The sheep broke out the champagne to celebrate!
http://www.sheepcafe.de/cards/animiert/ ... nsheep.swf
Benefits of affiliating are really what we make of it. (It's not a permanent thing and one can always change). Instead of just encouraging each other during the virtual challenge, I could revive the Ewe Row Team row in the general team section and we could continue encouraging each other during the rest of the year. The sheep could celebrate the achievement of milestones. It's difficult for me to maintain a monologue thread especially if I may be the only one reading it (there are better uses of my time). On the other hand if there were other active team members I would be benefit by feeling more accountable and motivated to row and would be happy to cheer others on.
You can check other affiliated members season progress and the team's season standing by going to the Affiliation standings link in the log book (I find the easiest way to find Ewe Row! is to go to virtual teams 1-5 members - we're currently #74- but we could be 61 if you joined and even higher if Chuck also joined) you can click on the Ewe Row link- to see how many meters team members have rowed this season. (You don't see lifetime meters.)
I guess there are pluses and minuses of belonging to a small team versus large team. A large team has a more consistent presence. But I do feel more accountable to row as a member (especially as team leader) of a small team, if others are rowing.
I appreciate the encouragement Chuck!! I'm building up slower than I like but I am aiming more for consistency of rowing. In the past I've sometimes rowed more than is good for me and then been unable to row for a week or two. The sheep want me to hit 1,600,000 meters by the end of the JVC which means rowing another 35K meters.
Speaking of sleep, the sheep decided the sheep link of the day would be an old favorite:
but will back cheering this Monday! 
And thanks for providing a challenging pace for me to chase. I had come into this challenge thinking I would do about 100 Km, but when you got out there ahead of me, I tried to keep up. I was only planning to do 5 Km this morning, but I was thinking I might have a chance to catch up by doing a 10 Km, but you kept the hammer down and pulled ahead. Keep it up and you will show your students what a real personal transformation looks like.