| Champion Rower and Mother of Four Ready to Take on the Atlantic Ocean |
| Just a year ago, Elizabeth Gilmore was learning sweep rowing with Capital Rowing Club, while working full-time managing a data science team and raising a family with her husband. Now, she’s preparing for the journey of a lifetime. In June, Elizabeth plans to launch off from Boston headed more than 3,500 across the Atlantic Ocean to London. She and a crew of three others will row unaccompanied for about 50 days chasing a world record.Why take on the Atlantic? Because it’s there, said the mother of four boys. Elizabeth discovered rowing in just the last few years while rehabbing from a tibia fracture. She quickly embraced the sport in its many forms from indoors to on the water. She won the World Rowing Indoor Championship Versa title two years in a row. “For rowing in general, it combines my love of the outdoors, hard physical work, and striving towards mastery,” Elizabeth explained. “I hear that you can row for decades and still learn and incorporate new things into your stroke. And it comes with many amazing sunrises over the river.” This row from Boston to London will be unlike any other challenge, however. “I’m looking forward to seeing what our team is made of and the great things we can do together,” she said. “The longest I have rowed is 100k (on an erg), and we will far surpass that. There will be times when we are near our limits, both physically and mentally, and will have to rally and push through.” When asked what she will be sure to bring, she said coffee and sunscreen. The most common question she hears when she tells someone about her plans is “Why?” The answer is simple. “Why wouldn’t you jump on a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity?” She anticipates that the hardest part of the journey will not be the waves, the winds, or the long stretches of rowing but rather leaving her family. She admits that she had been feeling guilty about leaving her husband as a solo parent to the boys even though they were all encouraging her to do it. “My priest reminds me that in doing this, I am modeling the value of hard work, dedication, and enjoying the wonderfulness of God’s creation,” she said. “I look forward to doing all of those things and to seeing how our boys live our values as they grow.” | |||
