A Dose of Spotz

I suppose I should have mentioned this earlier as it was pretty cool (at least to me), but you know how things sometimes often always come up and distract me from blogging. Well anyway, here I am. Late but better than not at all I suppose.

So last Thursday the club I'm in had an information session for anybody interested in rowing in Cleveland. I was actually out rowing when it started but figured I would stop in after to see who was there and hopefully get some free, post-workout snacks and adult beverages. Mission accomplished there.

In addition to that, someone managed to get local gal and ocean rowing record holder Katie Spotz to come speak. I missed the speaking by the time I had arrived, but she was still there hanging out. I think maybe less hanging out and more trying to survive the onslaught of questions, praise and photo/autograph requests. I played it cool and didn't join the masses, but as the place emptied out, it was just me, Katie and maybe four other people so we wound up talking.

I didn't ask her too many questions (even though I wanted to) because I figured she's had more than enough of that crap since getting back to solid ground but we did chat for awhile about the row, traveling, her blog and other random stuff. She was really nice, smart, funny and humble. I'm not sure I've ever called anyone "humble" before, but she was legitimately humble despite being so motivated, organized, disciplined and record holding.

I wanted her to be my friend.

Despite that I kept the leaching and stalking suppressed and we went our separate ways. Me off to chisel away a couple of miles here and there, and her to plot her next triple digit mileage endurance feat (it's going to be bike-related).

Beyond the rowing across the Atlantic in 70 days, check out the other challenges she's accomplished (keep in mind she's only 22) [from her web site]:

Swim for Water: Became first person to swim the entire length of 325 mile Allegheny River, averaging 12-15 miles a day, with my longest distance swimming +22 miles in a day

Big Ride Across America: Cycled 3,300 miles across the United States from Seattle to D.C., averaging 85 miles a day for forty days

Desert Run: Ran 150 miles across the Mojave and Colorado Desert, solo and self-supported

Half Ironman Triathlon: First in age group (1.2 mi swim, 56 mi bike, 13.1 mi run)

Cycled over 1,000 miles of solo bike tours within the United States, with my longest distance cycling +230 miles in a day

Oxfam Trail Run: Completed 62-mile ultra marathon in Melbourne, Australia

Crazy.

And through all that she raised money for American Lung Association, Oxfam, and the Blue Planet Run Foundation.

Crazy and Humble. It was really cool to meet her. And motivating (although not for my running numbers -- yet).