Crew

My eyelids are heavy, my hands are blistered and calloused, my legs are sore, and my shoulders ache. I gave away my weekend, my time to study, my time to do homework, my time to relax. I gave it up to make a eight hour drive, to sleep on the floor of a racquet ball court and wake up at six in the morning. I gave it away to pick up heavy boats to carry them over my head, to carry oars around, to move heavy boxes filled with riggers. I gave it away to be stressed out by all the people and all the boats that were to close to my precious Polcock. Its gone because I wanted to maticulously rig boats, to check the boats I did not rig, and to fix the ones done incorrectly. It is gone all because I decided it would be a good thing to spend an hour rowing calmly to the start of a race, working on set, check, and power, focusing on getting in the mind set to race, listening to click of the oar locks, dropping the blade in the water in perfect unison, driving hard, and flipping the blade out of the water in again perfect unison. Feathering and squaring, feathering and squaring, for over three miles. I gave all away to sit at the finish while our cox yells at us, gets us to line up our boat, it has to be lined up perfectly, so we don't hit any boats, so we can travel the shortest distance possible. Then at the last possible second we pass a fist bump from stoke seat to the cox and back to the stern again, it is customary, it is not a race without it. I gave it all up to race, for the words, "ready all to row," and, "row!" The rush, the first three strokes, the power ten, the long hard three miles this time taking only twenty minutes rather than an hour, the power tens dispersed throughout, the last thousand meters, killing myself, the last 500 meters, the adrenaline, the last 20 power strokes, leaving everything on the water, the sound of the air horn as we fly across the finish, the 3 second collapse before rowing back to the dock. I gave it up to pick the boat back up overhead, with shaky arms, shaky legs, dry mouth, and torn up hands, to walk it back to the trailer, to sit around for an hour until I get to do it again. I gave it all to race, to feel the adrenaline, I gave it up to try and win. I gave it up to pass boats. I gave it all up to give my all, to feel like vomiting, and to not be able to stand. And I will do it again next weekend.