Regatta Gold!

It was my first time going to the Gold Rush Regatta in Sacramento and it was a blast! Who else but a bunch of crazy Master rowers would drive 20 hours round-trip in order to row for ten minutes or so? The weather at Lake Natoma was a zippy 75 degrees, the sun was shining and a slight wind was blowing. Yes, I got sunburned. No, the wind wasn’t so bad that it blew us off the course.

I rowed with the women’s 8 and the women’s 4 and our team took gold in each of those races! Yeah us! I also rowed in the Mixed 8 but we managed only a fifth place. Many other members of OAR won lots of medals in various events and it was a successful experience overall.

On Saturday night after the regatta, we had a wonderful dinner with some of the River City Rowing Club team members.  A big thanks to Nancy who opened up her lovely home for the feast. Raul, their coach, who works at REI (and who doesn’t love REI?) had lots of prizes to give away in a fun raffle. Everyone went home full with food, prizes, and friendship. The food was great (thanks Nancy!) and it was great to spend an evening with fellow rowers from another club.

So would I drive 20 hours to row for a few minutes again? You bet!!