On Sunday, after 70 grueling days at sea and 2,817 miles, Cleveland native Katie Spotz became the youngest person to row an entire ocean solo.

Her journey from Cayenne, French Guiana on the Western coast of Africa to Georgetown, Guyana in South America, raised more than $70K for the Blue Planet Run Foundation, which finances drinking water projects across the globe.

Spotz crossed the Atlantic on a 19-foot yellow wooden rowboat powered by solar panels and built to withstand hurricanes and 50-foot waves. She was equipped with:

• enough food to last 110 days,
• a GPS device for navigation purposes,
• batteries,
• a water desalination machine, and
• an iPod that play audio books on Zen meditation.

Spotz has been an endurance athlete since the age of 18, when she ran her first marathon. She’s also cycled across the U.S. and is the only person to have swum the length of the Allegheny River. But even with all this experience, the long trek was a grueling test on her endurance. She developed painful calluses and rashes from rowing 8 to 10 hours a day, and had a hard time sleeping because her boat bobbed erratically in the waves. But she stuck with it for her cause!

Did Spotz inspire you? How about starting slow with a walk/run for your cause?