Timing is Everything

15 years ago, 3 of my men friends and I decided to learn to row.

We had met while watching our children compete on the Winter Park High School crew team in Orlando, Florida. I was about the shortest and weakest of the 4 – all of us were fit and strong for men in our mid-40s. So we hired a coach, purchased a new 4-oared Schoenbrod racing shell for $8,400, and began practicing every afternoon after work for three months to learn the basics.

Rowing looks easy, but it is hard work, and we trained hard. After those three months, we settled into a 4-practice per week routine, but at 5:00AM instead of the afternoons. We were dedicated.

After about 6 months of this, we were beginning to feel pretty smug, so one morning we challenged another boat to a race. It was another 4-oared shell crewed by Winter Park High School’s JV girls – 10th and 11th grade young women who were not quite good enough to make the girls’ varsity boat.

So we lined up our big, beefy crew along these wispy, thin-armed girls, and got set for the 1,500-meter race. We had agreed not to beat them too badly – that if we developed a lead of more than a boat length of open water, we would just sit on that lead all the way to the finish line so that the girls would not be embarrassed.

Well. Things did not turn out quiet that way. Those girls jumped out to a lead in the first 30 strokes, and by the time we’d covered half the distance they were about 5 boat lengths ahead of us, and pulling away.

By the time we crossed the finish line, they were calmly resting on their oars and sipping their Gatorade.

As we rowed silently back to the boathouse, our coxswain finally spoke up, and said, “Well, gentlemen, we’ve just seen what coordination and timing can do…”