Runner Gets a High-Wattage Workout by Rowing
Jan 2020 Wall Street Journal
When you are having a strong running season, it is hard to think about slowing down. In 2015, Ray Marquette ran 16 races, including three marathons. He set a personal record of 3:42:28 in Chicago and three weeks later ran the New York City Marathon. Shortly after, Achilles tendinitis flared up and has plagued him on and off ever since.
“I probably wasn’t fully recovered [from Chicago],” admits Mr. Marquette, who works at a global financial-services company in New York City. “You hear stories about chronic overuse but don’t pay attention until you can’t run.”
A member of the New York Harriers road running club, Mr. Marquette, 40, says training and racing are important parts of his social life. Reluctant to stop running completely, he learned to manage his pain, he says. He scaled back from 65 to 25 miles a week and started to go to physical therapy. “I was never as fast and my body never felt great after running,” he says.
He tried cross-training with swimming, spinning, yoga and strength training but couldn’t get excited about any of it. Last summer, after a year of pain-free running, he was struck by a bout of plantar fasciitis, an inflammation of the bottom of the foot often caused by a tight Achilles tendon. An MRI revealed a partial tear in the ligament.
Searching for a new endorphin fix, he discovered Rowgatta, an indoor rowing boot camp. “It doesn’t replace a two-hour run, but it’s low-impact, gets my heart rate up and works muscles I neglect when running,” he says. Mr. Marquette hopes a winter of rowing and physical therapy will get him healthy enough to complete a half-marathon this fall.