Once one has attained a high level of success at any pursuit and especially an unorthodox pursuit like … - Stefan Kieszling

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I grew up in the prolonged survival of the great age of the horse, with harness and saddle and sleigh bells and horse pictures, not as antiques but the facts of our lives.

Stefan Kieszling

Once one has attained a high level of success at any pursuit and especially an unorthodox pursuit like rowing, one develops a number of generally self-congratulatory half-truths to explain how it happened that he ascended to that particular pinnacle. Often because original motivations don't seem to have much in common with the eventual success, the real and rationalized motivations are difficult to separate.

Develops, Generally, Motivation, Numbers, Rationalized, Real

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I climbed on the rowing ergometer, and started to pull - losing myself in the rhythm of sweat and pain.

Ergometer, Losing, Pain, Pull, Sweat

That morning each of us found a breaking point. Not only a physical barrier, but a point where determination, stamina and duty clashed and were overcome not so much by pain but by absurdity.

Determination, Duty, Found, Morning, Pain, Stamina

As a competitor, winner or loser, one crosses the line into limbo. The adrenaline is gone, the anticipation is gone. The verdict is either comforting or devestating but it neithers returns the exhilaration of the race nor helps directly to win the next. Maybe all that matters is that there is a next.

Comforting, Directly, Exhilaration, Race, Verdict, Winning

For two months after Christmas vacation we limped around campus with muscles too tigh and sore to walk properly, yet we had no good idea of our goal. Without knowing what a real race was like, I couldn't judge whether it was worth all the preparation, but having put in so much time already, how could we back out? Quite a few Freshman did manage to back out. After Christmas several, when freed from faily practice, decided that they liked not feeling tired all the time. Most of them vanished without a word.

Already, Muscles, Quite, Real, Tired, Vacation

Once one is beyond a certain level of commitment to the sport, life begins to seem an allegory of rowing rather than rowing an allegory of life.

Allegory, Certain, Commitment, Levels, Life, Sports