Happy 30th Birthday, Million Metre Club!

The Million Metre Club began in 1987 to inspire our customers to row more metres, keep track of those metres, and then celebrate the achievement. The goal was simple: reach one million metres on the indoor rower no matter how long it took to get there.

On the Club’s 30th Anniversary, we thought we would take some time to reach out to some of the individuals who embody the spirit of million metre rowing (and skiing!). Those metres add up—many of our Million Metre Club members continue for two million, three million, and so on. We have members who’ve recorded over 100 million metres!

One of our newest inductees is Suzann Carr (one million metres), who started rowing after back surgery. She tried rowing in group fitness classes at RowZone (Corpus Christi, Texas) once she discovered that rowing, unlike running, didn’t cause her back pain. It was “love at first pull you might say” she tells us. She bought herself an indoor rower and realized a few months into logging her metres on the Concept2 Online Logbook that she could complete one million metres by April 2017. So she set out for that goal, rowing at home, a few times a week during lunch and also on weekends. What keeps her going? With rowing, “my quality of life is better. I love my rowing machine!”

Bob Keener (41 million metres) says he’s “addicted and just enjoys it.” His goal is to continue rowing into his nineties. With rowing as his fitness activity of choice, we’re confident he’ll be able to do just that. Keener’s doctor attributes his strong recovery from a life-threatening blood infection to being in such good shape. He’s thankful for his indoor rower playing part in his health. “We will never part!” he says.

Here at Concept2, Lisa Washburn, Controller, has logged the most metres out of all our employees, with over twenty million to her name. “Every metre counts,” she explains. Lisa records every single metre, whether it’s rowed during a CrossFit workout or at home in front of the TV. Lisa started at Concept2 in 1996 and earned her first million metres in 1999. While it used to take her two or more years to finish a million metres, it now takes her about one year. She not only got faster, but rowing also became routine. “It’s my health sanity check,” she says. Looking back, her sluggish metres in 2008 were an early sign that something was amiss. After receiving a startling cancer diagnosis in 2009, Lisa continued rowing through treatment. Recovered, she now keeps an eye on her pace and notices trends and how she’s feeling. “The goal was 20 million metres, which I reached in December,” Lisa says, but we know there’s no slowdown ahead. Lisa earned a Concept2 sports bag for rowing 20 million metres—a well-earned prize admired here at our offices.

Interested? Visit the Million Metre Club page to learn more. It’s free to join—you just need to invest your “sweat equity.” Members love our prizes. As Randy Withers (15 million metres) says, “the quality of the prizes matches the quality of your rowing machines.” We’ll keep recognizing our Million Metre Club members with these incentives. Thank you for your loyalty!