It's close to 1 a.m. and at a time when most people are sleeping, the faint hum of more than a dozen rowing machines fills the air.
Two rows of machines glide back and forth as the hit film Dumb and Dumber plays on a projection screen. Unfortunately for those exercising, Dumb and Dumber is only one hour and 47 minutes in length.
What the rowers watched for the other 22 hours and 13 minutes at Quest University is unknown, but the fact is that 14 teams of five people each took part in Squamish's first-ever 24-hour row to benefit the Right to Play foundation.
"I'm feeling a little sore," said Terry Peters of North Vancouver. "But it's a really great cause."
Peters was part of a team with four other people who each took 20 minutes shifts on the machine. He added that he trains at Crossfit in West Vancouver but pointed out that he wasn't planning on getting too much rest once the event was completed.
"Well, I'm going to have a nap when I get home," he said. "But I've got a Crossfit class to teach at 2 p.m. on Sunday (Jan. 16), so it won't be too long of a nap."
Participants donned their workout gear and began rowing on Saturday (Jan. 15) at 9 a.m. and didn't stop rowing until Sunday (Jan. 16) at 9 a.m. The amount of mileage that the rowers put together on their machines was noteworthy.
"The furthest distance rowed was by the Squad de Turtles (a mixed team of three men and two women) and was 346.7 kilometres," said event representative Nadine Crowe.
The distance rowed by the Squad de Turtles was greater than the distance from Squamish to Merritt.
"All of the teams were representing a Crossfit club except for the one team of students from Quest University who surprised everyone and rowed 299 kilometres," Crowe said.
Renee Cowling from Squamish was feeling the effects late on Saturday night but said that she had a lot of fun working with her team.
"I'm feeling OK, a little bit tired," she said. "I'm just not trying to think about how much longer we still have to finish."
Cowling's five-person team rowed in 12-minute shifts and she echoed Peters' statement about supporting Right to Play.
"It's a really good cause and a great workout," she said, adding that she was a last-minute replacement for someone who didn't show up from the Squamish Crossfit team. "It's been a fun atmosphere so far."
But she pointed out that Sunday would be a time to relax.
"I'm definitely planning on sleeping," she said. "But I've also got some reading I need to do for school so it'll be homework and lots of coffee."
According to Crowe, the event helped raise close to $2,500 through fundraising, donations and a silent auction for the Right to Play Quest University club. The Quest Right to Play club was founded this past fall, and this was its first major fundraising event.Right to Play, an international organization founded by Norwegian speed skater Johann Olav Koss, aims to "improve the lives of children in some of the most disadvantaged areas of the world by using the power of sport and play for development, health and peace."
Most of the money will go directly to the Canadian organization to support one of its ongoing projects abroad and some of the money will be used to support local initiatives to promote sport and play to kids in the Sea to Sky corridor.
For more information on Right to Play, visit www.righttoplay.com.
