been an additional challenge for Lara. However, she is tackling it with a positive mindset: “I have a rowing machine in my flat currently taking up a lot of space. At the moment I’m running, rowing and walking … and doing a lot of weights.” She is looking forward to when gyms reopen so that she can receive training from her sponsor Crossfit Cheltenham. Until then, she hopes that she can tackle her lockdown habit of baking: “All I do is bake!”, she said, “I have to try and stop that otherwise my training goes out the window … I wanna bake, but I don’t want to eat it.”

“This is one of many challenges.
Let’s just say that.”

One major aspect motivating Lara to train hard and complete the challenge is the amount of money that she will be raising for charity. Her charity of choice is Plan International UK. This is a global charity that works with young people in some of the world’s poorest communities to ensure that they have access to education, healthcare, and more. They also work to create an equal world for girls all over the world, including in the UK. Lara explained that she hopes to raise around £30,000 for the charity through the challenge alone, and even more from selling her boat when she gets back home. “The charity is really really supportive and they also think it's completely nuts but they love it”, she said before joking, “It’s not like I’m someone sitting in a bath of baked beans or something. I don’t know if people still do that… but it's the whole challenge of it”. Currently, Lara has four official sponsors but she is still trying to raise awareness locally and get her name out there; contacting companies and giving them an idea of the kind of reach the challenge has had over social media platforms.

We also thought we’d touch on some of the difficulties that Lara could encounter and whether she had any worries. She told us that weather plays a huge factor in how well teams do: “This year… they have had some bad weather. You can literally see on the tracker that some teams have made it like 10 miles and because of the wind, the waves and the current, it has pushed them back 12. You’re constantly battling everything”. Whilst you could deploy what is called a ‘power anchor’ to combat this, Lara said that it isn’t really worth it, “It takes an hour to put out, takes about 2 hours to get back in and you lose time and effort”. Besides the taxing possibility of bad weather, Lara has to deal with being alone for the duration of 45 days. This doesn’t seem to bother her though, “I think there’s going to be a lot of podcasts … and generally listening to music very loudly and singing at the top of my voice”. It doesn’t seem like she has many concerns about the race itself, but more so getting to that point and the fundraising involved in it.

It is likely that Lara’s upbringing had an impact on her get-up-and-go attitude. She laughed, saying, “I come from a very unusual family. My parents like doing whatever they want to do and they’ve always been really supportive”. Lara added that she had been inspired by her ex-SAS father: “He’s 70 years old and still climbs up the Malvern Hills everyday without fail. He’s gone through 3 rounds of chemotherapy and he will beat anybody up that hill. He’s not one to give up and that’s definitely radiated down to us children”. Growing up, Lara was used to being “dragged up” the Brecon Beacons every other Saturday by her father, just because it was something that he liked to do. From around the age of four, she has been up Pen y Van in Wales a countless amount of times.

At this point of her journey Lara is just trying to train up for the challenge as much as she can with the resources she has. It seems that her mindset is in just the right place for it - SoulKind will be keenly following her progress and wishing her the best.

You can follow Lara on Instagram @this.girl.rows and support her donating to her Go Fund Me page here >