Rower fights bigger battle

by Art Thiel, Seattle Post Intelligencer on 7 May 2006 Tall, fit, striking, articulate, Marah Connole is the paradigm of a University of Washington rower, a woman of a kind who are destined to fill executive offices, medical clinics, the State Department and any jobs that need to be done well by the focused and strong.

Except that now and then, she can use a little help opening a jar, or buttoning her pants.

Connole, a 22-year-old senior, will be in the bow of the UW women's eight in Saturday's Windermere Cup, the 20th annual race that highlights Opening Day, the nautical tryst the school and city have with boats, speed and wetness.

She and the UW will be up against the Russian national crew, a world-class outfit of oar-thrashers older, stronger and more experienced.

For Connole, it might be the second-toughest fight of her day, following the chore of getting out of bed with rheumatoid arthritis.

A so-far incurable disease that affects more than 2 million Americans, 70 percent women, RA is described on the Arthritis Foundation Web site as an inflammation of the lining of the joints, leading to long-term joint damage, resulting in chronic pain, loss of function and disability.

'During workouts last fall a year ago, I had soreness in my wrist, which was diagnosed at first as tendinitis,' she said this week over lunch at the Conibear Shellhouse. 'But I had tenderness in my feet, and I didn't know why my knees were sore.'

A series of tests finally found the problem.

'It was a shock,' she said. 'When you're young, you feel invulnerable. For someone to tell me that I have a chronic disease, and there's no cure for it ... that's tough.'

The diagnosis provoked a flashback. During a sophomore biology glass, she saw a photo in a book showing an X-ray of a hand with gnarled fingers and swollen joints.

'I remembered that grotesque picture, and it stayed with me,' she said. 'But my rheumatologist explained it doesn't have to be that way. There's new drugs, new research, and it's very unlikely that would happen. 'But he also said my arthritis is a very aggressive case.'

The case found a very aggressive adversary.

'A lot of kids, a hurdle like this will take them down,' said Eleanor McElvaine, in her third season as women's coach. 'They get it in their heads that they can't do the work after the diagnosis. Marah's mindset was completely different. It was: 'I really want to row. What do I have to do?'

'That's a great athlete.'

Connole is on a regimen of anti-inflammatories and other drugs that have helped her endure a full academic schedule toward a degree in psychology, as well as the cruelties of pre-dawn workouts on blustery Lake Washington that have been the crucible for generations of UW rowers.

'Being active really helps,' she said. 'Even though it hurts a lot of the days, and it hurts to get out of bed, I can control it. I have to. Sometimes it affects my technique a little bit. I hold the oar a little differently. Somehow, I manage.'

Larger spasms of pain sometimes arrive mysteriously, knocking her out of training.

'Last year I had a couple flare-ups where I couldn't go, and I had to sit in the launch (with McElvaine during workouts),' she said. 'I felt like I was letting my teammates down. That's hard.'

This season has been better, particularly after switching to a newer generation of medications with lesser side effects. For awhile last year, one drug suppressed her appetite and induced weight loss.

'She's always been light (155 pounds now, and 5-foot-11), but she had to start eating like it was her job,' McElvaine said. 'Fortunately, we can work around her condition. We've worked it out where she can stay aerobically fit without stressing the joints.

'We want to work within a pain threshold that still makes this enjoyable. You try to find a way to allow participation.'

A skier as well as a cross-country and long-distance track runner in high school in Helena, Mont., Connole was well into endurance sports when she visited Seattle five years ago with her family to support a cousin in one of the men's shells. After watching Opening Day, she couldn't wait to get on the phone and call the crewhouse about how to get admitted to the UW.

'I told Eleanor, 'I want to come row,' ' she said. 'I wanted to be real dedicated to one sport, one I was passionate about, that involved a team. With rowing, there's the endurance, which I'm good at, and an element of power, which is something I wasn't good at.'

She hit the weight room and water with equal enthusiasm. By her junior year, Connole was in the No. 6 varsity seat. Now she's in the bow, the key spot for maintaining boat balance.

'I'm not one of the big engines, so I've dedicated a lot of time to perfecting technique,' she said. 'You have to be smooth and consistent, yet willing to make changes. As the bow, I have the whole view of everyone rowing. I've developed a feel for when the boat is unbalanced and adjust my stroke. I can set up a boat pretty well.'

The payback for her teammates is to set up Connole.

'They're incredibly supportive,' she said. 'Over the last year, we've managed to inject some humor into things. They call me Gramma, and Creakybones. It doesn't bother me one bit. It helps me laugh.'

For a sport where big pain is standard, laughs are balm. For pain that is unscheduled and unfair, endurance, balance and guts is the antidote.