The physical and mental tolls extracted were significant.
Graham never slept longer than 43 straight minutes in the 10 days, and averaged between 30 to 40 minutes of sleep as team members kept a rotating rowing schedule of 1.5 hours on, and 1.5 hours off.
The Huppis, Graham said, experienced seasickness, with Hannah’s being the worst; she was seasick for eight of the 10 days and only ate one whole meal.
They were wet the entire time, exacerbated by the cold.
“And then you’ve got to think about sitting down for 12 hours a day – your back, your hips,” he said. “So basically for 10 days, I didn’t really stand up straight, I couldn’t really lay down all the way, so sleeping also became difficult because of that.”
Even now, more than a week after returning to the United States, he can’t sleep for more than three hours at a time.
“But some of the biggest issues I’ve had is, like, I can’t feel my fingertips and I still can’t feel my toes,” Graham said. “The fingertips and toes is a bunch of nerve damage, so I’m just gripping and having the constant motion. Both my ankles were swollen; my feet hurt so bad, my hands hurt so bad. I think just waiting for the nerve damage to recover is going to take a couple of weeks.”
He’s using cycling to help with the recovery process, after having completed one of the most arduous tasks of his life.
“I would say that, for me, it was more of a relief, besides the pure exhaustion,” he said. “The minute I touched the dock, I could barely walk. I basically fell to the ground because I thought I was going to fall off the dock. The ability to walk, I just didn’t have it anymore. Not only that, it was more the emotional aspect.
“There’s a lot of pressure in playoff games and when you have so much pressure on you, most people think that after the playoff game you’re just partying and happy and this and that and you’re living on Cloud 9. But for me, it was just a relief. It was like a relief to be able to live another week and be able to chase greatness.
“This kind of felt the same way where it was like a big weight off my shoulders that everything was successful, everything was safe and we prepared the right way. Because you don’t understand everything you’re going to go through, you don’t understand the problems that you’re going to have until you’re out there. So you’ve got to make the right decisions, you’ve got to…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at News…