On Wed. March 30th the National Lightweight Rowing team plus two recruits (Ming and I) broke the World Record in the LW 100km Relay. This is a team of 10 people trading off the erg (indoor rowing machine) to complete the distance. The previous record by the Brits in 2007 was 4:39:01 and we were ~9min faster @ 4:30:07.
My personal thoughts on it were that it was a sensational once-in-a-lifetime experience. Just to be asked to join the team was an honor, in my mind. I carpooled over to Vancouver with the guys and got to chat will all of them about their history, backgrounds with rowing, current opinions, and future plans. I got to see what keeps them motivated day after day, month after month. And, from what I saw, they are an inspiring group of individuals! They have to work together, but each and every person was unique and had their own personal story... Morgan Jarvis holding off taking the Bar exam and becoming a lawyer in the hope to make the next Olympic team, Matt Jensen's time spent building Fluid design boats and spending almost a decade perfecting his technique, Terry McKall coming from Edmonton of all places and working on his masters degree (like Rares Crisan) while full-time rowing, Mike Lewis a previous Olympic Bronze medal winner in Beijing coming back for more, John Sasi, another Olympian, consistently being the nicest, open and honest person I know... and the list goes on.
The actual event was a full success in regards to the smooth running, flowing donations, and overall atmosphere of the Downtown Vancouver location. I was given a Uni suit and compression stockings to use and keep* for further use; a positive reward for just hanging out with the National team.
My friends Eric & Caroline, and Marc even showed up for support and watched a few hours of the event. In addition there was a live web-feed of the event and you can watch a few moments of the finish below:
Video streaming by Ustream
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