The Call of the Ocean...

It's been just over a year ago since the Unfinished Business team came together to complete our dreams of rowing across the Atlantic. Since we finished at the end of January until just about two months ago, I had taken a complete hiatus from the sport that I had grown to love since my first timid strokes on the Wabash. After taking several million strokes over the course of 51 days, I was in need of a different kind of adventure and a break from the past seven years in which rowing had been my number one priority. As the saying goes, if you love something, let it go... And like the truest form of old love, even after months away from the oars, the passion is definitely still there. I really can't live without rowing, and it was only a matter of time before I got back into it. As a testimate to this passion, I've done the one thing that I never ever thought I would do... joined an erg class. Yes, erging... for fun... by choice. My friend Kelly teaches an erg class down at the lake, and Jack and I have joined once a week. It's modeled after a bike spinning class, and we row at different stroke rates with accompanying music, and I have to admit, that it really is.... (gasp) fun. I don't think that I've ever thought erging 10k was fun. Satisfying and competitive? Yes, but fun? Never until now. Maybe I've matured since the days down in Lambert Fieldhouse, or maybe the stakes in our little competitions are much lower when the outcome won't decide whether you get kicked out of the varsity boat or not, but either way, the hour-long workouts are very refreshing. Strokes at high ratings remind me of every single piece that I ever pulled out in the musty basement of Lambert, the collective power of the few dozen girls sweating beside me rising above any pain that we experienced, knowing that we would turn that power into gold medals in the spring. Strokes at low ratings with the resistance set high and a good chill song take me right back to the ocean. Looking out over the dark rippled reflections of Tempe Town Lake could almost be the vast expanse of the Atlantic, and an unexplainable calm that just feels like home washes over me. There is no doubt that rowing is in my blood, and will be for the rest of my life.

On the adventure side of things, it also feels incredibly good to be involved in another ocean rowing project. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love all of the smaller adventures that my friends and I find ourselves involved in on the weekends, but for the past five years of my life, I have been involved in one ocean rowing adventure or another. Although finishing the '07 race brought so much incredible pride and joy into my life, now that it's over, I've had to fill a void in my life, and the '09 project suits that spot perfectly for this point in my life.

Anne came in from Colorado for the weekend, and she, Mia, and I worked on the Fire most of Saturday. It was a long, productive day epoxying, sanding, cleaning out the cabin and hatches, removing old sponsorship stickers (and reminicsing about the stories behind each of them), and pouring over equipment lists and the plans on how to procure all of it. I gave them a tour of the West Marine store, and I think that they felt exactly how Kohl and I felt when we first started looking for equipment: like kids in a candy store, oogling over everything from bilge pumps to electrical panels to lifejackets. The sun set on us while we were still working on removing old stickers, so we called it a day having achieved quite a bit. I'm definitely enjoying the project manager part of ocean rowing, and watching Anne and Mia learn and grow is an incredible feeling to have, knowing that they're following in Kohl and my footsteps.

We had a good night out on Mill Ave with a few of my grad school friends before Anne left early Sunday morning. I had planned on going out to join some friends up on the Verde River where they had been camping all weekend, but as I've said before, ocean rowing is addictive, and I spent the rest of the morning and early afternoon looking up equipment and trying to figure out potential sponsors. Then, in the evening, I joined Hannah and several of my other mountain biking buddies including Scooby, Chris, Ryan, and Josh for the first team meeting of ZumBala. Although I enjoyed my year with Missing Link, they're more of a social team than a racing team, and if I want to get better at biking, I'd like to be with people who can teach me, so ZumBala was a natural choice. All the guys are incredible people, and excellent riders. We already have some great sponsors set up, are planning on having support at all the races, and foster a family-like atmosphere that promotes both racing and the comradarie that is so special to me in the community of mountain bikers. And, one of our guys, Bruce is head of a company called 360 Adventures that does guiding for mountain bike, climbing, and hiking tours throughout the Valley, and as members of the team, we have the option to become guides for them (ie. get paid to do the adventures that we would normally do anyways). All in all, a great meeting and I'm looking forward to racing and riding with the new team.