Chester Marathon

Held on the River Dee: a nice wide river, with not very much flow after a period of good weather; natural banks (so no re-bounding waves); and nice warm and sunny to boot. Chester has to be one of the best venues for a marathon race and well worth the effort of getting there. Twelve Wey Racers entered the first Assessment Race of the season: Rob W, Roy F, Paul Y, (senior men); Claire G (senior ladies); Mark C, Michael L, Richard L (junior men); and Alice H, Hazel C, Marthe dF (junior ladies).

A new course was set up conforming to the international 4.3 km circuit, consisting of seven laps for the senior men, six laps senior ladies, five laps junior men and four laps junior ladies. If that wasn't hard enough, a "false" beach portage was added on each lap.

Some good results came the club's way. The selectors were looking for times that will be competitive in an international race, clearly working this out is made a lot easier by virtue of having a standard circuit. That being said, it should have been advertised as such as it was clear that some competitors were only looking for a good placing! I recorded the lap times and when I have found out how to upload a table here without the blogger stripping my html code I'll do so! But in the mean time you can find it here as well.

Like all good gigs, Chester threw on a support act to keep the fans quiet. The morning started with a regional hasler marathon. Why more people don't regularly race in the north-west I don't know but the decision to hold the assessment race on the same day ensured a larger field as the Hasler results show.

More Easter Action!

Huge congratulations to all the Wey paddlers on their DW triumphs - all must feel very proud of their achievements.
Good Friday saw a number of Wey paddlers sprinting on Littleton Lake at the Richmond Sprints. Not too much wind this year and some excellent results (full details on the Richmond web link). Mike W and Alice showed great consistency with first places in both their head to head races. With several other top three placings, there was no shortage of chocolate comestible prizes for the journeys home.
After a senior/U18 paddle to Elmbridge from Wey on Saturday (just for fun!) the scene was set for the annual Elmbridge Junior (U16) half marathon. Well done to Oscar, Tom, Joe and John who gave it a go for the first time and all finished with limited support from the bank.
No fewer than four Wey paddlers completed the course under the previous age record times - Jack (who smashed the U13 record) and Ed. Also Alice and Hazel in the U16 girls. What do they have for breakfast in the Childerstone and Haws households?? Charlie won the U15 boys which had the largest field of the day. (Results on Elmbridge web)
More chocolate......still these guys have to keep up the calories!

DW 2009 - Last Day

Hurrah, we've made it!

While most people would have been still asleep, preparations were in full swing for a very early start at Teddington. Shortly before 6 am we were ready to get on the water, Clive was set to follow us on his bike (as he had done in the previous days) and the other members of the support crew to cheer us on from various bridges en route to Westminster. The start was given at 6.30, and after a few initial wobbles Calum and I got into our usual rhythm, gliding past Richmond, Kew, Barnes, Putney on our way to the finish. The force of the outgoing tide led to some impressive speeds (around 9 mph), but also to a couple of rather shaky moments, which I admit to being terrified of, as it would have been a rather long swim for the bank! (There have in fact been a few capsizes, and Calum also recalls seeing a K1 which was sinking with the paddler still in it). The London Eye came into sight around Vauxhall, and the appearance of Westminster Bridge in the distance gave us the energy to cover that final stretch of the race. So after 1 hr 55 of hard paddling we were finally at the steps of the County Hall ready to receive our finishers' medals!

With a total time of 20:06, we, according to provisional results, have come first in the Endeavour class!

Once again it must be said that the whole race would not have been possible without our incredible support team. Clive, cycling alongside us, provided us with a great amount of valuable information, dashed to locks to identify the best spots, and, crucially, very skillfuly and rapidly repaired our boat after it had been damaged on the second day. Lynsey, Richard, Hannah, Alexander, Maria and Tom kept us well fed and watered and in high morale on portages, and helped in numerous other ways. Thanks must also go to Dave, Pete and Mike and everyone else at the club who guided and supported us throughout our training. Thank you so much to all!

DW 2009 - Day 3

Today was the longest day of the race: 38 miles from Marlow to Teddington. Everybody arrived at the start extra early, and after some work to reinforce the broken front of the boat, we were off the start around 8.15 am. With strong flow helping us along, Windsor Castle came into view well ahead of schedule. Encouraged by this, we pressed on towards Staines, taking extra care not to damage the boat further on portages. The middle section of the day seems to have gone exceptionally quickly, and by the time we arrived at Sunbury Lock, I was still convinced we hadn't reached Chertsey! The last 7-8 miles, however, proved to be rather hard and certainly very painful (Calum and I strongly regretted not padding out our seats). The final mile before Teddington dragged on forever! Once we had made over the lock though, everything suddenly seemed very easy and we were at the finish in no time. End result: 5 hrs 44, giving us a 14 minute lead over the next boat.

For the third day running, our support team - Richard, Hannah, Clive, Lynsey, Maria and Alexander - have excelled in providing us with food, moral support and valuable information. Thank you very much to all!

Coming up tomorrow is the final 17-mile leg which will take us through Richmond, Chiswick, Hammersmith, Putney, Chelsea and Vauxhall to Westminster Bridge!

DW 2009 - Day 2

What a day! We're now leading our race by a minute after finishing 25 minutes ahead of schedule, so the pressure is on for tomorrow.

It was a fairly unremarkable paddle after the start until the front of our boat broke off at a portage. Thanks to large amounts of tape and a very skillful repair by Clive, however, it was swiftly re-attached and we were able to continue without much delay. Excitement grew as we approached Reading and we were starting to look forward to the Thames and some flow to aid our progress. After a quick compulsory portage at Dreadnought Reach, we pushed on for Marlow, passing the half-way point to Westminster along the way. We arrived at Marlow in a state close to total exhaustion, got changed, bypassing the showers (which were cold and only seemed to work one at a time!), and headed off home to recuperate in preparation for the longest day of the race tomorrow.

DW 2009 - Day 1

It's Easter again - time for a paddling trip on the Kenett and Avon Canal and the Thames!

After an evening in Devizes last night and breakfast with a Basingtoke crew at the B&B this morning, the green boat, the support team and, indeed the paddlers, arrived at the start to find a remarkably empty car park (and no, the race is on!). Quick check in and wrist-tagging, and we (Calum and I) crossed the start line shortly after 7.15 am. We finished overtaking the five boats that had started ahead of us just before Pewsey and stayed in the "lead" until the end of the day! The tunnel was great - calm, empty, with no other boats in sight. The support team - Lynsey, Clive, Richard, Hannah, Alexander and Maria were great, offering plenty of food and encouragement along the way. The stretch from Great Bedwyn to Newbury was very familiar and rather painful, but the the effort has definitely paid off - 34 miles in 6:14 (14 minutes ahead of schedule) and, so far we're second, 6 minutes behind the leaders!

So 34 miles down, 91 to go...

Oh, and it still isn't too late to sponsor us online!

Gent Marathon

After meeting early Friday morning three Wey paddlers, myself, Jack and Alice, and a large BCU team travelled to Gent in Belgium to take part in the Gent Marathon race. We arrived on the Friday afternoon to a windy, choppy regatta course, but despite these conditions we were all very keen to get out for a paddle and a practice on the race course after being on the bus for hours. After our paddle we changed and headed back to the youth hostel for a good dinner and a good nights sleep.

Raceday came and we rose early, enjoyed a big breakfast and headed to the racecourse. After plenty of preparation and warmup the races got underway. First off were the senior men and then Jack and I went off in the junior mens race then the vetran men and then the junior womens race went off. After a tough start the junior mens race separated into groups and raced round the canals. After a burn up out of the last portage I ended up paddling to the end of the race on my own and taking second place. Jack wasn't so lucky with his race. after a poor start he pulled his way right back through the field and then just as he looked like he was back up with the group he took an unfortunate swim. He then got back in and carried on to finish the race despite the freezing water and wind and still beat several other competitors. The junior womens race started soon after the mens and set off round the lake at a fast pace. After a breakaway at the first portage by the eventual winner, Alice paddled round the rest of the course in the front group and after a burn for the finish took second place.

The race was great expierience for all the paddlers who took part and it was great that Wey came away with excellent results.
Charlie

Waterside D

The Green Boat goes forth again! I was slightly concerned about this race as I've never paddled for more than 3½ hours in my life. The thought of 34 miles was bad enough without the fact that the first 13 are without a portage and there's a great big tunnel half way through.

So the day started with snow. From that point, everything got better. George took the helm and we got a couple good rides on stern washes. The weather improved very quickly, and we got in to a good rhythm. Took a tactical toilet break after about 11 miles and was then actually looking forward to portages. Our three support teams were great. Plenty of encouragement, grapes, bananas, and nibbles.

When we got to Great Bedwyn it felt like we were nearly home as some of the scenery became familiar. But there was a way to go!

Stopped for a few minutes to pull a couple of lads out of the drink, and I took a brief unscheduled swim myself (George was just standing at the side watching me topple in).

Luckily there were no more "events", and we put in a respectable 6h38m.

We got changed (avoiding the very cold showers), grabbed our soup and "lunch" at the finish and toddled off home.

The apprehension of Day 1 of the Devizes to Westminster will be greatly reduced now.

Thanks to Richard, Hannah, Lynsey, Maria and Alexander for their enthusiastic and very professional support!