It gives life a purpose. See, the thing about rowing is you set a goal. Let's line up all these people around the world and have them try to achieve the single distance of 2000m. All these people waste their entire life for this goal and ultimately upon that one moment, and in that one moment the person who wasted the most amount of time training and committed themselves wholey to this large endeavor will achieve that greatness.

Rob Gibson 2012 CAN M8+

There have been a lot of times that you doubted yourself and your team. Doubted your ability to lead. To make the team at all. If you're reading this now: you made it. There isn't any more time to waste doubting what lies ahead. You can only believe and create an experience without regrets. There isn't a scenario that you aren't prepared to face anymore. Everything you've learned from [your coaches] and your teammates has all been to prepare for this experience. Blaze. Burn. Live. Pursue what you've been after for the last few years. It's yours to take if you want it badly enough. Be fearless.

Megan Kalmoe 2012 USA M4x

The key to racing is to come off the water regretting nothing.

Brad Alan Lewis 1984 USA M2x

While running, swimming or even participating in team sports one performs to his own limits, limits set by individual conditioning and determination. When exhausted, the individual decides to endure, change pace, walk or collapse. As part of an eight, however, one performs at the level of the crew. When every part of each body says stop, inexplicably the boat still continues. Individual limitations reassert themselves only when the race is over; only then is the body released from the tyranny of the shell and allowed to vomit, lose consciousness or gracefully expire. . . . In rowing not only is the intensity of energy expenditure greater than that of other physical endeavors but the possibility of for exertion can become greater. Ordinarily the limitation of a crew is its weakest member; however, at the moment of transcendence, which oarsmen refer to as swing, the limit of the crew is beyond the strongest.

Stephen Kiesling

We have to be ready to row better and more effectively in order to get the most return for the effort we put into each stroke. Most important of all, we must be prepared to put the maximum effort into each stroke all the way down the course. If we are going to do so during a race we must do so in practice until we find out just how hard we can pull and develop the ability and willingness to keep pulling that hard.

Harry Parker Harvard University