March 12, 2026 • 40 mins
Taryn Smith is an Omaha native who just became the third American woman to row across an ocean! She talks about her inspiration to chase this and every detail of this 46-day journey across the Atlantic.
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Speaker 1 (00:07):
It is the Every Songer podcast, and you are tuned
in live across the iHeartRadio app. We appreciate you for
tuning in as always, and my mission for this show,
now that I have turned it into a full fledged
Omaha related podcast, is to talk about as many interesting
things in people as I could possibly find. And I
don't know how exactly I discovered this in January, but
(00:31):
I saw that there was a young woman from the
Omaha area who was in a boat rowing across the
Atlantic Ocean, and it took some time for me to
figure out, Okay, so what even is this? And eventually
I was able to track down that this is Terren Smith,
(00:52):
and I have tracked her down, who's no longer in
a boat on the Atlantic Ocean, but instead he is
back in Omaha and she is actually sitting next thanks
to me in the studio today, Tarren. This is absolutely
an honor. Thank you so much for coming in and
being on the show today.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
Thank you so much for having me, happy to be here.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
Let's go ahead, and just first of all, you we
need to kind of set the stage here. Omaha born
and raised.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
Correct, I am from Omaha, grew up here, I went
to Millard's out high school and then went to Nebraska Wesleyan.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
University Nebraska Wesleyan, so college you stayed in Nebraska as well.
Millard South quite the football powerhouse these days. So I
think a lot of people are just like, man, they
got a lot of stuff going on. And I mentioned
rowing a boat. We'll get to the rowing in a second.
But anybody who takes on something like this, which is
just an insane challenge, I'm not sure even point zero
(01:43):
zero zero one percent of people think to do anything
this physically taxing. What was your athletic background and upbringing,
because you really have to have a different mindset to
even try to tackle a challenge like this.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
Yeah, I think that I've always been very curious about everything.
So growing up, I played a lot of sports. I
was a competitive figure skater.
Speaker 1 (02:05):
Oh and nice, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
I loved that sport.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
And then I'm like artistic with the athleticism, I mean exactly,
I okay, well I'm shelving that we're gonna need to
talk about that exactly.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
Figure skating is a very intense sport. I dabbled in basketball,
little softball, ran cross country and high school, and have
always practiced yoga. So I just love all things movement.
I love watching sports. I love going to baseball games
and hockey games and basketball and football. And I think
part of that is being a Nebraskan as well.
Speaker 1 (02:40):
I love how eclectic. A lot of that is because
you talk to people, especially women, and you know, there's
really like a lane that they go toward, whether it's volleyball, basketball, softball.
And I think they started specializing in sports a little
bit more than the guys did. The guys are very
specialized now in a lot of these sports. But when
(03:02):
you were really good at hitting the softball, you just
loved hitting the softball. And that was one thing when
I was I came from a sports broadcasting background. When
you would see an athlete, because there's usually one in
every class, or maybe two in every class, and the
teams I would cover that, their name would pop up
on softball, and they would pop up on basketball, and
it would pop up on volleyball, track and field, maybe
(03:26):
even tennis. They tried swimming, and you're just like those
that person has made differently for you. Was there any
sport you mentioned loving all this and attending and watching,
but you know, participating. Was there any kind of activity
among those that really just kind of felt like your
(03:46):
happy place, like the happiest of places as you were
growing up.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
I found so much joy in community and cross country
and the funny thing, I was never a particularly fast runner,
but I I love showing up for practice. I love
the people that I met through the sport, and I
loved practicing endurance, which is of course something that I've
brought with me to the Atlantic Row. So after high
school I started running more and more and doing longer
(04:13):
distances and eventually got into marathons prior to ocean rowing.
But you you really just do meet the best people
in cross country.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
I started to go to run club here, the Exarbon
Run Club, and my history with running, I feel like
this is an important conversation to have. I am kind
of mentally feeble when it comes to pain, and I
love yoga, but the yoga that I do is intermittent.
(04:45):
I'm not like religious about it, and the mental aspect
I've gotten way more out of than the physical aspect.
I am the kind of guy I really need a
trick myself to like stay in those poses for a
long time, and run just seemed like voluntary torture. I
didn't understand why anyone wanted to do that, Like, why
(05:05):
are you running eight kilometers? Like that doesn't compute to me.
That makes no sense to me. Your training run is
like ten miles, I'm gonna pass, but thanks for the offer, right,
Like I don't. I didn't get it. I went and
I started recording a podcast for the IMT to Wine Marathon,
probably like five years ago or so, maybe a little
bit before. And when I was recording that podcast, I
(05:27):
started to understand like the depths of just like organized
running and how passionate people were when they were involved
in clubs. I got it. I got the itch. I decided.
I was like, I need to see. I went to
the marathon and I saw the people finishing the half marathon,
full marathon, even the relay, and the sense of joy
that seemed to give them as they finished and accomplished
(05:49):
this thing. It's like, I've never really committed myself to
accomplishing something like that, especially something that requires endurance, which
your brain is as important as you know your fitness is.
And when I did the half marathon, I it was
a euphoria I did not anticipate because I didn't like
the training that much I knew I wouldn't. I didn't
(06:11):
really stick to a super strict dietary plan until like
two weeks before, kind of carbon up and getting ready
for the race. I just mentally was kind of like,
I want to get through this and that's probably the
end of my running career. I wanted to see what
it was like. What I didn't understand was how amazing
it would feel when I was out there with six
(06:31):
thousand other people and we're all trying to do the
same thing, and then what it felt like to actually
accomplish that. How do you describe that for somebody like yourself,
where it seems like that's the carrot in front of you.
You want that challenge, You're you're kind of pursuing that
type of mental challenge.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
Yes, I think it's really it is the way that
I live. I've always practiced yoga, and something that pops
up a lot is learning to be comfortable in an
uncomfortable situation. And so for me, endurance sports and the
Ocean Row really is a meditation on learning to be
comfortable in those really challenging situations and understanding that everything passes.
(07:13):
And you know, we live in a culture of so
much convenience and comfort, and we're being sold so many
things that we're told will make our lives easier. But
I think there's something to be said for going out
there and challenging yourself and sweating and working hard and
pushing past that pain. Because on the other side, like
you said, is that euphoria.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
How old are you going to ask? I'm twenty six,
so you I mean, you are still a young person
and you're capitalizing on your physicality. But every single thing
that we're talking about here is stuff that people can
do as they age, which is the one thing that
I think has attracted me to stay with running. I
(07:55):
go to run Club. There's like two hundred people that
show up to the sixarbon run Club. I love going there,
and if you haven't, you should I will.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
I'm so excited to hear about this because I've been
looking for more group based sports. This is great.
Speaker 1 (08:07):
We're like, we're like a week or two away maybe
from Wednesday nights being run club nights. Again. My wife
hated the concept of running, especially with people very self conscious.
She's a CrossFit athlete, even in the gym, you know,
she was just like not sure about you know, she
doesn't want people seeing her form and she just is
(08:27):
thinking that nobody but you know, and you know this,
nobody's looking at the way you're doing whatever. You know,
it's just like a thing you have to trick yourself
out of and you start going and you're with two
hundred other people, and all of a sudden she fell
in love with it and that became a Wednesday thing
for her. And then she just finally set a pr
that she set for herself for a five k and
to see what her reaction for that was really just
(08:49):
reminds you of like how beautiful this is, but the
community aspect of it is what drove her to that point.
For rowing, it's a little different because I watched the
Olympic rowing and they got boats. There's nine people in
those boats, or there's four people in those boats. A
lot of times there's two people in those boats. I
don't usually see, you know, in a lot of these
(09:11):
singular boats. I mean they're sprinting and the race is
over in a few minutes. And I see what you
were doing, and let me get the number here real quick.
And I hate being this guy because you know, what
do you want from me? What is it like forty
six days.
Speaker 2 (09:31):
Forty six days out at sea by myself.
Speaker 1 (09:33):
Forty six days in a boat on the ocean by yourself,
and people are probably just like, Okay, there's no way, right,
So we have to talk about It's called the world's
toughest row, and there are aspects to this. It's not
like you just decided you were going to jump in
(09:54):
one of these skulls that you could find at the
boat house and just decide you were going to row
across the ocean. How did you even learn about this?
Did you have a history of rowing? Like, what was
the what was the whole thing of you know, kind
of transitioning from kind of a running cross country background
with you know, kind of a yoga emphasis with your
muscular kind of practicing and now all of a sudden,
(10:16):
it's like cardio, muscles, discipline, rhythm, like all that stuff
is necessary for this sport. Did you have an experience
with throwing before that you were like, I really kind
of love doing this.
Speaker 2 (10:27):
Now I read about ocean rowing and an article in Vogue,
and so I think in Vogue I read about a
team of women that did the Pacific and they got
a world record and something about ocean rowing really tugged
at me. I loved the idea of going on a
grand adventure. I loved the idea of endurance sports, obviously,
(10:49):
and so I looked into the sport more and I
realized that some people do an ocean crossing with no
rowing experience, and so I signed up and tallenging, yeah exactly.
I'd run out of things that scared me. So I
signed up and then spent about three years in preparation
getting ready for it. So a lot of time at
the gym, a lot of time training, so there was
(11:12):
quite a big lead up getting to the start line.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
So this was not Hey, I'm Terrence Smith, I'm a
great athlete. I see this world's toughest roll, bring it on,
and then two months later you're in the boat. This
was you've thought you planned. What does a training look
like when you're trying to prepare your brain and your
body for forty six days of solitary confinement on a
(11:38):
small vessel while you have unpredictable waters in weather around you.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
Yes, the training was intense. So the first year I
really focused on working out in the gym. I had
a strength and conditioning coach based out of London and
he would send me work out, so I would do
two days of lifting, three days of rowing indoors, and
then cross training. And then I took courses and learned
about sea navigation and survival and first aid. And then
(12:09):
the year leading up to the row, I actually lived
on my boat for a collective seven weeks in England
and I rowed up and down a river. I would
drop anchor and sleep out on the boat and the
river overnight rode out into the North Sea. And the
mental preparation was really focused in yoga, understanding that everything passes,
(12:30):
knowing that life is impermanent and suffering will end. And
so going into the race, I really expected and prepared
to be miserable for the entirety of my crossing. But
once I got out to see I had so much
fun and it really was a joyful experience. And there
(12:51):
were days, there were weeks that were slog but I
also kind of had the time of my life.
Speaker 1 (12:58):
Okay, there's a lot to uen pack there. I'm going
to start with the London thing. I think anytime somebody
achieves something like this, we completely underestimate the preparation, the
idea that you spent days and days on this boat.
Already we have to talk about the boat because people
are like, you're sleeping on the boat. This is not
like your Olympic very light boat that like I mentioned earlier,
(13:19):
Like you watch the Olympics, they're making as light and
as streamlined in a small of a boat as possible
for you. If you're going to live on this thing,
it cannot be like that. But these are very unique.
I've never seen a boat like this before. Can you
describe what this boat is and what is available on
it to you when you're not rowing.
Speaker 2 (13:40):
Yeah, the boat is twenty four feet long and it's
five feet wide, and with all of the equipment, it
weighs about one thousand pounds. And so I had to
pack eighty five days worth of supplies on this boat.
Speaker 1 (13:52):
And so you have no idea how long you're going
to be out there exactly.
Speaker 2 (13:55):
I was predicting closer to sixty days really, But we
pack all of our food that's fourth calories a day.
I had a full medkit, I had a desalinator to
make water. I had a life raft to get into
should anything happen to the boat. It's outfitted with a
chartplotter and VHF radio. So in a lot of ways,
it's this hybrid between a sailboat and the technology that
(14:16):
you would find on a sailboat and a rowing boat,
and it's it was my home. So it's designed to
carry everything that you'll need for a really long time
out at sea.
Speaker 1 (14:28):
What are you eating?
Speaker 2 (14:29):
A lot of backpacking meals? And then I had a
snack pack every day full of granola bars and candy.
Speaker 1 (14:36):
Candy I think probably would be nice, the sugar that
you would use. I think a lot of people probably
are thinking, Okay, so you have four thousand calories, there's
got to be a lot of space to put this stuff.
But like I'm trying to visualize what this kind of
like tunnel looks like around you, because you're sitting in
(14:57):
the middle part of this boat and it's got the
ores there that you're utilizing. Like a normal rowboat, right
with the sliding the sliding seat. For anybody who you
know sits on the row or at the gym or
anything like that, it's very similar. But it's like you
have these cargo spaces that you have to manage. I'm
(15:18):
sure you're very familiar with how much you could even
fit in there when you do this, do you have
a choice? Is there a supplier? Like where do you
even find eighty days worth of supplies that you think
are appropriate in because you don't know what you're gonna
need when you're out there. You could be three weeks
in and all of a sudden something happens, or you know,
(15:40):
maybe there could be you know, a craving of like
you needed more sugar or more carbs. How did you
know what you should have on the boat for gosh,
almost three months in case you're out there for that long.
Speaker 2 (15:51):
A lot of the guidance in preparation for the row
came from the world's toughest row safety team, and so
because I competed with this race with an organization, they
have guidelines for everything that you need to have on
board to make sure that the crossing is safe and successful.
And so one of the recommendations I got on food
(16:12):
is to bring a variety, have lots of different options
while you're out there, And I found that I didn't
even get hungry. I expected to be really hungry all
of the time, but I just totally lost my appetite.
So towards the end, I would you have some peanut
butter and honey, and then maybe some goldfish crackers, but
I was not eating very much towards the end.
Speaker 1 (16:32):
It sounds so kind of intuitive because everything that I know,
you know, my wife does a very good job of
like tracking her kind of her carbs or proteins, just
trying to make sure that she's hitting those macros as
close to her targets as possible. And I see how
diligent she is in doing that while at the same
time understanding that on harder workout days or you know,
(16:55):
she does crossfits, so when they're doing like open workouts
or run clubs coming out having for a five k,
that those macros change, you know, like she needs more
carbon some days, she needs more protein some days, even
some fats some days. For you know, have you ever
been like that? Have you ever been like super duper
like diligent with your own personal nutrition for any of
(17:17):
your sports or anything like that, Because, like you mentioned,
four thousand calories, I don't think people also can visualize
what that even looks like. I mean, I eat close
to maybe two thousand a day. Like if I'm staying
pretty active for what you're doing, you have four thousand available,
But do you know about like what the right expectation
of number was to just make sure you were properly fueled.
Speaker 2 (17:39):
Yeah, there were some again just very helpful guidance from
the world's toughest row And so we brought main meals
every day. So I had those dehydrated backpacking meals, which
you're actually very nutritious. They have a lot of protein,
they have vitamins, they have everything you need. And then
for snacks, it is really more about bringing food that
(17:59):
you want to eat as opposed to thinking about top
tier nutrition at sea, because if you have food out
there but you don't want to eat it or it
doesn't taste good, that's just a waste of weight on
the boat, and that's it's a waste of money, it's
a waste of time. And so for me, I I'm
not huge into nutrition. I mean, I obviously want to
(18:22):
eat healthy, but I find that when I try to
get too strict or regimented about it, I I don't know,
I just get kind of bummed out. So for me,
it's about balance.
Speaker 1 (18:34):
That was one hundred percent. Like my wife was like
starting to track, and man, she's gotten some amazing results.
Like I, she's doing pull ups for the first time.
Speaker 2 (18:45):
It's so impressive.
Speaker 1 (18:46):
It's been a like since she started doing cross It
like a decade ago. That's one thing she's always wanted
to do, and it wasn't until the last eight or
nine months that she's really been diligently tracking her food
and with her workout plan, with running you know, once
or twice a week, with her going to cross it
like four times a week, and just going on walks.
(19:07):
She's trying to get a you know, ten to twelve
thousand steps every single day. You have all of those
things that she's focusing on, and then all of a
sudden she monitor the nutrition and she's lost like forty pounds.
She wasn't even like like we didn't like she was
in shape like cardio wise and everything. But it's just
crazy how her body changed when she started paying attention
to it. And you know, you start watching that and
(19:29):
you're like, wow, that's pretty cool. I wonder if I
can do that. And I got two days in and
I'm like, I hate this. I already hate this, and
you know what, I don't care that much. I would
rather enjoy the things that I'm eating and stay as
active as I can I couldn't imagine. I'm already putting
myself in a cage for potentially three months all by
(19:49):
myself at sea, and now I have to make a
decision of like do I eat this thing? I'm not
excited to eat. I think that's a really good mess
about the balance. I was curious. I ran into a
random video of you in the middle of your row.
I was like, she's in the middle of the ocean.
(20:11):
How did she post this? So how does technology and
electricity work, and how are you able to communicate with
people beyond you know, like your radio equipment, because I'm
sure your family was just like with every single day
hoping they heard from you in some.
Speaker 2 (20:26):
Way, right, Yeah, great question. So on my boat, I
had solar panels and that's what powered all of the
electronics on the boat. And to send videos back home,
I had a starlink and it worked really well. It
was just like having Wi Fi at home, and so
I'd turn that on and then in the evenings I
would send a video to my mom, who was my
(20:46):
social media manager, and she would post on Instagram on
my behalf and that was it. I also had satellite
phones and so I could call my family using those,
so there are lots of redundancies and communicate out at sea.
I had three satellite phones. I had the starlink. I
have a began which is sort of like a starlink
but clunkier. I had the radios and there we go
(21:11):
through a lot of precautions to make sure that the
crossings are successful.
Speaker 1 (21:17):
Do you ever see other people out there? Not necessarily
just in the world's toughest row, but just like other
vessels or anything else going on. Did you see like
islands in the distance or something. I mean, I would
just think you're in this small vessel, the ocean is
moving you around, unless you you know, dropped anchor or whatever.
(21:37):
I like, just how does that work. I'm sure you
have navigation equipment pretty easily, so you like know you're
going the right direction. But it just like to me, like,
just if I'm standing in the ocean, I can feel
it from the shore, just kind of like if I
wasn't trying to stand still or to tread still, I'd
be pushed around all over the place. How did that
(21:58):
work while you were trying to go a singular direction
for days at a time.
Speaker 2 (22:05):
Yeah. The route that we take from Lagomera and the
Canary Islands to Antigua utilizes the trade winds and so
in December they're really strong and they for the most part,
will push you in the right direction. So this is
the old sailing routes that everyone used to take back
in the days before motors. And so when I wasn't rowing,
(22:28):
the boat was drifting in the right direction. Ah, yeah,
so I did get a little bit from other nature. Yeah,
but there wasn't a sail, there wasn't a motor on
my boat, but there was some drift that would happen
with the wind.
Speaker 1 (22:42):
And that makes total sense, right, Like, this is the
reason we get into boats in the first place, is
to help utilize what mother Nature's already doing. Makes complete sense. Historically,
I've read some things about some of the early battles,
like medieval battles in Europe, and that like certain countries
and leaders wanted to attack, but the winds weren't blowing
(23:03):
the right direction, and they just had no choice. They
just had to wait until mother nature like changed for
them so they could get on their boat. And to
know that something like this is utilizing the same types
of known principles is really cool, Like it's just super fascinating.
Would never have guessed that that was a thing. You're
on the boat, you're rowing. I seen some of the videos,
(23:24):
the videos that I saw because I got into a
rabbit hole and I just started scrolling through them. Some
days you seem like you're real chipper, You're like, hey,
you know what we're gonna tackle today. Some days it
looked like I am not having fun. This is not easy.
I don't know where I am. I have been out
here for days day to day, Like were there like
(23:46):
what were the moments where you felt like I really
wish I wasn't doing this right now? And what was
different about those days than when you woke up and
you were just so ready to tackle whatever the day
had to offer.
Speaker 2 (23:59):
Yeah, the most challenging days for me came about halfway through,
when the wind really picked up. We would get massive wind,
big waves and rain. It rained so much for those
last two weeks. It was just relentless and it's so
much water. It's not like anything that we experience here
(24:21):
on land. The squalls would come through and it was just.
Speaker 1 (24:23):
You trying to row through that, or are you trying
to take shelters in the boat? At that point.
Speaker 2 (24:28):
If it was during the day, I would just keep
rowing because it was raining so much that if I
stopped every time it would really slow me down.
Speaker 1 (24:35):
You would not yeah, you stuck out there for longer.
Speaker 2 (24:38):
Yeah, So I would just stick with it and row
through it. But what was so challenging is that it
would rain and then the storm would pass, but off
in the distance I could see that more was coming.
And so those days that they were just really tough.
And I think that's part of life, is that life
is just hard sometimes and sometimes you have adverse conditions
(25:01):
and it's not fun. But there was never a moment
where I would have teleported to land or stop the expedition,
because I knew going into it I wanted to get
through stuff like that, and so in the videos I
tried to just be as honest as possible about what
was happening.
Speaker 1 (25:18):
I mean, like it sounds like a diary. It really
just feels like you in that moment, are just capturing
what your emotions are. And it does feel very raw
and real in those moments, and you can absolutely tell
that sometimes like you are just really positive. In some
days it looks like you're potentially on the verge of tears.
I think that's one of the reasons why I was
(25:40):
just so I couldn't stop watching them. I just kept
and you had already been done by this point, so
I knew that you'd finished the rowe. But it's like, wow,
this is pretty like intense stuff. I can see why
people want you to come and speak about this, because
it's just like you're feeling it and you're still like
I still have to do this, and I'm still doing this.
When was the moment where you were like, I'm gonna
do this, Like I know we're almost there. I mean,
(26:04):
do you have a thing that's telling you exactly how
far left you have to go?
Speaker 2 (26:08):
Yeah, at any point I could go on my chart
blotter and see where I was in the world and
see how far away I was. I think when I
got down to single digits, or when I got down
to double digits, like one hundred mile or ninety nine
miles left, that felt really good. And then when I
could see land, see Antiga for the first time, I
(26:29):
had my face hurt from smiling so much.
Speaker 1 (26:33):
It's like seeing, you know, like when I was running
that half marathon. There was something about seeing that at
thirteen and I was like, it's the finish lanes right
over there. Yeah, you're right. I mean, it's just like
a wave of like I was hurting at that point.
You know, thirteen miles sounds like absolute child's plake compared
to what we're talking about here, like three thousand miles
(26:54):
of rowing. But I'm like my calf was, you know,
like flaring, and I could feel like a cramp come
and I might. I had like really sprained my big
toe a couple of days earlier, and that actually probably
helped my brain just kind of focused on just running
and everything just stopped hurting for like, for like a
solid five minutes as I knew I was about to
finish this race. And it's hard to explain to somebody
(27:19):
who hasn't tried to push themselves through something that you
thought you never would do. But then when you know
that you're about to do it, I don't know if
there's a better feeling on the planet than that. And
you got to that point and you see land and
there's people there, right, They they like your family. I'm
(27:40):
sure kind of knew when because they were they there
when you finished.
Speaker 2 (27:45):
Yes, my family arrived in Antiga about a week before.
Speaker 1 (27:50):
I got there, just in case you got there like ahead.
That's wow, that's you have an awesome family. That's amazing
that they went to Antigua. It's to basically catch you
at any point. And I mean, you could have been
out there for another ten days. You said you anticipated
like sixty at that point.
Speaker 2 (28:09):
They can predict within a couple days when I'm going
to arrive with the forecast and then the speed that
I'm able to maintain. But it was incredibly kind of
them to be there for so long.
Speaker 1 (28:21):
That is so great. You finish, how do you feel? Well?
Speaker 2 (28:25):
The last mile was actually one of my hardest because
I started approaching Antigua and I saw land for the
first time in forty six days, and there are these cliffs,
and I was rowing along the southern coast of the island,
but the wind was coming from the south as well,
and so as I'm rowing into land and seeing these
(28:46):
cliffs for the first time, I was terrified that I
was going to be pushed into them. And they seemed
like they were so close, and I thought that I
was second away from crashing my boat in front of
half a million people. And so I'm supposed to row
west to make it into Nelson's dockyard. But I just
started rowing deuce south because I thought, I really thought
(29:07):
I was moments away from wrecking so close to the
finish line that would have been so bad. The safety
team tried to call me, and I ignored their calls
like five or six times because I thought I just
had to row and get my boat away. And eventually
I picked up and they said, Karen, where are you going?
And I said, I have to keep rowing. I have
to keep growing. I'm gonna crash my boat. And they said,
(29:29):
you're okay, just row row west, You're gonna get there.
And so eventually the media boat came out and they
met me. They started taking some pictures, and I, you know,
made it into the dockyard. And it was odd because
there was a lot of noise as I rounded the
corner into the dockyard, and then it went completely quiet
right before I crossed the finish line and I rowed
(29:51):
through these two booys and then it just erupted with noise.
There were horns from the super yachts, there were flares.
Everyone was cheering, and I just crumpled with relief that
I had made it. And you know, then I rode
over to the dock and stepped foot on land and
it was this this high right that you can't replicate
(30:17):
under any other circumstances, but it was. It was wonderful
and probably one of the happiest moments of my life.
Speaker 1 (30:25):
Well, I just wonder anytime I've talked to people that
have really achieved something that was their goal, or a
person I'm obsessed with is Alex hanld have have you?
You know Alex Hanald the climber. He always just kind
of invents new ways to challenge himself. He's very unique
(30:46):
like you are mentally. The free solo stuff that he
does where literally a mistake means death is like he
loves that aspect of the challenge, right. And when he
did the movie for which I highly recommend to anyone
out there. You will get sweaty watching it, but it's
an incredibly well shot documentary by people with national geographic
(31:11):
and there's like a moment in there where he kind
of questions what even comes next after this He's accomplished
this thing that he's really spent years preparing for, which
that wall and that specific route in him doing it
with the no Ropes is truly the pinnacle of what
they do. I mean, like, there's no more famous rock
(31:33):
climbing wall in the world than what he has just achieved,
and it's all documented. He's never going to have anything
that is more impressive than what he has just done.
What do you do? I mean, I'm sure if it
takes a few days for you to just kind of
like revel in this. And I know you're still gosh,
barely a month and a half since you've finished, and
(31:56):
we were talking before we got on the air, you
know you're still kind of recalibrating your life at this point.
But have you thought at this point of Okay, so
how do I keep my brain moving? I'm twenty six
years old, Like I have all of my whole life
still really ahead of me to chase or achieve or
accomplish anything else. What is going through your mind of
(32:17):
what's next for you after you do something so monumental.
Speaker 2 (32:21):
I think something that's really helping me right now is
that I am still curious about everything, and I'm excited
to start learning new sports and reading and meeting new
people and starting to teach yoga again and writing a
book and taking on different iterations of adventures, and I
know that I will be swept away by another really
(32:43):
big adventure in the future. But like you said, there
will never be anything I accomplish that's as grand as
rowing across the ocean solo.
Speaker 1 (32:54):
And so in which Starry to interrupt, but we should.
I haven't mentioned this yet. You're the first first American
woman to solo cross the Atlantic Ocean, am I Is
that correct?
Speaker 2 (33:07):
I'm the first American woman to compete in the world's
toughest row as a solo athlete, Okay, And so this race,
that's an annual race, it's been going on for a while.
I was the yeah, first American woman to do it solo,
and you're the third woman American woman to do a
solo crossing of an ocean, any ocean.
Speaker 1 (33:28):
Okay, So keep that in mind while she's talking about this.
Speaker 2 (33:31):
Yeah, gentleman, So it is. You know, we're still at
the early stages of this sport. But you know there's
life is about change, life is about reinvention, and so
I'm really looking forward to the next chapter and whatever
it holds.
Speaker 1 (33:49):
You said book.
Speaker 2 (33:51):
Yes, I'm writing a book, So.
Speaker 1 (33:52):
So tell me about that, Like, what did you always
want to do that because you're a well spoken individual.
You obviously have a very very intriguing brain. You're the
kind of person that should be writing books. What inspired
the book and kind of how How does one even
start to know what they want to write about and
how they want to organize it.
Speaker 2 (34:12):
I think from a really young age, I've always I've
always loved reading, and I always considered myself a writer,
even if that was just journaling. But I knew that
I wanted to go out in the world and experience
a lot of things so I would have something to
write about. And now I do, and I'm excited to
share the adventure of the Row, but also everything that
(34:34):
led up to it, because I didn't, you know, just
jump into the road. There were lots of other adventures
that happened before then. And what I want to do
is just and like the gentlest way, encourage people to
step outside of their comfort zone, because we are not
designed to feel cozy all of the time. One of
my favorite sayings is a ship in a harbor is safe,
(34:56):
but that's not what ships are built for. We're supposed
to go out into the world and explore, and so
in this age of information where we can know anything
we want at any given point. What I want to
encourage is is curiosity and exploration spoken.
Speaker 1 (35:14):
Like a real true yoga instructor.
Speaker 2 (35:17):
I mean, yeah, I've heard very right, I've heard.
Speaker 1 (35:22):
I've heard variations of that. You know, like your brain
is your body is way stronger than your brain thinks.
It is like way you are more capable of, way
more in this moment than you think you are. As
I'm standing there in this pose, dying inside, please go
to the next thing.
Speaker 2 (35:42):
It's all stuff to fill space in a plank.
Speaker 1 (35:45):
And you want to know something, I like, you know what?
That actually is quite profound. I do feel like I
can do more and I carry that stuff around man,
like you really have to. I mean, articulating it is
one thing, but actually do it is another. It's just
like this hurts. I don't like it. This is tough.
I don't like it. It doesn't even have to be physically tough.
(36:06):
Just the world, like you mentioned, it's a tough place
and to accomplish anything, it's worth celebrating about. So do
you have another sport on my like I mentioned Alex Honold,
are you going to try to like climb up el
cap or something like, like, where do you go from here?
Speaker 2 (36:21):
I do really enjoy rock climate. I'm not sure if
that's going to be what I devote my life to.
Speaker 1 (36:27):
You need a lot of gear for that.
Speaker 2 (36:28):
You need a lot of gear, and it's just a
level of technicality that I don't think I'll be able
to achieve.
Speaker 1 (36:34):
It's more fun in the gym when you got people
helping you.
Speaker 2 (36:37):
Out, exactly. I'm really happy to just kind of bounce
around on top room. But I'd love to I'd love
to sail more. Maybe I want to take up tennis
or something. I don't know.
Speaker 1 (36:49):
You haven't taken up tennis yet.
Speaker 2 (36:50):
I've played a little bit of tennis, but never never
anything serious.
Speaker 1 (36:53):
Okay, so me and my buddy played tennis. We haven't
played yet in the spring yet. We're waiting on the
temperatures to kind of stabilize themselves. You want to talk
about we were mentioning this about running and rowing and
some of these other activities that you can just do
for a long time. Tennis is an activity Tennis and
golf or like sports, you really can play or take
(37:15):
part in in some variation your entire life, as long
as you are mobile. And I could not recommend those
sports more. I know, like Teo's go food probably it's
a country club. No, it really is, like there's something
about being able to have an activity you can get
(37:35):
yourself into at any age and still be doing it
in your seventies. There's not a lot of stuff like that,
you know what I mean. So, yeah, tennis. Tennis is
a great one and.
Speaker 2 (37:46):
So good for you as well. It's so so good
for longevity and for your brain health as you continue
to get older. There's amazing science out there about your preaching.
Speaker 1 (37:56):
Preach baby preach.
Speaker 2 (37:57):
Yeah, it's the best. So I'm excited to do more sports.
They're games because I've done so many endurance things. Now
I want to go and play with people.
Speaker 1 (38:05):
Yeah, let's keep score about something, you know. Okay, so
how can people You got a website, you have social media,
and I hope people who are listening to this want, like,
are curious about these videos because you really should go
back and you know, watch these. You can just watch
them like reels on on Instagram. But how can people
find these and you know, kind of continue to familiarize
(38:26):
themselves with what you got going on.
Speaker 2 (38:28):
Yeah, my Instagram handle is tern Smith Movement t A
R y N. And my website is the same name.
Speaker 1 (38:35):
Terren Smith Movement, and make sure that so why in
Arran I've said your name to so many people like
I'm getting to talk to Terrence Smith and the spelling
of Terran has caught them, and like I have no
idea who we're talking.
Speaker 2 (38:46):
About any spots that football player.
Speaker 1 (38:50):
No much more impressive and no disrespect to football players.
You are fantastic. This was great. Thank you so much
for stopping in. I don't know how long you're going
to be around Omaha before you decide to go on
another crazy adventure, but we are blessed to have you.
We'd love to have you back on this podcast and
we can talk about some other stuff sometime. But thank
you so much for giving us some of your time.
(39:11):
Congratulations on this incredible achievement and I can't wait to
see what's next for Terren Smith.
Speaker 2 (39:17):
Likewise, thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 1 (39:20):
And if you enjoyed this conversation in any other conversation
you've heard so far, you need to stay locked in
subscribe to this podcast Emory Songer Podcast. We will continue
to upload this each and every day throughout the weeks
and I am going to Ireland next week, so we
will have to miss a couple of weeks. But just
stay locked and you never know who we're going to
talk to. We appreciate you for listening. Follow me Emory
(39:41):
Songer Radio on Facebook and at Emorysonger on Instagram and
X and he will talk to you next time. Have
a great day.
It is the Every Songer podcast, and you are tuned
in live across the iHeartRadio app. We appreciate you for
tuning in as always, and my mission for this show,
now that I have turned it into a full fledged
Omaha related podcast, is to talk about as many interesting
things in people as I could possibly find. And I
don't know how exactly I discovered this in January, but
(00:31):
I saw that there was a young woman from the
Omaha area who was in a boat rowing across the
Atlantic Ocean, and it took some time for me to
figure out, Okay, so what even is this? And eventually
I was able to track down that this is Terren Smith,
(00:52):
and I have tracked her down, who's no longer in
a boat on the Atlantic Ocean, but instead he is
back in Omaha and she is actually sitting next thanks
to me in the studio today, Tarren. This is absolutely
an honor. Thank you so much for coming in and
being on the show today.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
Thank you so much for having me, happy to be here.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
Let's go ahead, and just first of all, you we
need to kind of set the stage here. Omaha born
and raised.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
Correct, I am from Omaha, grew up here, I went
to Millard's out high school and then went to Nebraska Wesleyan.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
University Nebraska Wesleyan, so college you stayed in Nebraska as well.
Millard South quite the football powerhouse these days. So I
think a lot of people are just like, man, they
got a lot of stuff going on. And I mentioned
rowing a boat. We'll get to the rowing in a second.
But anybody who takes on something like this, which is
just an insane challenge, I'm not sure even point zero
(01:43):
zero zero one percent of people think to do anything
this physically taxing. What was your athletic background and upbringing,
because you really have to have a different mindset to
even try to tackle a challenge like this.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
Yeah, I think that I've always been very curious about everything.
So growing up, I played a lot of sports. I
was a competitive figure skater.
Speaker 1 (02:05):
Oh and nice, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
I loved that sport.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
And then I'm like artistic with the athleticism, I mean exactly,
I okay, well I'm shelving that we're gonna need to
talk about that exactly.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
Figure skating is a very intense sport. I dabbled in basketball,
little softball, ran cross country and high school, and have
always practiced yoga. So I just love all things movement.
I love watching sports. I love going to baseball games
and hockey games and basketball and football. And I think
part of that is being a Nebraskan as well.
Speaker 1 (02:40):
I love how eclectic. A lot of that is because
you talk to people, especially women, and you know, there's
really like a lane that they go toward, whether it's volleyball, basketball, softball.
And I think they started specializing in sports a little
bit more than the guys did. The guys are very
specialized now in a lot of these sports. But when
(03:02):
you were really good at hitting the softball, you just
loved hitting the softball. And that was one thing when
I was I came from a sports broadcasting background. When
you would see an athlete, because there's usually one in
every class, or maybe two in every class, and the
teams I would cover that, their name would pop up
on softball, and they would pop up on basketball, and
it would pop up on volleyball, track and field, maybe
(03:26):
even tennis. They tried swimming, and you're just like those
that person has made differently for you. Was there any
sport you mentioned loving all this and attending and watching,
but you know, participating. Was there any kind of activity
among those that really just kind of felt like your
(03:46):
happy place, like the happiest of places as you were
growing up.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
I found so much joy in community and cross country
and the funny thing, I was never a particularly fast runner,
but I I love showing up for practice. I love
the people that I met through the sport, and I
loved practicing endurance, which is of course something that I've
brought with me to the Atlantic Row. So after high
school I started running more and more and doing longer
(04:13):
distances and eventually got into marathons prior to ocean rowing.
But you you really just do meet the best people
in cross country.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
I started to go to run club here, the Exarbon
Run Club, and my history with running, I feel like
this is an important conversation to have. I am kind
of mentally feeble when it comes to pain, and I
love yoga, but the yoga that I do is intermittent.
(04:45):
I'm not like religious about it, and the mental aspect
I've gotten way more out of than the physical aspect.
I am the kind of guy I really need a
trick myself to like stay in those poses for a
long time, and run just seemed like voluntary torture. I
didn't understand why anyone wanted to do that, Like, why
(05:05):
are you running eight kilometers? Like that doesn't compute to me.
That makes no sense to me. Your training run is
like ten miles, I'm gonna pass, but thanks for the offer, right,
Like I don't. I didn't get it. I went and
I started recording a podcast for the IMT to Wine Marathon,
probably like five years ago or so, maybe a little
bit before. And when I was recording that podcast, I
(05:27):
started to understand like the depths of just like organized
running and how passionate people were when they were involved
in clubs. I got it. I got the itch. I decided.
I was like, I need to see. I went to
the marathon and I saw the people finishing the half marathon,
full marathon, even the relay, and the sense of joy
that seemed to give them as they finished and accomplished
(05:49):
this thing. It's like, I've never really committed myself to
accomplishing something like that, especially something that requires endurance, which
your brain is as important as you know your fitness is.
And when I did the half marathon, I it was
a euphoria I did not anticipate because I didn't like
the training that much I knew I wouldn't. I didn't
(06:11):
really stick to a super strict dietary plan until like
two weeks before, kind of carbon up and getting ready
for the race. I just mentally was kind of like,
I want to get through this and that's probably the
end of my running career. I wanted to see what
it was like. What I didn't understand was how amazing
it would feel when I was out there with six
(06:31):
thousand other people and we're all trying to do the
same thing, and then what it felt like to actually
accomplish that. How do you describe that for somebody like yourself,
where it seems like that's the carrot in front of you.
You want that challenge, You're you're kind of pursuing that
type of mental challenge.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
Yes, I think it's really it is the way that
I live. I've always practiced yoga, and something that pops
up a lot is learning to be comfortable in an
uncomfortable situation. And so for me, endurance sports and the
Ocean Row really is a meditation on learning to be
comfortable in those really challenging situations and understanding that everything passes.
(07:13):
And you know, we live in a culture of so
much convenience and comfort, and we're being sold so many
things that we're told will make our lives easier. But
I think there's something to be said for going out
there and challenging yourself and sweating and working hard and
pushing past that pain. Because on the other side, like
you said, is that euphoria.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
How old are you going to ask? I'm twenty six,
so you I mean, you are still a young person
and you're capitalizing on your physicality. But every single thing
that we're talking about here is stuff that people can
do as they age, which is the one thing that
I think has attracted me to stay with running. I
(07:55):
go to run Club. There's like two hundred people that
show up to the sixarbon run Club. I love going there,
and if you haven't, you should I will.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
I'm so excited to hear about this because I've been
looking for more group based sports. This is great.
Speaker 1 (08:07):
We're like, we're like a week or two away maybe
from Wednesday nights being run club nights. Again. My wife
hated the concept of running, especially with people very self conscious.
She's a CrossFit athlete, even in the gym, you know,
she was just like not sure about you know, she
doesn't want people seeing her form and she just is
(08:27):
thinking that nobody but you know, and you know this,
nobody's looking at the way you're doing whatever. You know,
it's just like a thing you have to trick yourself
out of and you start going and you're with two
hundred other people, and all of a sudden she fell
in love with it and that became a Wednesday thing
for her. And then she just finally set a pr
that she set for herself for a five k and
to see what her reaction for that was really just
(08:49):
reminds you of like how beautiful this is, but the
community aspect of it is what drove her to that point.
For rowing, it's a little different because I watched the
Olympic rowing and they got boats. There's nine people in
those boats, or there's four people in those boats. A
lot of times there's two people in those boats. I
don't usually see, you know, in a lot of these
(09:11):
singular boats. I mean they're sprinting and the race is
over in a few minutes. And I see what you
were doing, and let me get the number here real quick.
And I hate being this guy because you know, what
do you want from me? What is it like forty
six days.
Speaker 2 (09:31):
Forty six days out at sea by myself.
Speaker 1 (09:33):
Forty six days in a boat on the ocean by yourself,
and people are probably just like, Okay, there's no way, right,
So we have to talk about It's called the world's
toughest row, and there are aspects to this. It's not
like you just decided you were going to jump in
(09:54):
one of these skulls that you could find at the
boat house and just decide you were going to row
across the ocean. How did you even learn about this?
Did you have a history of rowing? Like, what was
the what was the whole thing of you know, kind
of transitioning from kind of a running cross country background
with you know, kind of a yoga emphasis with your
muscular kind of practicing and now all of a sudden,
(10:16):
it's like cardio, muscles, discipline, rhythm, like all that stuff
is necessary for this sport. Did you have an experience
with throwing before that you were like, I really kind
of love doing this.
Speaker 2 (10:27):
Now I read about ocean rowing and an article in Vogue,
and so I think in Vogue I read about a
team of women that did the Pacific and they got
a world record and something about ocean rowing really tugged
at me. I loved the idea of going on a
grand adventure. I loved the idea of endurance sports, obviously,
(10:49):
and so I looked into the sport more and I
realized that some people do an ocean crossing with no
rowing experience, and so I signed up and tallenging, yeah exactly.
I'd run out of things that scared me. So I
signed up and then spent about three years in preparation
getting ready for it. So a lot of time at
the gym, a lot of time training, so there was
(11:12):
quite a big lead up getting to the start line.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
So this was not Hey, I'm Terrence Smith, I'm a
great athlete. I see this world's toughest roll, bring it on,
and then two months later you're in the boat. This
was you've thought you planned. What does a training look
like when you're trying to prepare your brain and your
body for forty six days of solitary confinement on a
(11:38):
small vessel while you have unpredictable waters in weather around you.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
Yes, the training was intense. So the first year I
really focused on working out in the gym. I had
a strength and conditioning coach based out of London and
he would send me work out, so I would do
two days of lifting, three days of rowing indoors, and
then cross training. And then I took courses and learned
about sea navigation and survival and first aid. And then
(12:09):
the year leading up to the row, I actually lived
on my boat for a collective seven weeks in England
and I rowed up and down a river. I would
drop anchor and sleep out on the boat and the
river overnight rode out into the North Sea. And the
mental preparation was really focused in yoga, understanding that everything passes,
(12:30):
knowing that life is impermanent and suffering will end. And
so going into the race, I really expected and prepared
to be miserable for the entirety of my crossing. But
once I got out to see I had so much
fun and it really was a joyful experience. And there
(12:51):
were days, there were weeks that were slog but I
also kind of had the time of my life.
Speaker 1 (12:58):
Okay, there's a lot to uen pack there. I'm going
to start with the London thing. I think anytime somebody
achieves something like this, we completely underestimate the preparation, the
idea that you spent days and days on this boat.
Already we have to talk about the boat because people
are like, you're sleeping on the boat. This is not
like your Olympic very light boat that like I mentioned earlier,
(13:19):
Like you watch the Olympics, they're making as light and
as streamlined in a small of a boat as possible
for you. If you're going to live on this thing,
it cannot be like that. But these are very unique.
I've never seen a boat like this before. Can you
describe what this boat is and what is available on
it to you when you're not rowing.
Speaker 2 (13:40):
Yeah, the boat is twenty four feet long and it's
five feet wide, and with all of the equipment, it
weighs about one thousand pounds. And so I had to
pack eighty five days worth of supplies on this boat.
Speaker 1 (13:52):
And so you have no idea how long you're going
to be out there exactly.
Speaker 2 (13:55):
I was predicting closer to sixty days really, But we
pack all of our food that's fourth calories a day.
I had a full medkit, I had a desalinator to
make water. I had a life raft to get into
should anything happen to the boat. It's outfitted with a
chartplotter and VHF radio. So in a lot of ways,
it's this hybrid between a sailboat and the technology that
(14:16):
you would find on a sailboat and a rowing boat,
and it's it was my home. So it's designed to
carry everything that you'll need for a really long time
out at sea.
Speaker 1 (14:28):
What are you eating?
Speaker 2 (14:29):
A lot of backpacking meals? And then I had a
snack pack every day full of granola bars and candy.
Speaker 1 (14:36):
Candy I think probably would be nice, the sugar that
you would use. I think a lot of people probably
are thinking, Okay, so you have four thousand calories, there's
got to be a lot of space to put this stuff.
But like I'm trying to visualize what this kind of
like tunnel looks like around you, because you're sitting in
(14:57):
the middle part of this boat and it's got the
ores there that you're utilizing. Like a normal rowboat, right
with the sliding the sliding seat. For anybody who you
know sits on the row or at the gym or
anything like that, it's very similar. But it's like you
have these cargo spaces that you have to manage. I'm
(15:18):
sure you're very familiar with how much you could even
fit in there when you do this, do you have
a choice? Is there a supplier? Like where do you
even find eighty days worth of supplies that you think
are appropriate in because you don't know what you're gonna
need when you're out there. You could be three weeks
in and all of a sudden something happens, or you know,
(15:40):
maybe there could be you know, a craving of like
you needed more sugar or more carbs. How did you
know what you should have on the boat for gosh,
almost three months in case you're out there for that long.
Speaker 2 (15:51):
A lot of the guidance in preparation for the row
came from the world's toughest row safety team, and so
because I competed with this race with an organization, they
have guidelines for everything that you need to have on
board to make sure that the crossing is safe and successful.
And so one of the recommendations I got on food
(16:12):
is to bring a variety, have lots of different options
while you're out there, And I found that I didn't
even get hungry. I expected to be really hungry all
of the time, but I just totally lost my appetite.
So towards the end, I would you have some peanut
butter and honey, and then maybe some goldfish crackers, but
I was not eating very much towards the end.
Speaker 1 (16:32):
It sounds so kind of intuitive because everything that I know,
you know, my wife does a very good job of
like tracking her kind of her carbs or proteins, just
trying to make sure that she's hitting those macros as
close to her targets as possible. And I see how
diligent she is in doing that while at the same
time understanding that on harder workout days or you know,
(16:55):
she does crossfits, so when they're doing like open workouts
or run clubs coming out having for a five k,
that those macros change, you know, like she needs more
carbon some days, she needs more protein some days, even
some fats some days. For you know, have you ever
been like that? Have you ever been like super duper
like diligent with your own personal nutrition for any of
(17:17):
your sports or anything like that, Because, like you mentioned,
four thousand calories, I don't think people also can visualize
what that even looks like. I mean, I eat close
to maybe two thousand a day. Like if I'm staying
pretty active for what you're doing, you have four thousand available,
But do you know about like what the right expectation
of number was to just make sure you were properly fueled.
Speaker 2 (17:39):
Yeah, there were some again just very helpful guidance from
the world's toughest row And so we brought main meals
every day. So I had those dehydrated backpacking meals, which
you're actually very nutritious. They have a lot of protein,
they have vitamins, they have everything you need. And then
for snacks, it is really more about bringing food that
(17:59):
you want to eat as opposed to thinking about top
tier nutrition at sea, because if you have food out
there but you don't want to eat it or it
doesn't taste good, that's just a waste of weight on
the boat, and that's it's a waste of money, it's
a waste of time. And so for me, I I'm
not huge into nutrition. I mean, I obviously want to
(18:22):
eat healthy, but I find that when I try to
get too strict or regimented about it, I I don't know,
I just get kind of bummed out. So for me,
it's about balance.
Speaker 1 (18:34):
That was one hundred percent. Like my wife was like
starting to track, and man, she's gotten some amazing results.
Like I, she's doing pull ups for the first time.
Speaker 2 (18:45):
It's so impressive.
Speaker 1 (18:46):
It's been a like since she started doing cross It
like a decade ago. That's one thing she's always wanted
to do, and it wasn't until the last eight or
nine months that she's really been diligently tracking her food
and with her workout plan, with running you know, once
or twice a week, with her going to cross it
like four times a week, and just going on walks.
(19:07):
She's trying to get a you know, ten to twelve
thousand steps every single day. You have all of those
things that she's focusing on, and then all of a
sudden she monitor the nutrition and she's lost like forty pounds.
She wasn't even like like we didn't like she was
in shape like cardio wise and everything. But it's just
crazy how her body changed when she started paying attention
to it. And you know, you start watching that and
(19:29):
you're like, wow, that's pretty cool. I wonder if I
can do that. And I got two days in and
I'm like, I hate this. I already hate this, and
you know what, I don't care that much. I would
rather enjoy the things that I'm eating and stay as
active as I can I couldn't imagine. I'm already putting
myself in a cage for potentially three months all by
(19:49):
myself at sea, and now I have to make a
decision of like do I eat this thing? I'm not
excited to eat. I think that's a really good mess
about the balance. I was curious. I ran into a
random video of you in the middle of your row.
I was like, she's in the middle of the ocean.
(20:11):
How did she post this? So how does technology and
electricity work, and how are you able to communicate with
people beyond you know, like your radio equipment, because I'm
sure your family was just like with every single day
hoping they heard from you in some.
Speaker 2 (20:26):
Way, right, Yeah, great question. So on my boat, I
had solar panels and that's what powered all of the
electronics on the boat. And to send videos back home,
I had a starlink and it worked really well. It
was just like having Wi Fi at home, and so
I'd turn that on and then in the evenings I
would send a video to my mom, who was my
(20:46):
social media manager, and she would post on Instagram on
my behalf and that was it. I also had satellite
phones and so I could call my family using those,
so there are lots of redundancies and communicate out at sea.
I had three satellite phones. I had the starlink. I
have a began which is sort of like a starlink
but clunkier. I had the radios and there we go
(21:11):
through a lot of precautions to make sure that the
crossings are successful.
Speaker 1 (21:17):
Do you ever see other people out there? Not necessarily
just in the world's toughest row, but just like other
vessels or anything else going on. Did you see like
islands in the distance or something. I mean, I would
just think you're in this small vessel, the ocean is
moving you around, unless you you know, dropped anchor or whatever.
(21:37):
I like, just how does that work. I'm sure you
have navigation equipment pretty easily, so you like know you're
going the right direction. But it just like to me, like,
just if I'm standing in the ocean, I can feel
it from the shore, just kind of like if I
wasn't trying to stand still or to tread still, I'd
be pushed around all over the place. How did that
(21:58):
work while you were trying to go a singular direction
for days at a time.
Speaker 2 (22:05):
Yeah. The route that we take from Lagomera and the
Canary Islands to Antigua utilizes the trade winds and so
in December they're really strong and they for the most part,
will push you in the right direction. So this is
the old sailing routes that everyone used to take back
in the days before motors. And so when I wasn't rowing,
(22:28):
the boat was drifting in the right direction. Ah, yeah,
so I did get a little bit from other nature. Yeah,
but there wasn't a sail, there wasn't a motor on
my boat, but there was some drift that would happen
with the wind.
Speaker 1 (22:42):
And that makes total sense, right, Like, this is the
reason we get into boats in the first place, is
to help utilize what mother Nature's already doing. Makes complete sense. Historically,
I've read some things about some of the early battles,
like medieval battles in Europe, and that like certain countries
and leaders wanted to attack, but the winds weren't blowing
(23:03):
the right direction, and they just had no choice. They
just had to wait until mother nature like changed for
them so they could get on their boat. And to
know that something like this is utilizing the same types
of known principles is really cool, Like it's just super fascinating.
Would never have guessed that that was a thing. You're
on the boat, you're rowing. I seen some of the videos,
(23:24):
the videos that I saw because I got into a
rabbit hole and I just started scrolling through them. Some
days you seem like you're real chipper, You're like, hey,
you know what we're gonna tackle today. Some days it
looked like I am not having fun. This is not easy.
I don't know where I am. I have been out
here for days day to day, Like were there like
(23:46):
what were the moments where you felt like I really
wish I wasn't doing this right now? And what was
different about those days than when you woke up and
you were just so ready to tackle whatever the day
had to offer.
Speaker 2 (23:59):
Yeah, the most challenging days for me came about halfway through,
when the wind really picked up. We would get massive wind,
big waves and rain. It rained so much for those
last two weeks. It was just relentless and it's so
much water. It's not like anything that we experience here
(24:21):
on land. The squalls would come through and it was just.
Speaker 1 (24:23):
You trying to row through that, or are you trying
to take shelters in the boat? At that point.
Speaker 2 (24:28):
If it was during the day, I would just keep
rowing because it was raining so much that if I
stopped every time it would really slow me down.
Speaker 1 (24:35):
You would not yeah, you stuck out there for longer.
Speaker 2 (24:38):
Yeah, So I would just stick with it and row
through it. But what was so challenging is that it
would rain and then the storm would pass, but off
in the distance I could see that more was coming.
And so those days that they were just really tough.
And I think that's part of life, is that life
is just hard sometimes and sometimes you have adverse conditions
(25:01):
and it's not fun. But there was never a moment
where I would have teleported to land or stop the expedition,
because I knew going into it I wanted to get
through stuff like that, and so in the videos I
tried to just be as honest as possible about what
was happening.
Speaker 1 (25:18):
I mean, like it sounds like a diary. It really
just feels like you in that moment, are just capturing
what your emotions are. And it does feel very raw
and real in those moments, and you can absolutely tell
that sometimes like you are just really positive. In some
days it looks like you're potentially on the verge of tears.
I think that's one of the reasons why I was
(25:40):
just so I couldn't stop watching them. I just kept
and you had already been done by this point, so
I knew that you'd finished the rowe. But it's like, wow,
this is pretty like intense stuff. I can see why
people want you to come and speak about this, because
it's just like you're feeling it and you're still like
I still have to do this, and I'm still doing this.
When was the moment where you were like, I'm gonna
do this, Like I know we're almost there. I mean,
(26:04):
do you have a thing that's telling you exactly how
far left you have to go?
Speaker 2 (26:08):
Yeah, at any point I could go on my chart
blotter and see where I was in the world and
see how far away I was. I think when I
got down to single digits, or when I got down
to double digits, like one hundred mile or ninety nine
miles left, that felt really good. And then when I
could see land, see Antiga for the first time, I
(26:29):
had my face hurt from smiling so much.
Speaker 1 (26:33):
It's like seeing, you know, like when I was running
that half marathon. There was something about seeing that at
thirteen and I was like, it's the finish lanes right
over there. Yeah, you're right. I mean, it's just like
a wave of like I was hurting at that point.
You know, thirteen miles sounds like absolute child's plake compared
to what we're talking about here, like three thousand miles
(26:54):
of rowing. But I'm like my calf was, you know,
like flaring, and I could feel like a cramp come
and I might. I had like really sprained my big
toe a couple of days earlier, and that actually probably
helped my brain just kind of focused on just running
and everything just stopped hurting for like, for like a
solid five minutes as I knew I was about to
finish this race. And it's hard to explain to somebody
(27:19):
who hasn't tried to push themselves through something that you
thought you never would do. But then when you know
that you're about to do it, I don't know if
there's a better feeling on the planet than that. And
you got to that point and you see land and
there's people there, right, They they like your family. I'm
(27:40):
sure kind of knew when because they were they there
when you finished.
Speaker 2 (27:45):
Yes, my family arrived in Antiga about a week before.
Speaker 1 (27:50):
I got there, just in case you got there like ahead.
That's wow, that's you have an awesome family. That's amazing
that they went to Antigua. It's to basically catch you
at any point. And I mean, you could have been
out there for another ten days. You said you anticipated
like sixty at that point.
Speaker 2 (28:09):
They can predict within a couple days when I'm going
to arrive with the forecast and then the speed that
I'm able to maintain. But it was incredibly kind of
them to be there for so long.
Speaker 1 (28:21):
That is so great. You finish, how do you feel? Well?
Speaker 2 (28:25):
The last mile was actually one of my hardest because
I started approaching Antigua and I saw land for the
first time in forty six days, and there are these cliffs,
and I was rowing along the southern coast of the island,
but the wind was coming from the south as well,
and so as I'm rowing into land and seeing these
(28:46):
cliffs for the first time, I was terrified that I
was going to be pushed into them. And they seemed
like they were so close, and I thought that I
was second away from crashing my boat in front of
half a million people. And so I'm supposed to row
west to make it into Nelson's dockyard. But I just
started rowing deuce south because I thought, I really thought
(29:07):
I was moments away from wrecking so close to the
finish line that would have been so bad. The safety
team tried to call me, and I ignored their calls
like five or six times because I thought I just
had to row and get my boat away. And eventually
I picked up and they said, Karen, where are you going?
And I said, I have to keep rowing. I have
to keep growing. I'm gonna crash my boat. And they said,
(29:29):
you're okay, just row row west, You're gonna get there.
And so eventually the media boat came out and they
met me. They started taking some pictures, and I, you know,
made it into the dockyard. And it was odd because
there was a lot of noise as I rounded the
corner into the dockyard, and then it went completely quiet
right before I crossed the finish line and I rowed
(29:51):
through these two booys and then it just erupted with noise.
There were horns from the super yachts, there were flares.
Everyone was cheering, and I just crumpled with relief that
I had made it. And you know, then I rode
over to the dock and stepped foot on land and
it was this this high right that you can't replicate
(30:17):
under any other circumstances, but it was. It was wonderful
and probably one of the happiest moments of my life.
Speaker 1 (30:25):
Well, I just wonder anytime I've talked to people that
have really achieved something that was their goal, or a
person I'm obsessed with is Alex hanld have have you?
You know Alex Hanald the climber. He always just kind
of invents new ways to challenge himself. He's very unique
(30:46):
like you are mentally. The free solo stuff that he
does where literally a mistake means death is like he
loves that aspect of the challenge, right. And when he
did the movie for which I highly recommend to anyone
out there. You will get sweaty watching it, but it's
an incredibly well shot documentary by people with national geographic
(31:11):
and there's like a moment in there where he kind
of questions what even comes next after this He's accomplished
this thing that he's really spent years preparing for, which
that wall and that specific route in him doing it
with the no Ropes is truly the pinnacle of what
they do. I mean, like, there's no more famous rock
(31:33):
climbing wall in the world than what he has just achieved,
and it's all documented. He's never going to have anything
that is more impressive than what he has just done.
What do you do? I mean, I'm sure if it
takes a few days for you to just kind of
like revel in this. And I know you're still gosh,
barely a month and a half since you've finished, and
(31:56):
we were talking before we got on the air, you
know you're still kind of recalibrating your life at this point.
But have you thought at this point of Okay, so
how do I keep my brain moving? I'm twenty six
years old, Like I have all of my whole life
still really ahead of me to chase or achieve or
accomplish anything else. What is going through your mind of
(32:17):
what's next for you after you do something so monumental.
Speaker 2 (32:21):
I think something that's really helping me right now is
that I am still curious about everything, and I'm excited
to start learning new sports and reading and meeting new
people and starting to teach yoga again and writing a
book and taking on different iterations of adventures, and I
know that I will be swept away by another really
(32:43):
big adventure in the future. But like you said, there
will never be anything I accomplish that's as grand as
rowing across the ocean solo.
Speaker 1 (32:54):
And so in which Starry to interrupt, but we should.
I haven't mentioned this yet. You're the first first American
woman to solo cross the Atlantic Ocean, am I Is
that correct?
Speaker 2 (33:07):
I'm the first American woman to compete in the world's
toughest row as a solo athlete, Okay, And so this race,
that's an annual race, it's been going on for a while.
I was the yeah, first American woman to do it solo,
and you're the third woman American woman to do a
solo crossing of an ocean, any ocean.
Speaker 1 (33:28):
Okay, So keep that in mind while she's talking about this.
Speaker 2 (33:31):
Yeah, gentleman, So it is. You know, we're still at
the early stages of this sport. But you know there's
life is about change, life is about reinvention, and so
I'm really looking forward to the next chapter and whatever
it holds.
Speaker 1 (33:49):
You said book.
Speaker 2 (33:51):
Yes, I'm writing a book, So.
Speaker 1 (33:52):
So tell me about that, Like, what did you always
want to do that because you're a well spoken individual.
You obviously have a very very intriguing brain. You're the
kind of person that should be writing books. What inspired
the book and kind of how How does one even
start to know what they want to write about and
how they want to organize it.
Speaker 2 (34:12):
I think from a really young age, I've always I've
always loved reading, and I always considered myself a writer,
even if that was just journaling. But I knew that
I wanted to go out in the world and experience
a lot of things so I would have something to
write about. And now I do, and I'm excited to
share the adventure of the Row, but also everything that
(34:34):
led up to it, because I didn't, you know, just
jump into the road. There were lots of other adventures
that happened before then. And what I want to do
is just and like the gentlest way, encourage people to
step outside of their comfort zone, because we are not
designed to feel cozy all of the time. One of
my favorite sayings is a ship in a harbor is safe,
(34:56):
but that's not what ships are built for. We're supposed
to go out into the world and explore, and so
in this age of information where we can know anything
we want at any given point. What I want to
encourage is is curiosity and exploration spoken.
Speaker 1 (35:14):
Like a real true yoga instructor.
Speaker 2 (35:17):
I mean, yeah, I've heard very right, I've heard.
Speaker 1 (35:22):
I've heard variations of that. You know, like your brain
is your body is way stronger than your brain thinks.
It is like way you are more capable of, way
more in this moment than you think you are. As
I'm standing there in this pose, dying inside, please go
to the next thing.
Speaker 2 (35:42):
It's all stuff to fill space in a plank.
Speaker 1 (35:45):
And you want to know something, I like, you know what?
That actually is quite profound. I do feel like I
can do more and I carry that stuff around man,
like you really have to. I mean, articulating it is
one thing, but actually do it is another. It's just
like this hurts. I don't like it. This is tough.
I don't like it. It doesn't even have to be physically tough.
(36:06):
Just the world, like you mentioned, it's a tough place
and to accomplish anything, it's worth celebrating about. So do
you have another sport on my like I mentioned Alex Honold,
are you going to try to like climb up el
cap or something like, like, where do you go from here?
Speaker 2 (36:21):
I do really enjoy rock climate. I'm not sure if
that's going to be what I devote my life to.
Speaker 1 (36:27):
You need a lot of gear for that.
Speaker 2 (36:28):
You need a lot of gear, and it's just a
level of technicality that I don't think I'll be able
to achieve.
Speaker 1 (36:34):
It's more fun in the gym when you got people
helping you.
Speaker 2 (36:37):
Out, exactly. I'm really happy to just kind of bounce
around on top room. But I'd love to I'd love
to sail more. Maybe I want to take up tennis
or something. I don't know.
Speaker 1 (36:49):
You haven't taken up tennis yet.
Speaker 2 (36:50):
I've played a little bit of tennis, but never never
anything serious.
Speaker 1 (36:53):
Okay, so me and my buddy played tennis. We haven't
played yet in the spring yet. We're waiting on the
temperatures to kind of stabilize themselves. You want to talk
about we were mentioning this about running and rowing and
some of these other activities that you can just do
for a long time. Tennis is an activity Tennis and
golf or like sports, you really can play or take
(37:15):
part in in some variation your entire life, as long
as you are mobile. And I could not recommend those
sports more. I know, like Teo's go food probably it's
a country club. No, it really is, like there's something
about being able to have an activity you can get
(37:35):
yourself into at any age and still be doing it
in your seventies. There's not a lot of stuff like that,
you know what I mean. So, yeah, tennis. Tennis is
a great one and.
Speaker 2 (37:46):
So good for you as well. It's so so good
for longevity and for your brain health as you continue
to get older. There's amazing science out there about your preaching.
Speaker 1 (37:56):
Preach baby preach.
Speaker 2 (37:57):
Yeah, it's the best. So I'm excited to do more sports.
They're games because I've done so many endurance things. Now
I want to go and play with people.
Speaker 1 (38:05):
Yeah, let's keep score about something, you know. Okay, so
how can people You got a website, you have social media,
and I hope people who are listening to this want, like,
are curious about these videos because you really should go
back and you know, watch these. You can just watch
them like reels on on Instagram. But how can people
find these and you know, kind of continue to familiarize
(38:26):
themselves with what you got going on.
Speaker 2 (38:28):
Yeah, my Instagram handle is tern Smith Movement t A
R y N. And my website is the same name.
Speaker 1 (38:35):
Terren Smith Movement, and make sure that so why in
Arran I've said your name to so many people like
I'm getting to talk to Terrence Smith and the spelling
of Terran has caught them, and like I have no
idea who we're talking.
Speaker 2 (38:46):
About any spots that football player.
Speaker 1 (38:50):
No much more impressive and no disrespect to football players.
You are fantastic. This was great. Thank you so much
for stopping in. I don't know how long you're going
to be around Omaha before you decide to go on
another crazy adventure, but we are blessed to have you.
We'd love to have you back on this podcast and
we can talk about some other stuff sometime. But thank
you so much for giving us some of your time.
(39:11):
Congratulations on this incredible achievement and I can't wait to
see what's next for Terren Smith.
Speaker 2 (39:17):
Likewise, thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 1 (39:20):
And if you enjoyed this conversation in any other conversation
you've heard so far, you need to stay locked in
subscribe to this podcast Emory Songer Podcast. We will continue
to upload this each and every day throughout the weeks
and I am going to Ireland next week, so we
will have to miss a couple of weeks. But just
stay locked and you never know who we're going to
talk to. We appreciate you for listening. Follow me Emory
(39:41):
Songer Radio on Facebook and at Emorysonger on Instagram and
X and he will talk to you next time. Have
a great day.
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