As the summer of 2020 came to a close, I began to think about what my next Warrior Challenge would be. I had been really getting into rowing over the past year, we were in the middle of a global pandemic, and we had just had a new baby, Grace. It just made sense to do a challenge at home and my home rower was perfect. I decided to row 31 miles on 3/21/21. As I did the year before, I trained almost daily to build up the endurance to attack such a task. Rowers typically measure distances in meters so the goal was to row 49,890 meters. My plan was to row three sessions of 15,000 meters with very short breaks. Then I would gut out the last 4,890 meters. On the morning of I was feeling great so I headed upstairs to get started. Katie and Grace watched me get going and then they headed downstairs for breakfast. About ten minutes in, Katie raced upstairs holding Grace, who had a swollen lip. She had a reaction to peanut butter which was surprising because she had peanut butter before. I hopped off the rower and we were both freaked out. Katie called our pediatrician and I contemplated just waiting until another day to complete the challenge. After a few minutes, we calmed down and Grace started to look much better. All seemed fine so I got back on the rower and rowed for the rest of the morning. I finished in under 5 hours and it was amazing to finish with Katie and Grace cheering me on. Completing this challenge solidified the fact that I plan to do these challenges every year now as a way not only to honor Bridget, but to keep myself in top shape and to continue to find levels in myself that I did not know existed!
-Dan
