shropshirepaddlesport.org - the blog

Maria completed the final day of the DW this morning in time for breakfast. Her total time was 30:51:22.

Well done Maria.

We had a call from Maria yesterday evening and she had a  better day, getting to Teddington at about half past four. They got off at just after 06.30 this morning with the first crews arriving at  Westminster just before 08.00.

I'll update when we see that she's completed.

You know how it is... you wake up at 5am wondering how Emlyn and Sam are doing... wondering whether they've reached Teddington, wondering what time high tide actually is, and hoping they've got there; you realise that if you got a wriggle on you might just make it down to Westminster to see the finish... and then you remember that sane people do not go haring off to London on a whim in the early hours of the morning  and you have a shed base to lay...

You stall for a while before deciding that actually half past 6 is a sensible time to check the internet for updates only to discover that its not been updated since 9:30 last night.

So what news of the first couple of days?

Emlyn and Sam left Devizes at 07:43:30 on Saturday morning and by20:48:00 that evening they had reached March Lock, the other side of Reading just ahead of the Henley Straight - 62 miles in.  At Aldermarston they passsed the checkpoint alongside Geoff & Orlando from Solihull in boat 361.

[edit - the updates have just come upline - Emlyn and Sam made it to Hambledon before retiring at 21:32:20.  I'm really sorry they didn;t make it after all their training but it was an amazing effort.  Well done guys.  Geoff & Orlando made it to teddington at 05:48:00 this morning - in time to catch the tide)

The favourites for the race are Owen Peake and Dan Seaford from Reading who started at a mighty 15:30 in the afternoon and had already Reached Newbury within 4 hours.  By 5:25 this morning they were at Shepperton, a couple of hours from Teddington - only 13:48:51 after starting.  They should just catch the back end of the tide.

And what of the staged race?

Phil & Alice and Andy & I went down to support Maria & Nigel on the first day.  Maria followed the instructions, aiming for a 8:30 start - after the junior doubles had been dispatchd) only to discover that a number of the slower K1s had snuck off early.  She was towards the back of the K1s but stayed ahead of a number of folk to finish in 9:01.  The forecast torential rain didn't materialse and although it was grey and not terribly warm it was good enough weather for paddling.

Maria rang last nigt to say she had successfully reached Marlow which is great news.  Day 2 is generally pretty tough going with Day 3 being both easier - with flow on the Thames all day and prettier - it includes delights such as Runnymede, Windsor Castle and Hapton Court - rather than the industrial estates of Newbury and Reading...

There were some mad boats out there - a guy with a beautiful hand made wooden sea kayak (weighting 28kg)  which he had to portage on his head, tortoise like; two girls from the Thunderer Squadron in Carolinas (22kg) which much have been a devil to portage (they finished the first day in 9:59:51 - only just ahead of the 10 hour cut off  but sped up a bit on day 2 when there were fewer locks!  There is also a guy paddling in a yellow plastic sea kayak with wheels mounted on the nose for portaging; according to his suport crew he's only been paddling for a couple of months!  He's not fast but he was looking pretty determined and is still ticking off the miles!

The youngest crew in the race - Isobel and Naomi Smith were 7th at the end of the first day and are currently fourth - following the three brawny male K2 crews from Cokethorpe School.  The girls are only 2 two minutes and 14 seconds behind the slowest Cokethorpe crew and an hour 15 behind team Muller-Reif who won last year's event and were second and third respectively in 2007.  Go girls - beat at least some of the Cokethorpe boys!!!

After Jess and my expolits last year there were only two all female crews entered in the endeavor race this year; one failed to start and the girls from Southwater Guides Canoe Club finished in 10:21.  They carried on (the umpires are being quite flexible about the 10 hour rule this year) and their cumulative time to Marlow with is 20:11:31with 42 miles to go.  Our endeavour record stands to live another year!

The DW from the bank is a very different experience but its still a lot of fun.  There is more time to chat to comrades on the bank and swap stories of what you've seen through the day - although there can be nearly as much running on the bank and certainly the food is as crap; Andy and I managed 3 muffins and a packet of jaffa cakes between getting up in the morning and getting to my parents for dinner. [note for future reference:support crews also need to eat]

Good luck to Maria for the final 42 miles.  These are the easy ones - its all down hill from here!

This weekend sees the 61st Devizes to Westminster canue marathon.  This year three SHP members are competing - Maria in the Senior K1 event (boat number 220) and Emlyn & Sam are competing in the senior K2 race (boat number 311).

You can check their progress on: http://www.dwrace.org.uk/results/2009/dw.html

Good luck to the Shropshire competiotors, their support crews and to all of the others too.

The 2009 flat water racing calendar has now been published. Selected highlights have been added into the club calendar on the blog. I have included all of the Midlands hasler races, the Sprint regattas, the descent races for next autumn and I have also included some extras - including some North West 10k races, the NW lightning events and fun races like the Ross Warland and the Reading K4s.
If anyone can provide me with entry level slalom and WWR events I will happily include them on the diary too.

As it gets towards the time of the year when most normal people's thoughts are focused on Christmas, there are a small (some would say perverse) group of people who are already thinking ahead to Easter. Yes the DW loonies will be considering that as soon as the last of the mince pies have been scoffed and the remains of the turket fed to the dog they will be starting to ramp up their training so that they can spend their Easter holiday paddling 126 miles along the Kennet and Avon Canal and the Thames.

Marsport have long been involved with the DW and their website has always provided a wealth of information for DW paddlers and support crews. This year they have completely revamped their website and as part of that exercise they have invited three different teams, coming to it from very different perspectives, to blog their life in the run up to DW. The first is Owen Peake, Div 1 Hasler racer and current Waterside senior K1 champion. The second team is "Mr & Mrs Stig" a (currently) anonymous K2 team.

The third spot goes to Shropshire Paddlesport's own Deb May. We had a call from Marsport a couple of weeks ago as they'd read her contributions to the DW thread on the UK Rivers forum and wanted her to reinforce the "anyone can do this if you're sufficiently determined" idea. When you consider that we started off two years ago with no idea what we were doing and a borrowed boat...

This is a great opportunity and helps to raise the profile of the club nationally. If you want to read her thoughts on preparing for the DW both on and off the water then her blog is going to be here and should be started over the next couple of days.

[Edit] I see that they've now added a C2 team as well.