While most of us think of rowing as a Potomac River sport and unbearable in the cold, over 1,000 competitors packed into an Alexandria City High School gym in Virginia on Saturday to try to win a national championship in indoor rowing.

The Erg Sprints is the country’s largest indoor rowing championship and this year is serving as an east coast satellite for the 2024 USRowing Indoor National Championships.

Rowers, from high school age to 90 years old, competed on the gym floor.

“If you just take the whole winter off, you’ll suffer when you get back in the boat in the spring,” said D.C. resident and Rock Creek Rowing Club member Kathryn Ray.

She competed in the 70 to 74 age range, 2000-meter race.

“I didn’t row before I was 55. How many sports can you take up at age 55?” Ray told WTOP after her race.

High school students like Addy Davenport and Tallulah Simon, who both row for Alexandria City High School, woke up early for their competition.

“This is more individual. When you’re on the water, you’re with a team,” Simon said.

“People next you are also struggling. And you’re kind of all struggling together. So it’s still kind of that other people next to you pushing as hard as you are,” Davenport added.

Stacy Paxson Chittick, president of Alexandria Crew Boosters, told WTOP the Erg Sprints originally started in 1986 and exploded in popularity.

“We started this event as a small local community event as a fundraiser for the Alexandria City High School’s rowing crew. And it’s now built into being the largest indoor rowing event in the country,” she said.

If competitors do well enough in their events, they will medal in the local Erg Sprints, but they could even win a USRowing National Championship for 2024.