'Rowing into Splendor' on the Charles River

Oars and shells and the allure of rowing described by erstwhile freshman rower

By Alvin Powell

Contributing Writer

On any given day, racing shells cut the surface of the placid Charles. On clear days and in rain, the boats move up and down the river, their graceful, smooth passage belying the strength and endurance demanded of their backward-facing drivers.

The fragile shells and their human cargo are a part of Cambridge and Boston, like Harvard's brick walls or the flashing CITGO sign.

Rowing has been a part of this university for more than a century. Indeed, it was Harvard rowers facing off against a Yale crew in 1852 that became America's first intercollegiate athletic contest.

Harvard won by two boat lengths.

Harvard's rowing program didn't just kick off intercollegiate sports, it also started the rowing career of a Harvard freshman named Craig Lambert, who was a coxswain in 1965.

Lambert, now older and wiser in the ways of rowing, has just written a book on the sport and on life, called Mind Over Water.

Lambert's book is not about rowing at Harvard necessarily, but because the Charles River was his training ground, Harvard is a constant presence in the book.

Harvard's legendary crew coach Harry Parker is the book's most visible character after the narrator, and Lambert cites the 1979 Harvard-Yale race as one of the all-time greatest crew contests.

Harvard won that one, too.

Lambert, now an associate editor at Harvard Magazine, left rowing in his freshman year, rejoining the sport in the mid-1980s, 20 years later.

Mind Over Water talks about rowing as a metaphor for life. It reaches broadly, touching on everything from a rain forests' delicate balance to troubles playing a passage of Bach on the piano.

In between, Lambert introduces readers to rowing, discussing the balance needed in the narrow, lightweight boats; the endurance needed to achieve athletic goals; and the difference between sweep boats, where each rower pulls a single oar, and sculling boats, where each rower uses two oars.

Lambert describes connections between life and sport in a thoughtful, almost poetic way, taking readers on a flowing, fascinating ride, even as he describes the muscle-burning pull of the three-mile Head of the Charles.

The book was released in time for this year's Head of the Charles, in which Lambert competed.

In an interview the day after, Lambert said he finished in 25:24 and competed in the Grand Masters single category. He said that wasn't a bad time for him, considering the headwind along the course and joked with a co-worker that since his technique looked good, now all he needs are strength and endurance.

Though Lambert is often on the water alone, Mind Over Water can take others onto the river with him, in spirit anyway. And, who knows, if the spirit proves strong enough, they may just grab an oar and head out there themselves.