For oarsmen, the sensation is different. While running, swimming, or even participating in team sports one performs to his own limits, limits set by the 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.
