Devizes to Westminster International Canoe Race 2011

Well, the bottom line is that after 8 solid months of training we didn't finish, which is obviously disappointing but at the same time, we can hold our heads high with what we achieved. Most of our training had been conducted in the dark in cold temperatures which I thought would be perfect DW preparation but this turned out to be completely wrong. On the morning of the race when we set off at 10.30am it was already 23 degrees and by mid-afternoon it had risen to 26. We had both ensured that we were fully protected from the sun with factor 50, peaked caps (apparently mine made me look like a camp Frenchman) and fully topped up water bottles with nuun. Over the course of the next 17 hours we were to consume over 20 litres of liquid between us and we only stopped for a pee twice. Adam lost 7 pounds!

After our soul-destroying races at the Waterside A and D races where we had capsized 8 times in total our first goal was to get to Newbury dry, which would do wonders for our confidence. But as we set off I could tell that the conditions were going to fully play their part and we were really finding it hard to get the boat moving through the water as fast as we had in training. Speaking for myself my RPE seemed much higher than I would have expected for that speed and can only attribute it to the heat and trying to keep cool. We were on a 25 hour schedule which I thought would be easily obtainable for us, but with hindsight and looking at the results that was far too optimistic, but at the time it seemed more than doable. However after getting the first pound to Wooton Rivers out of the way we were already 5 minutes down on schedule; an ominous sign that was only to get worse as we progressed. From the off we were overtaken by a steady stream of crews, but more worryingly, crews who we had left with would pull away from us easily, although we usually were able to catch up at the portages only to see them pull away from us again.

The weed early on was a real problem; our boat just seemed to be able to hook it with ease and it was very frustrating to clear it only to have it clog up again. One helpful female paddler ( I think she was an Aussie) helpfully pulled some weed away as she effortlessly glided past. She made it look all too easy. Savernake was bumpy but we took it carefully and got through relatively easily and we walk / jogged the Crofton flight trying to ensure that we didn't send out heart rates through the roof in preparation for the feed stop that was waiting for us at the end.   By then we were 7 minutes down.

The next four hours or so saw us plugging our way up to Newbury and this was the part of the course that had kept me awake at night, fretting about the number of capsizes we had during WA and WD. We past each capsize point from these races, mentally ticking them off but neither of us saying anything for fear of jinxing it. I coined a new phrase 'dib dab', so as we went under a bridge, got overtaken by a faster crew or hit a particularly narrow section of the canal with hard banks 'dib dab' would be our cue to be more aware and not do a full stroke if the water seemed to have lots of reflection waves from the banks; it seemed to work and ensured we stayed upright; better for us to lose 5 seconds that way rather than 5 minutes sorting out a capsize. We continued ticking off the locks but the sun beat down on all the crews relentlessly and I was finding that my eyes were getting very sore at times from the light reflections off the water and spent most of my time squinting. My 'camp' hat and nurofen ensured that any headaches were kept at bay.

Getting to Newbury was a massive boost despite now being over 40 minutes down and we had another good feed and bottle change there and got our spray decks back on. We had inadvertently pulled up one metre before the check point so the marshall in the tent was literally waiting for us to cross her line of sight for 5 minutes before she logged us at Newbury. We were  now on a fresh bit of the course and our tails were up with our capsize free paddle so far, so we upped the tempo, got our hands higher and in the words of the marathon talk podcast, 'zipped up our mansuits' and got on with it. It was great seeing some new scenery and the next couple of hours was the best bit of paddling we did all race, with an 8 hour warm up and not unduly fatigued. During this phase we saw some of the heartbreak that can befall DW competitors. One crew was on the bank with one bloke holding a footrest that was now in two pieces and later on, I watched as the rear crew member who had portaged with us dropped his boat and the rudder sheared clean off. My brother and his wife were also taking part in the race and they had powered past us a few hours earlier and we then saw them sat on the bank with Jamie nursing a completely smashed paddle. Thankfully I had a spare so they were in the process of waiting for it to arrive and it wouldn't be long before they came past us again once it had arrived.

We got into Aldermaston and we had managed to to claw back 10 minutes or so, in fact Paul and Phil our support were busy looking at another crew and they had no idea we had arrived as we were earlier than they had expected. We eventually tracked them down, got our lights on and headed off to the next few portages before Dreadnaught. Those next two and a half hours got progressively harder. It was great that we were now out of the heat, but as we made our way through Reading at chucking out time, we were both becoming quite weary and needed to kit change and food that was awaiting us. As we approached Reading we ere treated to the most amazing light show as an electrical thunderstorm skirted the town.

Unlike last year, Dreadnaught was much quieter as we were so much later but as soon as I had some home made chicken soup (thanks Margaret!) and got some fresh kit on I was good to go and was really looking forward to the next section to Marlow. Adam, however, was having a tough time. For the last hour or so our portaging had been getting slower. I was finding it really hard to get out the boat; Adam was finding harder to get back in. ;-) His right arm and shoulder was starting to protest and his back was really bothering him and our  nurofen was not taking the edge off of it and I could tell from his body language at Dreadnaught that he was worried. By upping our work rate to stay within an hour of our schedule we had kept ourselves in the game but it had come at a price. Anyway, I felt that we could now get a little bit of help from the limited flow on the Thames and begin to tick of the locks towards Teddington.

Unfortunately, the conditions didn't help. A very heavy mist descended making navigation really difficult and we had to turn off our head torches in order that I could see anything ahead. At one point I was genuinely worried that we would turn through 180 degrees and end up paddling back to Devizes.

Adam was getting quieter and quieter and while my food and nurofen had given me a big boost, the same had not happened to him. Aware that the mist was slowing us up further I was trying to keep the tempo up whereby we could still achieve the tidal window at Teddington, but Adam had to back off in order to protect his shoulder. Our progress slowed and by Hambleden we were down to almost 90 minutes behind schedule and we were only going to slow further. As we pulled into Hurley, we had decided to assess the situation at Marlow and make a decision there and as we portaged across we found Jamie lying on the ground, being attended to by his support crew. He had suffered a back strain as they left Hambleden and they had struggled to get to Hurley. As he had been lifted out the boat they took the sensible decision to retire. We let a couple of fast crews through the portage and after we got in we had a chat on the way down to Marlow. It was obvious that Adam was not fit to carry on and the thought on him battering himself to pieces for the next 8 hours with very little chance of making the cut off, it was the right call to stop. We pulled up at the checkpoint and the marshall asked us if we were sure that we wanted to retire. Yep. Quite sure.

It was a disappointing end but with 17 hours, 75 miles, only 3 working arms and no capsizes on the clock we'd given it a really good go. There's always next year.

A few mentions.

Jamie and Jo; Great effort guys. Well done and I really hope you get to smack it next year.

Lee and Richard; Boys, I was biting my nails on Sunday waiting to see if you'd made it. Massive congratulations. Can't wait to read your report.

Phil and Paul; Thanks boys, you were terrific, even when you insisted on shouting 'We love you' as we pulled out of every portage.

Ad; Said it all already mate. Next year?