Working Wives & Bachelorettes: Rowing...An Amazing Sport and the Best Thing I Ever Did!

I’ve lived in Pittsburgh my entire life so of course, I’ve driven over our lovely rivers a million or more times. For years, I would look down and see tons of rowing boats moving like centipedes up and down and I would always think to myself “boy, that looks amazing” and “I wish there was a rowing team when I was in high school because I would have joined.”

About six years ago, I was driving across one of our glorious bridges with one of my best friends Sue and I peered down at the river and there were the boats. I made a comment to her about how cool it looked and she said that she always thought the same thing. For about a year, she and I always talked about it until one day, she called me up and told me that she looked in to it and they have a winter session starting in a couple of weeks. Without even thinking about it, she and I signed up!

Its five years later and she and I are now on a Master’s Rowing Team for Three RiversRowing Association based on Washington’s Landing. We fell in love with it from the first indoor practice. Once we hit the water for the first time, we were even more hooked! It’s the most amazing sport for several reasons…

1. It’s the best full body work out you could do next to cross country skiing.

2. You meet so many different and amazing people that we’ve become really great friends.

3. Going to races and competing is exhilarating and fun (especially if you win a medal).

4. It’s a beautiful way to see the city and utilize our amazing rivers.

5. It’s incredibly peaceful and such an amazing stress reliever.

Overall, it’s the BEST thing I’ve ever done for myself and I’m so glad that Sue and I finally got off of our butts, stopped talking about it and just did it!

Now, I believe in a previous blog post, I explained that a little over a year ago, I was stung in the foot by a bastard scorpion. That took me out of rowing for a year and to be honest, I was incredibly sad. Rowing became such a huge part of my life and something I did just for me. It sucked when I wasn’t able to do it. Well…I’m back at it. Last night was my first practice back with the team and it felt so incredibly good. It was a little weird as I can’t feel my foot and it still swells really big with a lot of activity but I started to figure it out and it felt great! Not to mention the fact that it was just great being out on the water with a group of people that I spent a lot of time with and traveled with. It also felt great that they all missed me and were so glad to have me back. Have I mentioned that I absolutely LOVE rowing?!

So here’s some advice from a girl that took forever to try something she always wanted to do…If you’ve ever wanted to do something, like rowing, and was just too scared to try it…just do it! If you’ve ever thought about joining rowing…definitely do it! You won’t be disappointed!!!! Even if you’ve never rowed before, it doesn’t matter. There are beginners teams and recreational teams etc. It’s awesome!

BTW…Weight Watchers Update:

Week 3 Weigh In: Lost 1lb
Total Lost: 6lbs