Lauren Morton - Ocean Rower, Adventurer & Bear Grylls - Island Survivor

Yorkshire born Lauren did all the normal things that are expected, she did her GCSEs, her A’Levels and headed of to University. After graduating instead of following a safe career path she decided on a different route and in 2013 she and a friend set off to row the Atlantic Ocean.

It was a challenge like no other. During this podcast we learn the reasons behind her row, how she dealt with the catalogue of errors that happened on the row and why she went back in 2015 to row it again.

Lauren is a 2x World Record Holder for rowing across the Atlantic Ocean, she’s also survived “The Island” with Bear Grylls.

Shownotes 

• Who is Lauren & how she describes herself
• Taking up rowing in her 2nd year at university
• How the death of her close friend, Elle from cervical cancer at 23 years old changed the direction of her life and how she choose to live her life
• Having 100 days to prepare for the ocean row
• The journey across the Atlantic Ocean; the highs, the lows, the errors & the mistakes made along the way 
• Being on the boat for 75 days and deciding not to give up and trying to find anyway to fix the boat to make it work
• Getting rescued and ended up in Canada!
• After four and half months, finally arriving back in the UK and trying to fit back into normality
• Dealing with the depression blues after the challenge and feeling very lost
• What she learnt most about herself from going through this experience
• Deciding what do to next
• Applying for “The Island” with Bear Grylls!
• Getting to the island and being stranded with 14 other women for 6 weeks
• Finding out she was the youngest women on the island
• What she learnt most on the island from; friendships, to who she was as a person and being able to stay positive in negative situations. 
• Going 11 days without any food and how she coped
• The highlights and making friends for life
• Having the confidence to go after her dream of rowing across the Atlantic
• How she changed and how she struggled to relate to her friends and family
• Dealing with her biggest fear that she could fail again, and not knowing how she would be able to come back from that
• Not sleeping 3 months before the race and lying awake at night
• What drives her to do what she does and the mission to inspire younger girls to get outside to get active and to play sports
• Dealing with the sexism while rowing across the ocean, having people bet against them an how they used it to drive them forward
• The mental preparation involved and why she made it sounds as unglamorous as possible!
• Why they decided to head down South at the star of the race
• Winning two World Records for being the youngest and fastest female rowers across the ocean
• Getting her Antigua holiday finally!
• Her future plans and why she wants to keep on testing the boundaries

Learn more about Lauren and her adventures by visiting her website. 

You can follow Lauren on twitter @MortonLauren