only 28 miles of actual racing

Poughkeepsie was the last race for Roger Morris, Shorty Hunt, and Joe Rantz. By Royal Brougham's calculations, done that night on a bar napkin, in four years of college rowing, each of them had rowed approximately 4,244 miles, far enough to take him from Seattle to Japan. Along the way, each had taken roughly 469,000 strokes with his oar, all in preparation for only 28 miles of actual collegiate racing. In those four years, and over the course of those 28 miles, the three of them - Joe, Shorty, and Roger - had never once been defeated. 

The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics by Daniel James Brown. Penguin Books. 2013

exacts that toll in about six minutes

Physiologists, in fact, have calculated that rowing a two-thousand-meter race—the Olympic standard—takes the same physiological toll as playing two basketball games back-to-back. And it exacts that toll in about six minutes.

The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics by Daniel James Brown. Penguin Books. 2013

I believe that the Good Lord gave us a finite number of heartbeats and I'm damned if I'm going to use up mine running up and down a street.


Neil Armstrong on jogging, in an interview with Walter Cronkite

Those who think they have not time for bodily exercise will sooner or later have to find time for illness.


Edward Stanley

The best six doctors anywhere
And no one can deny it
Are sunshine, water, rest, and air
Exercise and diet.
These six will gladly you attend
If only you are willing
Your mind they'll ease
Your will they'll mend
And charge you not a shilling.


Nursery rhyme quoted by Wayne Fields, What the River Knows, 1990

My rule is to break one sweat a day, whether that's going for a run, whether that's dancing, whether that's loving – just break a sweat a day.

Matthew McConaughey - People Magazine, "Matthew McConaughey: The Sexiest Man Alive" NOVEMBER 16 2005