I woke up this morning and it was raining! Austin has been in a drought for quite some time and the rare occurrence of precipitation stirred up a feeling that my day wasn’t going to be normal.  Still fuzzy-headed and a little sore from running 400s the day before, the rain was becoming another lame excuse to postpone my planned long(ish) run. My husband convinced me to “just come to the gym” and, just as I predicted, something unusual did happen   – I decided on an impulse to row a half-marathon, 13.1 miles. Hey, if the fittest people on earth had just knocked out this little workout at the 2013 CrossFit Games, then there was no keeping me from giving it a go.

Feeling confident.

Even though I really don’t know what all the measurements on the row machine mean and have never finished a workout longer than 3 x 2k, I’ve be strutting around the house since the Women’s Row 1 and Row 2 events announcing that I could totally win or place in the top three at this event. It was all about the strategy; it was all about endurance; it was all about having that ‘eye of the tiger.’ All true but, boy, was I full of it!

As most of you following the CrossFit Games know, the Row 1 event measured the time it took each athlete to cross the 2k mark and the Row 2 event was scored for the entire distance.  This would mean hauling butt right out of the start to finish in the low 7 minutes (winners reporting they went at 90 -95% effort) and then settling into a brisk pace to finish somewhere in the vicinity of 1:27 to 1:29.

I could do this all day (and almost did).

Well, truth be told, I don’t have the strength and body type to excel at rowing and have been told by a past CrossFit Games superstar that my form stinks. I’ll row a bit if it’s in a WOD and occasionally just for fun, but there were no colleges back in the day knocking on my door with rowing scholarships.  At best, I could hope for a 2k of 8:45 in Row 1. But, what I lack in strength I make up in endurance (so I thought) and I naively extrapolated my 2k to yield me a 1:30 . . . . perhaps a 1:35 due to lack of experience.  So, maybe I wasn’t going to “win,” but I was going to get close! The humbling outcome was a 1:49:53, about 25 minutes SLOWER than it takes me to run a half marathon! And, on top of that, I was a few strokes short due to a mid-row math miscalculation. Oh well, there were no judges around.

Couldn’t find “mile” option and had to calculate meters during row — hence, coming up 92m short.

What I didn’t take into account was what a chore it was to be in the saddle for so long!  I never got to that point where I felt like I was giving a max effort or anywhere near it; I was so distracted by how numb my butt was getting, that my knees were starting to feel weird from the unfamiliar deep, repetitive movement, and that (how do I say it politely) exercising on a machine for that long and going nowhere is @#$% boring.  But, I ‘m not playing a poor-me violin here. I’m pretty certain by the grimaced looks on their faces and all the rear-end shifting that the majority of the CrossFit Games competitors were also suffering the side effects of this wicked workout. After the Games are over and everyone has headed home, I seriously doubt if any of the competitors will fondly remember the Row 1 and Row 2 showdown as their favorite event.

I’m not doing that again (famous last words).

It’s pretty safe to say that I won’t be rowing a half-marathon anytime soon – as a “runner,” I’d probably choose to run it. But, I know I COULD row it if I needed to.  What I love about CrossFit is that since supplementing my running routine with WODs about two years ago, I’ve become a stronger, well-rounded athlete who can easily pull off a crazy stunt like this impromptu 21,097 meter row without suffering any serious aches or pains. Even though I was uncomfortable during the 13.1 mile row, I was never so distressed that I wanted or needed to give up, either physically or mentally. CrossFit has prepared me to be ready for anything, at any time. For example, I’m still basking in the afterglow of a recent 50 mile ultra-marathon I ran on a whim my friend, Valerie Hunt.  Never had I run an ultra and never had I planned to before this. With a decision making process of about 2 minutes, I went from “just” being a pacer planning on dropping out at 22 miles to a feel-good, kick-butt  finisher of 50 miles. So, no “woe” is me, it’s all “whoa” is me thanks to CrossFit.

2013 CrossFit Games athletes cheering each other on, even in the heat of battle!