10,000 meters of hope …

Saturday, December 20, 2008
Meters Rowed: 10,000 (!!)
Tine: 46:51
Pace: sub-2:20
Total Meters Rowed: 202,835

How ’bout 10,000 meters? Yeah, 10,000!

“Beware thoughts that come in the night.” So begins “Blue Highways,” that wonderful narrative of journey and discovery by William Least Heat-Moon. I checked to be sure I was correct (and I was) with those opening words, because they are what popped into mind when I first said “ten thusand meters” while yesterday trying to decide what kind of workout to do today. My 10,000 thoughts didn’t come in the night, but there was about it that same kind of 3 a.m.-what-are-you-thinking, you can’t-be-thinking-this kind of feeling that I can best describe as an exhilarating dread.

 Ten thousand meters? Yes-No! Go-Stop!

In the end, though (and in the beginning and the middle, too), it was the perfect idea. I knew I wanted a long pull. But suddenly 8,000 meters, my current max, didn’t seem far enough. Besides. We have reached York Catholic High School’s Christmas break. Remember what it felt like to get to Christmas vacation when you were a kid, those two weeks off stretched before like eternity itself? That alone merited its own celebration, its own official marking. Ten thousand meters? Yes-Go!

As for that sub-2:20. I mean it: I had no intention of it doing it, but I did it. I can honestly say it just happened. Really. I would have been satisfied with 2:30. In fact, getting started, with all those meters out there in front of me, I actually tried to slow myself down. But sub 2:20 it was, as if the Concept2 had decided for me. Why fight it? Yes-Go!

One more thing: Give me a long-slow 10,000-meter, sub-2:20, 46-minute pull over a short-fast 2,000 meter, 1:50 (if I’m beyond lucky!), 7:20 push any day of the week.

Finally, an author’s note, re: “Blue Highways.”  Heat-Moon’s book came out in early 1983, right when I was turning the key on my own discovery-journey book idea that in 1986 became “The Call of the Game,” my yearlong effort to travel the country attending sports events. “Blue Highways” was an immediate sensation the moment its rubber met the road. It fueled my trip, powered my dreams, motored my imagination. “Call” was not, let’s just say, quite the blockbuster “Blue Highways” was. Indeed, alas. But I will always remember how, as I was driving the country, that book gave me hope. A wonderful feeling, that – and I hope you have experienced it too.

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