When Georgie Rowe hopped on her indoor rowing machine on Saturday, she had no intention of breaking a world record.

But the relative newcomer to the world of professional rowing has just officially overtaken an American Olympic gold medallist for fastest half-marathon.

How? Let's back up a bit.

Turning a few heads

It was only four years ago that Rowe turned her mind to professional still-water rowing.

She had enjoyed surfboat rowing — a team sport done in a larger boat in the ocean — before a friend tagged her on Facebook for an indoor rowing competition.

Why not, she thought.

Australia's women's eight team has a long and successful history. ( Reuters: Darren Whiteside )

"I did the indoor comp and that turned a few heads. That was kind of cool," Rowe said.

"Then I had a few phone calls from my [now] head coach … and spent a lot of time down at the UTS Rowing Club."

Soon after, Rowe was on the national team.

"It was all very fast," she said.

Rowe went on to win gold with the Australian women's eight team at the World Rowing Cup, and silver at last year's World Rowing Championships.

Rowe (fourth from left) and her team collect silver at the 2019 World Rowing Championships. ( Supplied: Rowing Australia )

She puts her success down to a heady mix of physical and mental strength.

"I'm six foot two, or six foot one — I'm not small, that's for sure. I think that definitely helps," she said.

"And you have to be a little bit intense, I guess.

"Maybe all those kind of personality traits help me when I'm in that pain cave that you get into."

An unexpected race

Like almost everything else, the coronavirus pandemic has caused upheaval in the world of professional rowing.

So when the national championships were cancelled, Rowing Australia turned to the innovative idea of an indoor rowing competition.

The idea was simple: states would still compete against each other, but rather than be in the water the athletes would do their kilometres on indoor machines that record their times.

"It's a hard machine to row. Anybody that's spent time on it knows how hard it is," Rowe said.

The machine maker Concept 2 has long tracked world record times and they are held in high esteem in professional circuits.

The current world record holder in the 19-29 age bracket for heavyweight women's half-marathon is Esther Lofgren.

Lofgren is an American rower who won gold in the women's eight team at the 2012 London Olympics, and has also amassed an impressive number of medals at world championships.

Her record time, set five years ago, is 1:20:12.1.

A new record?

Fast forward to last Saturday, and Rowe was on the machine in the makeshift national competition.

Records were not on her mind.

"To be honest, I just wanted to get some kilometres up for NSW in the interstate indoor regatta," she said.

"It was just a good way to do it — put on 21km, put some music on and just go for it."

Her time: 1.19:28.4 — more than 40 seconds faster than Lofgren.

Loading...

Yet a technicality meant Rowe had to wait for the result to be officially ratified.

Concept 2 determines a half marathon is 21,097 metres.

When Rowe planned for the event she searched what the correct distance was and found a half marathon was 21,097.5 metres.

Fearing she could be ruled out for dropping short of this, Rowe said she took the cautious approach and rounded up to 21,098 metres.

Rowe said that extra metre appeared to hold up the decision around officially declaring the world record, but she had now received the verification.

Not that the wait bothered her.

"It's really cool. I just love doing the machines," she said.

"Whether it is a world record or not, I just wanted to get the metres up for my state."

Now Rowe has turned her attention to training and staying active, and hopes that when the time comes she'll qualify for Australia's team at the Tokyo Olympics.