Rame, rameur, rameur, ramez (bis)
So it's time again for the sixth annual challenge that Concept 2 (www.concept2.com) sets out to all the world's happy rowers: can you row either 100K or 200K between Thanksgiving and Christmas? This year we have a few more days to get the distance in since Thanksgiving is so early.
Last year I accomplished over 200K (I think it was 220) and two years ago I did the 100K row. This year I am hoping once again to crank out 200K. I haven't rowed really seriously since April (it is hard to think about doing that in the summer when I have mountains to hike) so the challenge always is a good way to get me back on the erg. I have only been doing 5000m segments, but in another few days will crank it up to 10K. That translates into about 48 minutes (a slow time for me).
While I row, I look at a cross from Rwanda, a purchase from CHABHA (www.chabha.org), a Vermont-based non-profit that works with orphans from AIDS, a cross from El Salvador, a Metropolitan Museum of Art's photograph of the Brooklyn Bridge and assorted crosses and two of my pilgrim shells. I also gaze at the notebooks that hold a dozen years of sermons. But most of the time I look out the window to my right elbow because from there, I can see the comings and goings of main street while I row.
The erg itself is ancient, bought in 1992. But it still functions just fine and since I don't have a PC, I can't use the little computer programs Concept 2 has made. I just listen to my iPod and row away (albeit too slowly right now). (Ay, talk about product placement... inevitable in this day and age, no?)
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