Today I rowed twice. My first row was an excellent double with my regular and wonderful rowing partner. I was happy, a bit wet from the backsplash, but feeling good after a good workout.
I felt some excitement, and trepidation about my second row, though. I had a new date to try the pair.
Quick explanation for the non-rowers here. A double is a boat with two people, four oars. It is putting two rowers, each with with a port and starboard oar, in one boat. The rowers are independent, yet connected. Either of them can row the whole boat alone. They go faster together.
A pair is two people, two brains, two oars. Lots of possibility for error. Small margin before you spill into the water. A perfect combination of adrenaline, trepidation, and challenge. One rower has a port oar. The other has a starboard. They must be connected, and never independent, or the boat will flip. If one rows without the other, the boat goes in circles.
Finding two people who can row together, communicate effectively, and exert the same power on every stroke is important in a double. It is essential in a pair.
The quest for your pair partner can be frustrating. It is like looking for two twin snowflakes.
My prior experiences in a pair were absolute fun, and I saw the potential in this sweet little boat, but I hadn't found my snowflake-twin, and I wasn't sure there was one out there to find. I am too competitive (one rowing partner calls me an "intimidating tough chick"), I really like speed and I am a rowing junkie. I would row 8 hours a day if I could. I dream about rowing. I think rowing is fun, even when it isn't. I have found people who like speed. I found one or two who are as in love with rowing as I am and who even think rowing is fun when it isn't. But it is a rare person with those characteristics who are as determined as I am to pound their quads to a lactic-acid-laden molten mass, pull till their arms fall off, and row till they vomit, just so they can dominate all the other boats out there. It is like the Good Ship Lollipop captained by Edward Teach.
Then along came Alice....
And this begins my true love story with the pair today. What I had before was mere puppy-love. Rowing the 2- with Alice was the real deal. I might never row a 2- with anyone else. She is to me what Paul Enquist was to Brad Lewis. And I believe we can learn to move our boat fast. I am sure of it.
Alice and I are a good match athletically and in personality. Her marathon PR is within minutes of mine. She is one of 3 people in the entire world who can equal my enthusiasm! :) She loves rowing. She likes to win. She emotes like I do. She smiles and grins and laughs when we talk about rowing. She loves to row hard, and she is really competitive. She is my snowflake twin.
When we did the three-and-glides, we got our first taste of how we could move the boat together. It was like getting to lick a tiny bit of really good chocolate, and you know that there is more just out of reach on the shelf over your head.
So then when we did the 5 strokes on/10 strokes off, it was a bite of a whole little square of that chocolate. All melty, and yummy, but not really quite enough.
And then we did the power tens--ahh. I wanted more. Lots more. And that is when I realized that Alice and I were growing, and with a little bit of time, we would soon be tall enough to get the ENTIRE bar of chocolate down, and it would be OURS to gobble up!
We took our last power strokes, and then paddled down. I could almost taste that chocolate. I turned to look at Alice, and saw that grin on her face. And I knew Alice could taste that chocolate too.
I actually worked hard in the pair today. As in, I took off my winter hat because I was getting warm! As in, I had to breathe with my strokes because my muscles were off-loading a bunch of CO2 and my lungs needed to up-shift to keep up with the metabolic demands. As in, I bet Alice and I can learn to row the pair hard enough to get the pull-till-my-quads-burn-my lungs-scream-and-I-get-that-bile-in-the-back-of-my-throat-thing.
We docked, and got out of the boat in unison. Alice turned to me, and we gave each other an ecstatic hug. "That was so much fun! We can be fast!" She was equally convinced that we could conquer this thing called a pair.
So chocolate is my strategic rowing plan for our pair. I will learn and grow with Alice, and we will master this 2-woman boat, and we will kick some ass out there and win some races. In Alice's words we will attain "total dominance on land and sea".
I think I found my snowflake-twin.
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