Through Jan./Feb./Mar., As the meters starting piling up, James kept asking me how I was going to finish the million. That was the one thing I hadn’t planned – I just thought I would row until it was done keeping on my regular pace. When I hit 900,000 meters, the end was in sight. So were the Crossfit Northeast Regionals. I have volunteered at these events every year and knew that they are all-consuming days and time to row was not going to happen. That meant an expedited finish to the challenge. Doing a max effort 1, 5 or 10K didn’t seem like anything special since I was averaging somewhere around 7K a day – that left only the dreaded Half-Marathon.

Those of you who have been around for a few years may recall this being programed as the 3^rd event in the 2013 Crossfit Games. Anything that will take the best athletes in the world well over an hour to complete is a huge endeavor. Murph did it the next day just to show everyone that it could be done – it just takes a crap-ton of time. 21,097 meters was daunting – the most I have ever rowed in one sitting was 13,000 meters. The most I had ever rowed in one day was about 15K. I said no to that idea, but immediately started doing the math. I then told James so that he would keep me to my word and went to finish my calculations.

It was now early May and I had to start changing my mindset – instead of counting up, I started to count down. I decided I would trade several days of 10K rows for a few light days and a few days off and would finish the million on the Monday before Regionals with the Half-Marathon.

When Monday rolled around I was all set. I had my I-Pod loaded with songs from one of my favorite bands (The The) and I was well rested. I rolled my favorite rower into the Double and had water and a foam roller handy. I set the damper to a low 6 and got to work.