rebeccmeister | Long row [rowing]

Yesterday morning, it was time to get in another half-marathon row in preparation for the full marathon in October. Instead of arriving early, I had some breakfast before practice and showed up at the usual Saturday practice time (6:30 instead of 5:30, our weekday start tim). It was chilly but the water was flat and calm, with a slight breeze out of the north.

I paused briefly at the halfway point to take a couple of photos:

This first one is unintentionally artistic and hurts the eyes. I was trying to take a photo of a white buoy, which is the turnaround point just to the south of the Highway 7 bridge in Troy:

View of Troy from the turnaround point:

Photo with an oar in it as evidence that yes, I did row there:

Looking north towards the first/last dam along the Hudson River:

I did not have any encounters with the giant powerboat that produced the Wake of Doom the Saturday prior. Thank goodness. I would be very happy to never, ever see that boat ever again. I suspect I won't be so lucky. I practically flew along on the downstream/return part of the trip, with the current and gentle tailwind to help me.

Warning: Gross sentence: Just before the Menands Bridge, which is 6 km from the end, one of the newly-formed blisters on one of my hands popped and oozed liquid onto the oar handle. Always a weird feeling, but very much a rowing feeling.

One of the biggest reasons for doing these half-marathons is to toughen up my hands. To judge by the state of my hands at the end of the row, I still have some work to do on that front. They were tender for the rest of the day.

Aside from the lingering wildfire smoke that has traveled out from the West Coast, it was an absolutely beautiful, peaceful morning.

Following the row, I dragged

scrottie along with me on an errandonee to pick up even more groceries plus some supplies for student research projects. And then the rest of the day was spent in the office, recording ever more lecture videos.

I am hoping I can convince S to loan me his newer GoPro-style knockoff camera for one of the upcoming Saturday rows so I can create some more British-style Slow Television.