The Racer
A
ttorney John Crutcher once won gold in a rowing race literally blinded by the effort. He finished the last 50 yards unable to see, relying solely on his training and muscle memory to get him to the end.
He has sailed solo across vast expanses of ocean — sunburned, exhausted,
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subsisting on powdered and canned foods, and with no one else to rely on.
he tended to respond that it was the most intellectual thing he’d ever done.
The New York attorney’s experiences rowing and sailing have pushed him to existential edges.
“That was true for me,” he says, “because to perform at that level requires a full engagement of all factors.”
Crutcher has won two gold medals, a silver, and a bronze in the US Rowing National Championships. When he first began applying to law firms, he included the accomplishment on his resume. When he was asked, “What’s with this rowing thing?”
It is, in part, the demand of “full engagement” that has continued to draw Crutcher back out onto the water to test himself physically, mentally, and spiritually. The water, he says, is honest – not only in a brutal, apathetic way, but
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