[Previous: "NIMBY"] [Back to blog] [Next: "3 days in and feeling good"]
Tonight, I was chatting with a co-worker who'd come by my desk to ask if I'd seen the photos from the Oxford-Cambridge boat race, a big annual event on the Thames River. As we chatted over the photos, another co-worker chimed in, without looking away from his computer, "You lookin' at one of your little rowing races?"
I wanted really, really bad to snap back. I tried, but it didn't come out very well, so I just bit my lip and tried to move on.
I'm sick of my cocky, chauvanistic co-workers bashing rowing. They think of what I do as a hobby, like sewing. "Oh, how cute -- they actually have practices, like they're real athletes." Another jackass co-worker once cornered me in the company cafeteria to say, "You'll appreciate this... I took my son canoeing today..." I groaned and pretended to listen. (He had once made another snide comment about my rowing not being as important as a day of OT he was trying to get me to do, so I call him a jackass with no remorse.)
Rowing is not just lightly paddling an oar. It is physically grueling. Rowing is right up there with basketball, cycling or swimming. Elite male rowers are all well over 6 feet tall and solid muscle. A friend's niece rows for Stanford; she is 6-1. (Obviously, I'm not in her league, but I can aspire to be.) It's not uncommon -- I've seen it -- for a rower to puke out the side of a boat after a race. Or puke after an erg test. I often roll off my erg and collapse in a heap on the floor after a workout.
But in the minds of these co-workers, if it's not baseball, football, or basketball -- or more accurately, if it's not an athletic endeavor in which they can make a fantasy league -- it's not a "real" sport; it's something the kids play until they're 17. Open your eyes -- there are other sports out there. Some even require you to be in good shape. I challenge any of those co-workers to row on an erg at a moderate pace for even just 15 minutes. I bet they don't make it.
For an office full of liberals, they can be incredibly narrow-minded. And their egos compel them to pretend to know about sports they know nothing about.
Current mood: Perturbed
Replies: 3 shoutouts
Oar you mad?
Posted by ~ @ 03/30/2004 06:08 PM EST
Can't have rowing fantasy league. Bullstein. We're starting one right now and witht he first pick I select Nick De Angelo.
Posted by Richard @ 03/30/2004 10:07 AM EST
P.S.: Adding insult to injury: Our paper ran a short item on the Boat Race, with a short headline that said, "Crew race taken seriously." As if it normally isn't.
Posted by Huffy @ 03/30/2004 03:15 AM EST