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"&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Margaret (Maggie) Freed knows how to make eight minutes feel like an eternity. The 22-year-old Virginia native will jump aboard a Concept2 Model D ergonomic rowing machine alongside a slew of other competitors at the CRASH-B Sprints in Boston and crank out 2,000 meters.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u201CWhen a race starts, an invincible feeling sets in, like you could keep on this pace forever,\u201D says Freed, captain of the women\u2019s crew team at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts. \u201CThose first 20 strokes of a race are incredible. Your adrenaline is pumping, your muscles are fresh, and you\u2019re unstoppable.\r\n\r\n\r\n\t&lt;strong&gt;MORE EDGE: On the Road: Kelly Clark says slow down, enjoy culture&lt;/strong&gt;\r\n\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u201CThen suddenly, there\u2019s a point when the pain starts to creep in. You suddenly begin to doubt yourself. \u2018Why am I doing this? I can\u2019t keep this pace up. I still have how many meters left?\u2019 This doubt is dangerous.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Oxygen debt arrives long before the finish line. When the oxygen goes, rowers need to find a substitute to keep delirium at bay.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u201CEveryone looks for determination from different sources of inspiration\u2014teammates, personal goals, beating the person next to you,\u201D says Freed, who clocked a time of 7:44 last year. \u201CEventually, you reach the final sprint of the race. There aren\u2019t many clear memories of this last section of a race. At this point you\u2019re simply trying to survive. Your legs are pushing beyond their limits, every inch of you hurts, breathing is nearly impossible, tunnel vision sets in.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u200B\u201CBut you just keep going,\u201D she says, flashing a broad smile. \u201CYou keep pushing.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The 35th annual CRASH-B Sprints are set for Sunday, March 1, at Boston University\u2019s Agganis Arena. The facility is named after the Golden Greek, BU's star-crossed All-America Harry Agganis. But participants are likely to relate more to the Greek god Sisyphus.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Sisyphus, according to Greek mythology, was condemned to constantly push a giant boulder uphill, only to have it roll back on him. CRASH-B competitors must face the reality that no matter how hard they pull, no matter how much effort they expend, they\u2019re going nowhere. But they\u2019ll have plenty of company. According to race organizers, there won\u2019t be any shortage of budding masochists on hand, ranging in age from 12 to 96.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u201CIn 2015, there will be well over 2,000 competitors, along with coaches, family, friends, and other spectators, which really cranks up the volume in the arena during races,\u201D says Buffalo native Pete Morelli, a CRASH-B board member and former member of U.S. national rowing teams (2006 and 2010). \u201CIt\u2019s one of the few opportunities in sport where recreational athletes can enter the same competition and race against Olympic champions at arm\u2019s length.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The annual event also underscores the broad appeal of rowing.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u200B\u201CCRASH-B gives the opportunity to see the depth of the sport,\u201D says Freed. \u201CAthletes flock to CRASH-B's from incredible range of backgrounds\u2014rowers from around the world, people who have never even been in a boat, collegiate and high school athletes, adaptive rowers. The list just keeps going.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;CRASH-B is an acronym for the Charles River All-Star Has-Beens. This irreverent collection of outdoor rowers, many of them members of the 1976-80 Olympic and national teams, launched these competitions 35 years ago.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u201CIt started small, as a way for 1980 U.S. Olympic rowers to have some fun in the winter at Harvard\u2019s Newell Boathouse after the Moscow Olympics were boycotted,\u201D says Geoffrey Knauth, 54, of Pennsylvania. \u201CRemember, these athletes had trained very hard for four years and suddenly had no place to go, though most stayed for the next Olympics in 1984.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u201CAt the same time, the Dreissigacker brothers [Peter and Dick], who had competed in the 1976 Olympics, had just invented the ergometer,\u201D said Knauth, a CRASH-B board member. \u201CThat\u2019s how it all started, as a way to blow off steam, shake off bad luck, and have some fun.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u200BThose early races featured Concept2\u2019s innovative Model A rowing ergometers, designed by the Dreissigackers, featuring a bicycle wheel, wooden handle, and an odometer. Today, the erg of choice is the high-tech Concept2 Model D.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The event has also evolved, relocating several times before settling in at BU\u2019s Agganis Arena. Age-group winners are presented medals and a trophy hammer, a tongue-in-cheek tribute to Tiff Wood, the original CRASH-B commodore.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u201CThat was Tiff\u2019s nickname,\u201D says Linda Muri, a CRASH-B board member. \u201CIn rowing, a \u2018hammer\u2019 is someone who is really strong, and rows really hard, but not always with the best technique.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;That\u2019s an apt description of many CRASH-B newcomers.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u201CThe worst thing to do is to fly and die, whether on the water, or on the erg,\u201D says Knauth. \u201CYou have to know the proper pace for your body and training level, so that you can finish strong. If you can do that, you\u2019ll feel good about your performance. If you go out too fast and later slow down, you will be miserable.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;There are two distinct camps at the CRASH-B Sprints. Some contestants row indoors almost exclusively. The majority of contestants, however, prefer to row outdoors, which requires rhythm and power, as well as equilibrium to keep the skull stable in the water. Conversely, indoor rowing focuses on brute force and endurance.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u201CIn a rowing shell, you have to keep the boat balanced, responding to nature, and to your own and your teammates\u2019 movements,\u201D says Knauth. \u201CThe Concept2 ergometer is a fine training device. It keeps us from getting weak in the winter. It helps coaches quantify our strength. But there\u2019s a well know aphorism: \u2018Ergs don\u2019t float.\u2019\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u201CWhen I was younger, I rowed with a team,\u201D says 47-year-old Natasha Strom of Massachusetts, who took up rowing as a graduate student at Oxford University. \u201COn the rowing machine, we were competitive with each other&amp;nbsp;but we&amp;nbsp;also pushed each other&amp;nbsp;to compete as a team. Now, I row indoors with a&amp;nbsp;great, diverse group of people&amp;nbsp;who all&amp;nbsp;come together to work out.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The two disciplines are so different, in fact, that only a single rower has been able to reach the pinnacle of both.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u200B\u201CIn 2000, New Zealand\u2019s Rob Waddell became the first and only person to win both the CRASH-B Sprints and Olympic Gold rowing the single,\u201D says Knauth. \u201CThis is remarkable because the erg rewards strength and size, but not balance, and the single rewards that person who is best able to translate strength into the smoothest motion that both propels the boat the fastest during the drive, and slows the boat the least during each stroke\u2019s recovery phase.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u201CWaddell was not the biggest rower on the erg, but he was the erg world champion. He was exceptionally smooth and consistent on the erg, and on the water as well.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The Sprints are an exercise in over-exertion, and often sheer despair. Watching rowers stumbling away from their machines after a race is reminiscent of an episode of &lt;em&gt;The Walking Dead&lt;/em&gt;. Eyes look hollow, and their skin takes on a ghostly pallor. Rowers retching in the bathroom\u2014or in trash cans if they\u2019re not quick enough\u2014is a common sight.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u201CWhen rowing on the water, you have a wonderful feeling of gliding gracefully over the water, and this is absent from indoor rowing, so it\u2019s not as enjoyable,\u201D says 32-year-old Drew Bennett, a former member of the Cornell crew team and now coach for RowBoston. \u201CI\u2019ve done CRASH-B\u2019s a few times. It\u2019s an unpleasant experience every time, and I always swear I\u2019ll never do it again! It\u2019s hard to describe the experience\u2014it\u2019s very intense and nerve-racking.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;With more than 2,000 competitors, representing more than two-dozen countries, the event confirms that misery truly does love company.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u201CThis is a sport where everyone respects what everyone else does,\u201D says former age-group champ Anna Bailey of Great Britain. \u201CIt doesn\u2019t matter if you\u2019re a world champion, or a first-timer. The effort is the same. And the pain is the same.\u201D\r\n&lt;/p&gt;"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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