The Team
Two Women. One Ocean.
Still Making Waves is a pairs team competing in the December 2027 World's Toughest Row—the premier ocean rowing race covering ~3,000 miles from the Canary Islands to Antigua. We bring together two women whose lives have been defined by resilience, reinvention, and refusing to let the expected narrative win.
The World's Toughest Row is exactly what it sounds like. Teams row unsupported across the Atlantic, spending 40–60+ days at sea, rowing in shifts around the clock, facing 40-foot swells, sleep deprivation, and relentless physical demand. Fewer people have rowed an ocean than have climbed Everest. In December 2027, Still Making Waves rows from La Gomera in the Canary Islands to English Harbour, Antigua.
The Route
La Gomera, Canary Islands → English Harbour, Antigua · ~3,000 miles
Meet the Crew
Lauren Valbracht
Age 41 · Emergency Physician · Columbia, MO
Has broken her neck twice and returned to full active life both times. Adventure background spans summiting Yanapaccha, heli-skiing Alaska, scuba diving the Maldives, sailing 40-knot Caribbean storms, and volunteering at remote clinics from the Amazon to Zambia to the Philippines.
"There's no obstacle that can't be overcome with the right people at your side."
Janie Crouch
Age 53 · Bestselling Novelist · Colorado Springs, CO
Knows how to build a story that moves people. Now building one with her body, 3,000 miles of open ocean, and a 24-foot boat. Adventure background includes multi-day ultramarathons in multiple countries, hiking Everest Base Camp, an Antarctica marathon, scuba diving, and travel to all seven continents—in one year.
"There may come a day when I cannot do this. Today is not that day."
Janie Crouch
Age 53 · Bestselling Novelist · Colorado Springs, CO
Adventure Resume
Things You Should Know
Day job: Writing bestselling romantic suspense novels—so yes, she knows how to build tension. Useful when rowing into a headwind for 12 hours straight.
Ultramarathon experience: Multi-day stage races across deserts and mountains on multiple continents. Knows what it's like to keep going when your body says stop.
Scuba certified: Comfortable below the waterline, about to become very familiar with the surface.
Most likely to: Narrate the entire Atlantic crossing in real time in her head like she's writing a novel. Because she probably is.
Lauren Valbracht
Age 41 · Emergency Physician · Columbia, MO
Adventure Resume
Things You Should Know
Day job: Emergency physician—the person you want next to you when something goes wrong. And on a 24-foot boat in the Atlantic, she's exactly who you want next to you.
Broke her neck. Twice. Came back to full active life both times. Doctors told her to slow down. She went heli-skiing in Alaska instead.
Mission work: Volunteered at remote clinics from the Amazon to Zambia to the Philippines—which is also where she met Janie.
Most likely to: Calmly assess a medical situation mid-ocean and fix it with whatever's on the boat. Then go back to rowing.
How We Found Each Other
A bestselling novelist and an emergency physician might seem like an unlikely pair. But when you've spent your life proving that the next chapter is always worth writing—and that broken bones don't get the last word—you recognize a kindred spirit when you meet one. We met in the Philippines on a Global First Responder mission trip—doing hard things in hard places and discovering we shared something bigger than a profession or a passport. That trip became a friendship. That friendship became a dare. And that dare is about to become 3,000 miles of open ocean.
