PHOTOGRAPHY BENEDICT TUFNELL
It was amazing," says John McAvoy, former maximum security prisoner turned indoor rowing world record holder, on rowing 263,560m (c. 163 miles) in 24 hours. "Out of every record and everything I did, that was the one where it really opened up my eyes to what I was physically capable of doing, because it wasn’t just the physical element of it, it wasn’t just doing that much distance, it was the kind of belief that it gave me. It meant I knew that not only could I physically suffer but I knew mentally I had the strength too. No matter how bad things got, I knew I could mentally push through it".