If rowing is a trial then the ergometer is the courtroom and the meter is the jury. And an honest jury at that because the numbers do not lie.

In the early months of training you're thinking 'What the hell is all this for?' because the race is so far off. There's so much tedium and discipline and brutal effort to hammer through. You have to resist the subconscious desire to put an end to all this self-inflicted hardship. But as the days pass and you feel yourself getting stronger you begin to live for the next day. You punish yourself with a will in training because you know you're facing a race that will suspend your life. Somewhere in the race you will find out what it is you've been working for. And you're asking big questions of your body and when the right answers are coming back, it's a feeling you know you will never forget.