Off to the OC

The rain was coming down heavy as the women's kayak team left the training center and headed off to the Newport Beach area in the OC for a surfski, outrigger and kayak race. As we headed north on the 805 patches of sun poked through the clouds, shortly a small section of a rainbow was spotted within another minute or so the full rainbow emerged. The appropriate leprechaun jokes were made and we briefly considered calling the coach to tell him we would not be racing and were heading off to chase rainbows instead.
Later on the 805 I was roused from a nap or rather my brief attempt to go back to bed by Emily asking me to hand her the "to go" box with the directions written on top. The scenery had changed significantly from when I had dosed off, tall snow covered peaks were in the distance to my right and the ocean to my left. Signs for Porches, BMW, Mercedes and other high end cars were also visible from the highway and it was evident that we were entering a very wealthy area, everything was pristine.
It was still chilly and raining with the occasional glimpse of sun when we arrived at the Newport aquatic club. Katie Hagler and myself were going to race together in a K2, which i thought would be fun but i was also a bit nervous it had been 2months since I had been in a team boat and i wasn't sure how my balance would be.
When Katie and I got down to the start the water was squirrelly and moving fast, it didn't take long to figure out the times were going to be quick!
The race started with out a hitch we were posting 1km times were under 3.20m and even down to 3.05 at one point. My forearms were the first to go making it difficult to keep a good stroke going which therefore affected our balance, but we held it together making it through to the end.
We both have had better races but all in all I think it was ok I learned a lot today which was important. By making sure I take one thing out of every workout or race I will keep up my sharp learning curve!