Adrienne Smith is your typical, modern-day mom, racing “from 5 a.m. until 9 p.m.” to get things done.
“I don’t stop moving,” she said. “I’m teaching yoga, doing laundry, going to Costco, walking my dog, getting in a workout, making food, picking up my daughter, taking her to swim lessons, doing Nite Moves, coming home …”
Her race against the clock, however, will soon ascend to a whole new level.
Smith, a wife and mother of a 4-year-old daughter, is part of a four-woman crew that will try to row a 29-by-5-foot boat from San Francisco to Hawai‘i faster than the world record of 35 days, 14 hours and 23 minutes.
The “Great Pacific Race,” the brainstorm of a Danville adventure and leadership development company called Lat 35, is expected to begin the 2,800-mile voyage sometime between June 19 and 23.
“It’s absolutely the most challenging thing I’ve ever attempted,” Smith told Noozhawk. “Challenging on all levels … Physically, emotionally, being gone from my family, handling everything logistically from making sure my business is covered, my child care is covered, and that we have all the things we need as a team.
“And it’s also about working on a team of four when I’m used to operating as a solo athlete.”
Smith jokes about fitting a nearly 3,000-mile row into her busy life, noting that, “I will actually get some down time … You get to rest every two hours.”
Jason and the Aquanauts
Triathlete Jason Smith, posing with wife Adrienne and daughter Reese, is serving as the conditioning coach for the Lat 35 team that will set out from San Francisco next month on a rowing adventure to Hawai‘i. (Smith family phoro)
Smith, who operates the Power of Your Om yoga studio in downtown Santa Barbara, was recruited by the team’s endurance coach: her own husband, Jason.
“His specialty is training endurance athletes, but he’s also trained race car drivers, pit crews and even professional ultimate frisbee teams,” she said. “They had only three women on the team and were looking for a fourth, so Jason called me and said something like, ‘Hey, I think you’d really like this … If I were you, I would do it.’
“I was like, ‘Well, I’m not you.’”
But the opportunity for such an achievement did trigger both her curiosity and adventurous spirit.
“My first question to my husband was, ‘Well, what are my chances of death?’” Smith said. “I was picturing doing this in a flat-water rowing boat, not an ocean-rowing boat. Once I got a little more educated, I wasn’t as freaked.”
The boat is designed to right itself if it capsizes, with small, air-tight cabins on both ends. It’s also equipped with a satellite phone, tracking devices and a water-maker that produces 25 liters a day. They will pack their own food since they will not be accompanied by a support boat.
“My other question was, ‘Does it matter that I don’t row?’” she said. “Jason told me that, ‘It actually doesn’t at all.’ Sure, you’ve got to get the mechanics down. Your body has to get a little more used to the movement. You want to be efficient.”
The Lat 35 crew hopes to row from San Francisco to Hawai‘i faster than the women’s record of 35 days, 14 hours and 23 minutes. (Lat 35 photo)
Smith is an accomplished athlete in her own right, having competed in such diverse youth sports as figure skating and Little League baseball. She ran track for her high school and also played on both its volleyball and basketball teams.
She started running marathons during her junior year of college and then made the transition to triathlons in 2007. She qualified for her first Ironman World Championships just a year later.
“The training for this isn’t necessarily about being in the best physical shape like I would be for an Ironman, but about being able to withstand repetitive movements and not get injured,” Smith said. “It’s about mobility work and varied motion so that when you twist and turn, you’re not just all of a sudden hurting your back.
“You’re on an unstable surface all the time and you need to be able to balance well and have good neuro-muscular firing.”
The Old College Try
Her three crew mates all rowed in college. Sophia “D.J.” Denison-Johnston and Libby Costello both competed for UCLA. Brooke Downes, who rowed for USC, was Costello’s teammate at Mountain Lakes High School in Morris County, New Jersey.
The Lat 35 entry in next month’s “Great Pacific Race” has been training since last September. (Lat 35 photo)
“Sophia started planning for this during the spring of last year,” Smith said of Denison-Johnston, who also lives in Santa Barbara. “She watched last year’s teams go off … watched them tack the boat and all that stuff. She’s had this on her radar since last June.”
Smith was added to the crew nine months ago. The gestation period leading to next month’s trip has included many laborous sessions off the Santa Barbara Harbor.
“The girls on the team have helped me right from the get-go, when I did my first row with Sophia,” Smith said. “She was giving me pointers and teaching me how to row efficiently.”
A recent 24-hour shakedown row that covered only 50 miles did open her eyes to the difficulty of their task.
“We were kind of rowing against the current, but it wasn’t in any kind of tumultuous weather,” she said. “I was like, ‘Oh my gosh! We only went 50 miles? At that rate, it’ll take us 60 days.’”
But the current, Smith soon learned, will be a major factor in their quest to break the record.
Adrienne Smith, who operates Santa Barbara’s Power of Your Om yoga studio, does a few stretches aboard the boat that she’ll help row to Hawai‘i. (Lat 35 photo)
“We’d be on some of the waves, and going like two knots, and then all of a sudden you get this little roller, like a swell, and all of a sudden you’re going 5½ knots,” she said. “I mean, it makes a huge difference.
“One of the guys we met in the harbor was like, ‘You’re basically doing a controlled drift.’”
Their trek will begin in San Francisco. Although the straight-line distance to Hawai‘i is about 2,400 nautical miles, the equivalent of about 2,800 miles on land, the journey will actually be much farther.
“You go south from San Francisco, then head West and use the winds to push you toward Hawai‘i,” Smith said. “You have to fight a little to go across the continental shelf, and then catch the winds, so you don’t go all the way to Mexico.
“When we’ve looked up how many miles past teams have rowed, it was anywhere from 2,700 to 2,900.”
Getting Her Ducks in a Row
The days away from family has preyed on Smith’s mind. She’s talked at length about it with her daughter, Reese, who will turn 5 in August.
“She’s gone on the boat with us to move it from one slip to another, and she thinks it’s really cool,” Smith said. “I have some videos and pictures of her on the rowing machine. I’ll go, ‘Where are you rowing to?’ And she’ll say, ‘Hawai‘i!’
Reese Smith, the 4-year-old daughter of Adrienne and Jason Smith, checks out one of the cabins of her mom’s Lat 35 boat. (Smith family photo)
“But I don’t know if she actually gets how long these things take.”
But Mom’s apprehensions about joining the crew became assuaged by how easily “the puzzle pieces all came together.”
“When I just sort of let go of the control of everything, people showed up,” Smith said.
They include the support of her husband’s parents, the return to town of Reese’s former babysitter, and yoga teachers “who trained with me six years ago who came back and were like, ‘Hey, are you looking for teachers?’”
One of the biggest challenges is the expense. Their medical kit alone costs $10,000. The setup for the internet site that will follow their progress costs $4,000. Food and nutrition adds another $5,500 to the bill, and other necessary tools have been priced at about $1,200.
Slip fees in Santa Barbara are also pricey. And their fundraising for the Anxiety and Depression Association of America will kick in as soon as they depart.
Their quest requires many to pull on the oars. Those who would like to support their quest can donate through Venmo at their Instagram site: @lat35racing.
Smith has faith in herself and her three crew mates that they will live up to their mission statement, “To elevate each other’s greatness and complete the crossing as fast as possible.”
“One of the girls was like, ‘This is something that requires trust from the beginning, but you don’t have time to build it yet,’” Smith said. “And yet, to sign up to row across an ocean, you kind of trust that person next to you also has some of the same values and interests, and the ability to work through any predicaments.
“The end-goal is to make it across as fast as possible.”
Mom, after all, has a schedule to keep.
— Noozhawk sports columnist Mark Patton is a longtime local sports writer. Contact him at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address). Follow Noozhawk Sports on Twitter: @NoozhawkSports. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook. The opinions expressed are his own.
Reese Smith works out on her mom’s rowing machine. Adrienne Smith is one of four rowers who will attempt to become the fastest all-female boat to make the crossing from San Francisco to Hawai‘i. (Smith family photo)
