Stroke!

This weekend is the Head of the Charles.

An annual tradition for Cantabrigians, this event brings thousands of people to the banks of Boston's Charles River to glimpse ridiculously lithe rowers propel boats the width of a hanger toward a finish line located three miles from the start.

This experience is not for the faint of heart. Rowing requires endurance, stamina, coordination, timing, rhythm, strength, power, and BOTH aerobic and anaerobic fitness. Oh and blisters. Did I mention the blisters? 

But if you've ever watched a boat cut through water like a hot knife through butter, a tango of synchronized oars pulling to and fro, you know the seduction all too well.

“All were merged into one smoothly working machine; they were in fact, a poem of motion, a symphony of swinging blades.” – Boys in the Boat