Distance Paddling

Wow, so distance paddling season started two weeks ago. It's very different, because now we're practicing with a lot of the more experienced paddlers from other crews. Sometimes it makes you feel a little out of place because they've obviously been paddling with eachother for a while and seem to know each other really well. The other day I wanted to quit, the first time for me this year, just because the girls in the boat made me feel really out of place. I know they didn't do it on purpose, they were just talking about how good the boat felt when we did our last run after they switched me out of seat two. It just basically made me feel like it was my fault that the boat wasn't running smoothly, because once I got moved it was going fine. Really after thinking about it, I don't think that's quite what they meant, but it still felt junky. Paddling non-stop for 2 hours will do that to you.
So yesterday we had our first race. The race itself was awesome, it started at 7:30, left from Kailua Beach and went around Birdshit. For those who don't know where that is, it is one of the little islands out to the left when standing on the beach looking towards the ocean. It's about 6 miles, so no changes, it's the same 6 paddlers through the race. Anyway, the waves were 10 feet, and it was nuts. I felt confident because we had a really good steerswoman (Christy) and I have paddled with the other 3 girls many times before (Debby, Mele, and Cassie). I don't know Sheila very well, she was the other lady in the boat, but I'm pretty sure she has a lot of paddling experience. So the race was fun. We rode an awesome wave in straight from flat island almost all the way in to the beach. We came in fourth. Two other Kailua boats took 1st and 3rd. Lanikai came in second.
So after practice we waited while the guys went out for their race, they were going all the way to Waikiki. They went out, and then we got in the boats for some practice. We paddled for another two hours. I was so sunburnt at the end because I didn't think we were going to be out as long as we were. I didn't have my gloves either, and ended up with huge blisters all over my hands. It sucked because they hurt, and they kept getting worse, but when you're way the hell out in the ocean, all you can do is just paddle until you get home to take care of it. Hopefully they'll finally turn into callouses, but right now they still hurt.
Hopefully I'm going to run with Ananda tonight, I think we might actually run the Marsh. She's working and I'm gonna make her take a break.