Scott Rogers: The Strong, Silent Rowing Machine
Written by Kirsten Ahrendt
Meet Scotty! He moved to San Diego about 6 months ago from DC where he was a member and coach at CrossFit OldTown. He is a member of the U.S. Navy and when you see him in class, he’s bound to be simultaneously smiling while exerting great work effort. It’s just what he does. In the words of Coach TJ, “Scotty is the strong silent type”. Rumor has it, his spirit animal is a duck.
Fun Fact: Scotty is rowing a million meters this year. You read that correctly. Scotty has joined a C2 Rowing challenge to accumulate ONE. MILLION. METERS personally rowed, and he aims to accomplish it within 1 year. That means on average he needs to accumulate 3,000 meters per day. Every. Damn. Day. Which is why you’ll often see him sit back down on the rower after each every class (because he’s not counting his in-class meters).
This challenge doesn’t reward speed or intensity. It is built upon a foundation of consistency and persistence; two things that describe Scotty to a tee. When we asked Scotty what inspired him to participate in the million-meter rowing challenge, he said,
“I thought it would be a fun challenge for me to do. When I looked it up on Concept 2’s website I also saw that there were additional challenges on their web page that take place at different times during the year (i.e. Military Month which was this month) and Concept 2 will allow you to designate a charity that they will donate to per 1,000 meters rowed. That was an added bonus. If I am going to log all of these meters why not log it and have it do some good as well for some charities. Another aspect of this challenge – which is probably one of the more important of the benefits – is the mental toughness that I build up.”
Turns out that Scotty has a sentimental history with rowing. He recounted a story from when he was 12 years old, for us. His parents sent him to a Summer Rowing Club and he rowed on the Buffalo waterfront every day of the week for a month. Up at 5:00am and out on the water by 6:00am – rowing for hours and then in the boat house and the tank on the Erg’s logging thousands of meters per day.
“I was a pretty shy kid when I was young, and I really did not want to go; when my parents dropped me off I was not in a good mood. My Mom told me something that I have never forgotten since that day: If you go into something believing it will be terrible, you will make it terrible…but If you go into something with an open mind, you might just find out you enjoy it.“
Turns out, Scotty’s mom is brilliant. She already knew about manifesting one’s reality.
If you see a big strong smiling dude on the rower Downtown by himself, sit down and join him for a few thousand meters. We are so thankful for generous, humble and hard working members like Scotty!