The 2006 Men's Eastern Sprints were truly run in all four seasons; the day saw sun, rain, calm, wind, hail, heat, cold, and racing that stretched until almost 8pm due to two rain/storm delays that closed the course during the racing.

The last rain delay happened with only three races left to go, the V8 petite and grands, and the VL8 grand. The course was cleared as a fierce storm rolled through, followed by the most astonishing clearing, calm and a glorious double rainbow that stretched across the lane 6 side of the course.

As the rainbow spread, and the photographers, journalists and race officials huddled in the pavilion at Regatta Point waiting for the resumption of racing, it was Martha Strom (current WPI women's asst coach, and all-around nice person), who has long served as the grande dame of the Quinsigamond awards dock, who realized what the rainbow needed.

"It needs a pot of gold," Martha said, and booked out of the pavilion with the Rowe Cup, the regatta's heavyweight all-events trophy, which of course had not yet been awarded that day. Martha placed the trophy on the vacant awards table, and the rainbow lasted long enough for me to line up and grab this shot of the proverbial 'pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.'

For the record, at the end of the day, it was Harvard who claimed the Rowe Cup.