Cdr Pete Reed OBE on rehab, life in a wheelchair, Hodgey and Race the Thames

03/17/21 • 54 min

Ep.16 It's very apt that I should have the amazing Pete Reed on the show this week, as things are really ramping up for the Race the Thames challenge which starts on 22nd March. Pete is front and centre of the fundraising, alongside his former crewmate Andy Triggs Hodge (who I interviewed a few weeks ago here) with his Paravengers team.
For those who don't know him, Pete is a three-time Olympic rowing champion (and multiple World Champion), as well as a Commander in the Royal Navy. In 2019 he suffered a spinal stroke, out of the blue, which paralysed him from the waist down, and since then he's been in rehab.
He spoke extensively and candidly to Sir Matthew Pinsent about the stroke and life in the immediate aftermath in a brilliant BBC interview, which you can find on BBC Sounds, so I left that aspect of Pete's life in Matthew's capable hands. Instead, Pete and I chat about:

Where he is now and life in rehab
Developing an attitude to cope with change and uncertainty
What Pete finds most difficult - managing people's expectations
Whether a rowing coach or a rehab physio is a harder taskmaster
How being an athlete prepared the way for his current challenges
Strength of character - nature or nurture
Life in a wheelchair - the dos and don'ts when you meet someone in a chair
Photography and approaching people for portraits
The progress of his rehab
*GOTR exclusive* - his new role with the Royal Navy
Building ethical fitness
Rowing in a pair with Andrew Triggs Hodge
Race the Thames

You can support Pete and his Paravengers crew in Race the Thames here.
The crowdfunder started by Andy Triggs Hodge to help Pete to afford basic adaptations and equipment is here.

Where he is now and life in rehab
Developing an attitude to cope with change and uncertainty
What Pete finds most difficult - managing people's expectations
Whether a rowing coach or a rehab physio is a harder taskmaster
How being an athlete prepared the way for his current challenges
Strength of character - nature or nurture
Life in a wheelchair - the dos and don'ts when you meet someone in a chair
Photography and approaching people for portraits
The progress of his rehab
*GOTR exclusive* - his new role with the Royal Navy
Building ethical fitness
Rowing in a pair with Andrew Triggs Hodge
Race the Thames

You can support Pete and his Paravengers crew in Race the Thames here.
The crowdfunder started by Andy Triggs Hodge to help Pete to afford basic adaptations and equipment is here.

Previous Episode

Tara and Rachel of Steady State Network, shooting the breeze about rowing

Ep 15. One of the things I miss most about rowing is the post-rowing chat over coffee, where we just shoot the breeze about rowing, interspersed with plenty of gossip, a bit of serious discussion and a lot of silliness. Which is exactly what this episode is all about.
Rachel Freedman and Tara Morgan are passionate rowers and rowing coaches. They're also the founders of Steady State Network - a superb rowing podcast as well as a movement, a magazine-in-waiting and a network. "Rowing for the rest of us" is how they describe it, and it's just as brilliantly blazer-free as they promise.
In our chat (it's really a chat not an interview) the conversation lets loose, covering:

Being small as a rower
How Tara would switch sides for the male GB rowers
How Rachel and Tara discovered rowing
How they met and set up SSN (was it a misunderstanding over Rachel's sexuality?)
The joy of coaching masters rowers
The Steady State ethos
Regattas - regatta food and the best events in the US
Diversity, inclusion and the Changemaker Scholarships
Tara's work with adaptive rowers with the Seize the Oar Foundation
Advice for clubs venturing into adaptive rowing
Quick fire questions including some really quite extraordinary, X-certificate coxing calls

I hope you found this a little slice of rowing heaven to tide you over until you can get back on the water. In the meantime, do check out Steady State, and look out for Rachel and Tara on ZoomErgos on a Sunday (and me on a Wednesday morning!)

Next Episode

Ian Rivers, former SAS soldier, on seeking challenges, kidnap in Syria and navigating the Atlantic without GPS

Ep.17 Ian Rivers has spent his life seeking adventure. From a childhood he describes as "feral" right through his career in the SAS, he's always looked for the next challenge, and his life hasn't been short of incident. He's sailed oceans and climbed mountains, been kidnapped in Syria (and escaped, using just the natural world to help him navigate his way to safety).
And now, as a civilian, he's found his next adventure . In May 2021 he will be setting off to row, solo and unsupported, across the North Atlantic using just a sextant and charts to find his way.
I talked to Ian about:

His early life in London
Basic training in the army
Different physiological responses to the same regime
Discovering the thrill of the physical challenge
The type of person that joins the special forces
Whether he considers himself to be brave
Learning to navigate by the stars
Escaping kidnap in Syria and finding his way back to safety
His Atlantic row and what inspired it
The route and how he will navigate without GPS
What he's most looking forward to and what the challenges will be
The charities he's raising money for
The challenges of transitioning to civilian life
How we can follow him on the row

Resources:
Ian's website: Row Sentinel (where you can track him on the row). You can donate to Ian's fundraising here.
Read more about the SAS Regimental Association, or SASRA, here and about St Michael's Hospice here.

Girl on the River - Cdr Pete Reed OBE on rehab, life in a wheelchair, Hodgey and Race the Thames

Transcript

Patricia Carswell00:00:15.330

This is Girl on the River, the Podcast. Whole crew, come forward to row. Hello and welcome back to Girl on the River the Podcast for Episode 16. I really hope you enjoyed last week's interview with Tara and Rachel from Steady State Network. It felt to me like one of those lovely chats we used to have after rowing, back in the olden days, when we'd sit around with coffee and cake and talk about everything from rowing, to racing to putting