My usual Easter......

spent watching the DW tracker, following a couple of crews with personnel that I either know or have followed via blogs or the DW facebook page. As I write, there is a crew who have paddled the heaviest plastic tub down the course and they are currently holed up at Teddington waiting for the second tide; they have been going for over 30 hours already and will have another 2-3 hours paddling once they get back into the water. I have serious respect for that kind of endurance and downright dogged perseverance. It almost makes me want to do it again. I was in the pub with friends last night and text Jamie to have our usual 'Let's do it next year' conversation. Hmm. We'll see.

Trainerroad continues to be going well. A bit of a quieter week this week after a heavy week and the SCCU SPOCO last week. I am coming to the end of the build plan, so I intend to do another FTP test on Tuesday, followed by the start of the 40km TT plan the week after that. Slightly less volume but I think a lot more hurty. Can't wait.

Always learning

I must have lost at least 20 minutes with the badly pinned number.

Last Sunday I took part in my first 100 mile time trial. I had meant to do one in the last season or two but I never seemed to get around to it, but with the 12 hour tt a few weeks away it seemed like the perfect opportunity to break this particular duck. Despite many 100 mile rides under my belt, this was a new kettle of fish, having never raced a tt this far before. I had an added complication that I only had 3 hours' sleep the night before owing to a friend's wedding. I was designated driver for the evening but it was still hardly perfect race preparation. I also found myself quite nervous about it. It's funny, but the older I get, the more conservative and cautious I am becoming. I wish I could be a bit more 'gung-ho' but I am actually turning into a bit of a worrier. Worrying!

Anyway, it went pretty well. The plan was to ride conservatively and practice my feeding and pacing for the 12. We had a few helpers from KPRC who were able to hand up bottles and food and this went really well. I ended up drinking approximately 2 litres of SIS during the ride and had 2 and a half snickers bars. All this stayed down and I was able to digest it without any major stomach issues.

The first half went very smoothly, but after halfway the weather deteriorated very badly and the riders had an hour and a half of torrential rain followed by increasing winds and steady drizzle for the remainder of it. This made using a deep section front wheel very interesting and I had to come off the drops a few times in order to make sure that I was not blown into a ditch. My pace didn't drop significantly despite this and I finished with plenty in the tank in a time of 4:37. I was hoping to get under 4:30 but with the weather conditions and it being my first attempt, I'm pretty pleased with that.

On Monday night I was back out on the river in a laance for an hour or so. A relative of Adam's is attempting next year's DW with a friend and they have been having a few issues getting going. They had bought a K2 but had so far been unable to stay the right way up in it. It looks like they have bought a Stilletto, which as it's name suggests, is hardly the most stable kayak in the world. Allied to this, at least one of the footrests is missing in their boat so they were always going to be fighting an uphill battle with their stability.  Anyway, I got them to paddle the laance and showed them some basics about setting up the boat, body position and working on getting their catch right. Pleased to report no swims and a couple of smiles on their faces with the realisation that, in the right boat, paddling's not so bad.

Hot cross buns equals...

.....the DW.

It's always the case that at this time of year, my blog, which I estimate is read by about 4 people, gets a significant surge in traffic. The reason for this is down to the DW. I have to admit to getting fairly misty eyed about it myself and as I watch the tracker being updated, following the couple of crews that I am usually aware of, I have to admit to pangs of envy and the feeling that I would like to do it again. There is always a small flurry of texts or some Facebook banter between Jamie, Adam and myself, almost trying to goad each other into committing towards another year of training. Sometimes, I even get back into a kayak and do a paddle or two. I really would love to do it again one day. It still stands as the hardest and most rewarding thing I have done and while it is a cheesy line, it is true that anyone who finishes the DW is a winner.

My DW Race 2010
My DW Race 2011
My DW Race 2012

That said, I have been pretty busy doing other things. A lovely week walking in the Lakes was preceded by my 9th Park run (19:36). A solid run with no running in the two weeks before owing to a cold, but my left Achilles got very sore half way round, so I'm going to have to get stretching again and probably take it a little easy for a few weeks while it eases off.



I felt fast; I was slow.

On the same day I went with the Phoenix to the London Velodrome to have my first ever go at track riding. It was absolutely brilliant, made even more special by having Wheezy Junior having a go too. With 32 of us going it worked out at just over £10 each for an hour's riding, with coaching and including the hire of the Condor fixed wheel bikes. They split the group into two, basically those of the club who had ridden on a track before and those of us who had not. We were taken from doing basic laps around the cote (that's the blue band at the bottom of the track) and by the end of it most of us were circulating up round the top of the banking. It is very steep! I loved it and we are hopefully going back in the autumn so that we can progress through the levels. If you get a chance, then go.

So I got out for a gentle 50 miler yesterday while the sun started to shine; my first long bike ride in a few weeks. As ever, too late in trying to get some base bike miles in but the hills were not too painful and I spent a pleasant 3 hours in my own company. This week's going to be about getting a few more bike miles under my belt while the weather is pretty good and I am still on holibobs.

Sponsored by Walkers

90 minutes in the llance last night with a steady paddle up to Raven's Ait and back. Still just trying to keep my hands high and spearing my feet. One thing I have decided is I am buying myself a comfortable seat before too long but at the moment it's just about building up some paddle time. It is all rather ouchy at the moment.

I'm going to try to get back into some running next week. There's only so many bags of crisps that can be eaten before they start to take their toll.

Marsport Condor x3

Jamie in the blue submarine.

Jamie and I had our first paddle together in a year or so. We picked the newest, shiniest Condor available. Five metres of carbon and Kevlar lusciousness only to find after five minutes' paddling that it was rapidly turning into a submarine. Surely we're not kicking up that much splash? We turned the boat over and found a piece of duck tape on the bottom of the hull betraying where a hole was. We paddled back to the clubhouse  and tried a second, slightly more scuffed boat to find that whoever paddled it last has extremely short legs with the front footplate needing moving. OK, starting to get cold and bored now, so let's try boat number three. This condor looked like it had seen better days but at least it floated and we could fit into it, so off we went again.

Eventually we had a paddle for just under an hour. We were both feeling it by the end as we came back against the flow from the Sunbury portage with a few more twitches as our core strength deserted us, but it was a really encouraging paddle with a couple of fast bits but in the main just trying to keep a smooth cadence We are going to aim to get out on Monday nights, most likely in K1 boats in an attempt at some consistency.

Oh. My. Days.

Dark? Cold? Windy? must be DW training in April.

It's just as well we have a whole year before the next DW. Tonight was my first paddle in a while. A long while. It was a filthy night and I probably should have waited until the wind had dropped and for daylight, but hey, I'm a seasoned campaigner. It's nothing I can't cope with.

I was on the water for 25 minutes which was plenty enough. It was just about getting some feeling for the water and getting into a boat again. The llance felt unusually twitchy with the wind controlling my blades more than I was. I kept my stroke rate slow and focussed on spearing my feet. Just like old times.  :-/

Pack it up, pack it in..

This week has been monumentally crap and so my training took a bit of a hit. A truly rubbish day at work on Tuesday meant that I had to scrub the commute rides for the rest of the week in favour of lugging work stuff to and fro, which with the best will in the world is hard to do, even if it is a titanium framed beauty. On Thursday evening I got my dull ache behind my second toe on my right foot again; the ominous sign that I was going to get another foot swelling episode, and sure enough on Friday my foot had begun to lump up again. The one silver lining in this episode was that I immediately put my trainers on and instead of spending 4 days in limping hell, the swelling started to abate a lot quicker and it's been a lot less painful. So, two things I have got from this. One, exercise seems to have less to do with this than I thought and two, I can control it to a certain degree. Another small victory in getting my running shoes back on.

OK, so big decision time. It's time to stop paddling. I said at the beginning of the summer that I would try to get to grips with the Ranger and hopefully get to paddle it to Hampton Court and back. I'm not even close and realistically I don't have the talent or perseverance to want to make it work. Allied to that, I just cannot see myself getting back into a boat to do the DW again. Some of my fingers and toes are still slightly numb and I am convinced that sitting on a hard plastic seat for 28 hours has made my foot problem worse. The DW and marathon paddling requires commitment and I am just not prepared to spend another winter doing stupidly late paddles to get the miles in. So today, a young man came down to the Royal and bought my boat off me and I was not sorry to see it go.  Easter will forever hold very special memories. I will never look at a hot cross bun in the same way again and when I wake up on future Easter Sundays I will wish all DW competitors luck, knowing that they are on the last leg of a fabulous journey.  But for me, it's over.  Time to concentrate fully on getting my running legs back and becoming a triathlete again.

Some great memories

So you want to do the DW? part 3

 6. A Simple Training Plan
'Failing to plan is planning to fail.' So goes the simple maxim but how do you put together a training plan that will get you to the start of the DW in good enough shape to finish the event? Once again, I am writing this post from the perspective of a crew with little paddling experience. I am sure that knarly, more experienced racing paddlers will approach it in a very different way to what I might describe here, but I hope that you find the folowing post useful to give you a starting point. Before you start, it's worth considering the following points;

i. How much time you have until the race
There have been crews who have hopped into a kayak for the first time a few months before the DW and completed the event, however this is more than likely the exception and not the norm. It's worth considering the experience of Ben Hunt-Davis who jumped into a kayak for the first time some 8 weeks before this year's DW. A rowing gold medal winning Olympian, you would have thought that someone with his pedigree would be able to crash train his way to a DW finish. His blog on his failure to do so makes interesting reading for us mere MAMIL mortals.  Most people I have spoken to, and the information I have read state that to do the event justice you should give yourself a full year to train. Jamie and I did it in 9 months, it took Adam and I 2 years. This sounds about right. A full year of training will get you to the startline, 2 years will more than likely get you to the finish line.

ii. Your experience / ability / fitness level
It stands to reason, but the harder you find it to stay upright in a boat or the lower the fitness level that you are starting from, the longer it is probably going to take you to get race ready. Again, my own anecdotal evidence bears this out. Jamie and I were both playing different sports regularly and had higher than average fitness levels for people our age. We got to grips with a stable boat fairly quickly and therefore were just about able to complete the race in 9 months. Adam had a bigger hill to climb. At 17 stone and having done no sport to speak of since leaving school it was always going to take him longer, but 2 years later and 3 stone lighter he was paddling  under Westminster Bridge. You just need to be honest with yourself at the outset. Look at it as a long term goal if needs be.

iii. Your goal for the race
Do you intend to finish or are you racing for a time? I would argue that paddling to finish the event is easier than going for a specific time. (I'm not talking about trying to catch the tide at Teddington but actually racing to beat a finishing time that you have set) It may well be that you goals change as your training develops, which is fine, but if you are a novice kayaker I would think it best to initially set out on this journey with the intention of finishing. Time goals can come later. Anthony Murr mentioned it and it's worth repeating again that if doing the Senior Doubles, that you and your partner's goals are in-line. If one is going for sub 20 and the other just wants to finish, then probably it will end in tears way before you reach the startline at Devizes.

iv. How much time you have available to train
It's obviously really important to get your family and loved ones on board (metaphorically speaking; the kayak will be rather heavy otherwise). Whichever way you cut it, the race is a commitment. Like most of these things it's not the race so much but the hours of training beforehand that's the real endurance event. Again, be honest with yourself. There's not much point planning on doing 5 paddles per week if it's completely unrealistic and does not fit in with your other commitments and lifestyle.

Let's assume again that we're 1 year out from the DW. Our plan was to aim to paddle 3 times a week. If we achieved that, then that was a very good week. Our average was just under 2 paddles per week and often due to family stuff it became 1 paddle per week (exclusively training in a K2 therefore having to rely on each other to be there when we could have been in a K1 and paddling a lot more frequently). As I also stated in a previous post, making that first 5-6 months being technique focussed, maybe practising drills and getting coaching to make your technique as efficient as possible would be the way that I would now approach it. An hour's paddle maximum, 3 times per week would be ample and with the spring and long summer months it gives you the opportunity to capsize to your heart's content.

As we moved into the autumn we aimed to keep to 3 paddles per week that looked something like this;

Tuesday; Interval paddle 60-90 mins. Warm up followed by 4x5mins 3 mins rec / or 8x2mins 2mins rec / 3x10mins 5mins rec.

Thursday; 45min-60min tempo paddle. Faster than DW effort. We usually tacked on a run or core session afterwards.

weekend; long paddle 90-120mins DW effort.

This was an 'ideal' week and formed the bulk of Adam's and my training until January.

Once we got to January the focus was much more on ensuring that we got our long paddle in and if we could only fit a single paddle into any one week then it was the long paddle that was done. I have blogged before about what constitutes a long paddle but our weekly long paddle was usually 2-2.5 hours with the occasional 3 hour paddle. Once we got into January the aim was to get ourselves into the state where we would be able to complete a 6-8 hour paddle 2 to 3 weeks out from the DW. The long paddles were used to test food and drink, practice portaging and generally get us rehearsing DW techniques.

7. Interval training; a good idea?
I personally enjoyed the interval sessions as they provided a welcome change from bashing out the long miles and gave us more of an aerobic workout. I didn't use a heart rate monitor but I doubt very much that I went anaerobic more than a few times. If you look at the sessions written in Greenaway's book many of the weekly paddles are based around intervals and for a novice crew I am not sure that that's the best way to go. If you are a 24hr plus crew you are simply not going to be paddling at anywhere near that intensity and therefore paddling a lot like that, particularly if your technique is poor may do more harm than good. Energy efficient technique over raw speed everytime. I'm not saying don't do it; at the end of the day the training's also got to be fun or it will be very hard to stay motivated, but if in doubt, DW effort.

8.Waterside and Thameside Series; a good idea?
These series of races take place in the winter and early spring before the DW and are generally regarded as an excellent warm up before taking on the DW, mainly because they take place on parts of the DW course. This will give you the opportunity to practice portaging and familiarise yourself with a part of the course. In particular, the Waterside D, which takes place over the first 35 miles of the DW from Devizes to Newbury is generally regarded as the best one to do. Most crews use this as their last long training paddle and gauge their DW pace from it. But a slight word of caution. These are very competitive and busy events. The portages can get stupidly busy as is the canal at times. This is nothing like the Senior Doubles DW which sees crews leaving individually, spaced out over a much grreater length of time. Therefore, it might be better for you to paddle the D route or do something similar to what we did this year, on your own or with your clubmates rather than entering these races.

9. Other training
I have already mentioned core work which is time very well spent. There are 2 other things that might be worth doing;

i. Running for weight loss.  Use running (or cycling, swimming, line dancing, whatever floats your boat) to promote weight loss. The more kilos you can lose the easier it will be to move the boat through the water and the easier you will find it to get in and out of the boat. You will also be running or walking with the boat 70 times during the DW ( I think somebody worked out that you will be carrying the boat for around 5 miles), therefore getting used to running and walking is a good idea.

ii. Gym work. This can supplement the core work and will be useful for helping you get in and out of the boat, particularly if the water levels are low and the portages are high. However, I would ALWAYS go for a paddle if I had a choice.

So you want to do the DW? Part 2.

Some more of my thoughts for fellow MAMILs / MAWILS training for the DW.

5. Get Stable. I have found stability an odd thing to get my head around; sometimes I feel terribly twitchy in a boat, even ones that are supposedly high up the wobble factor scale. I have found that there is a simple correlation between the amount of paddling I do and the more stable I become, but other than that, if you are struggling,  how do you improve your stability? Well, these are the points that have helped me;

i. Bracing. Bracing is basically a support stroke that is used to help you recover if you tip too far. Practise bracing. The more confident I was in my ability to brace the better I paddled. Practice bracing in shallow water and find out how far you can tip the boat over before capsizing.

This guy's just showing off, but you get the idea. ;-)

ii. Keep your head up. Don't look down at the boat but look up ahead or at the horizon.

iii. Start off in a stable boat* that you can handle, get your technique nailed and then gradually move to a more tippy kayak. It's more important that you can go out and paddle comfortably on the river for an hour and have a good training session than spending that hour trying to stay upright, so don't waste months trying to master a boat when you probably don't need to.

Start stable and paddle!

iv. There are other stability exercises that you can do in the boat. E.G. sitting in the boat and do the paddling action without the paddle. I find that this helps you to think about your hip position and how this effects the boat. I am sure there are others. Again, a coach will have exercises and drill to help you.

v. Do core exercises. You core muscles are not only essential in helping you power the boat through the water but a strong core also helps with stability. When you first start paddling you will probably find your back aching like never before; this is because your lower back, hips and hamstrings are doing an awful lot of work keeping you upright. I would advise you to do a core session or two per week, using a Swiss Ball or some other similar device of torture.

There are plenty of core exercises and videos for you to develop a simply programme. I usually did a 30 minute session twice  a week. Start gently. If you have back problems, take advice.

These are the 2 main exercises I focussed on;

* More Stable boats;

K1 - Marsport Laance or Hobby, Kirton Tor (Mid-range stability boat)

K2 - Marsport Condor, Kirton Mystere, Kirton Meister, Kirton Mirage (Mid-range stability boat)


Useful Links

Kirton kayaks

Marsport

So you want to do the Devizes to Westminster Canoe Race?

I have been inspired to write this post having read Antony Murr's blog over the last couple of years. Within it you will find a whole host of hints, information and generally useful stuff that will get you thinking about how to tackle 'The Canoeists' Everest' and I strongly advise you to trawl through it. At the moment Antony is writing a series of posts to help readers get to the start of the race, and having gone from numpty to (fairly) experienced paddler in the last 3 years I thought it might be useful to anyone reading this to get a relative beginner's ideas and thoughts on this fantastic event and how you might go about training for it and the problems that you may encounter. In conjunction with Jamie and Adam, I made a LOT of mistakes and the next few posts might just help you avoid them. Maybe.... ;-)

Let me point out, I am not a coach. There are many, many more experienced paddlers than I who can give you advice and tips but these are my thoughts and on reflection the things that I should have done to prepare me better for this event.

1. It's the DW.
You must call this race 'The DW.' At all times. It means that you're in the know and confuses anyone else who knows nothing about kayaking or canoeing. It also means that you have to explain the event, in detail, to anyone that asks you "What's the DW?" Alternatively, when seeking a partner for the Senior Doubles it means you can lie or simply not tell them how far it is, only letting them in on the 'Devizes to Westminster' bit at the last opportunity.

2. Technique is EVERYTHING.
I'm writing this making the assumption that you've never paddled before. Saying that you had a go at it once in Centre Parcs or with the Scouts doesn't count. You're a MAMIL/ MAWIL (and proud). Maybe you've done a 10k, marathon or something similar and therefore have a degree of fitness although not specifically canoe / kayak related. A friend in a pub mentions 'The DW' and it's got you interested and then you decide it sounds like a good idea. What next?

Ok, well let's start with an analogy. If you had decided that you were going to swim the Channel, but yet you couldn't swim, would you throw yourself into the sea and go for a 2 mile swim? No, of course you wouldn't. You would LEARN TO SWIM first. Therefore, it's really important that you LEARN TO PADDLE FIRST. How you learn is up to you but I would advise either joining a club with a coaching set-up or if you know an experienced paddler who can advise you and take you out, then do that. Either way, you want someone who can give you direct feedback on your technique and tell you how you can improve. Ultimately it will make you faster, but you will also be much less likely to retire through injury during the race. Let's say that you have given yourself a year to get ready for the DW, then I would not worry at all for the first 5 or 6 months about long paddles. Get in a boat and get your technique as good as you can get it. Go out with other (good) paddlers whenever you can and see how they paddle. You will learn a lot by doing this and probably get more efficient and faster as a result. I would advise against interval training in the boat initially. Better to focus on ingraining good technique rather than trying to move the boat fast through the water with poor technique.

I would also keep your paddles for the first few months relatively short but try to go out frequently, ideally 3 times in a week for say 30-45 minutes so that you can focus on maintaining good technique throughout the paddle.  In my opinion it's better to do 3 x 30 minute paddles than 1 x 90 minute paddle. Don't worry; the long paddles will come later.

3. K1 not K2
Readers of this blog will know that I have just bought myself a K1 boat, some 3 years after I started paddling with Jamie. This is 3 years too late. We did a few K1 paddles but not many. You will develop more quickly as a paddler if you concentrate on paddling in a K1. You can develop your own technique, stability and steering. It means both of you will have to learn to steer a  boat. It means that you can go out independently as a paddler as you will not have to have a partner with you. Most clubs will have club boats and they may not be pretty or fast but they will get you on the water and you can begin the process of learning good technique. Initially, for the first 3 or 4 months I would not even think about getting into a K2. You will progress much quicker in K1 boats than you would struggling in a K2. Every year there are posts on various websites for paddlers who for some reason have had to pull out through injury or illness which results in the other paddler unable to race. Being proficient in a K1 at least gives you the option of doing the 4 day race in a K1 if it should come to that.

4. Be Safe
Most of this is obvious but it's worth repeating. By joining a club you will be able to go out in a group and there's safety in numbers. At some point you will capsize so know how to do it and look after yourself. The BCU FSRT course is well worth doing in my opinion to help you manage some of the situations that you may encounter. Initially, train on a benign piece of water where you know that if you go for a swim then you can get yourself out. Wear a good fitting bouyancy aid. As you gain more experience and confidence in your ability and handling a kayak then is the time to try water where you are more likely to encounter hazards, flow, river traffic etc. You are going to encounter these issues during the DW so you will need to become confident in higher flow, waves etc, but get used to your K1 first before tackling these things.

Some useful links

BCU - Find a Club

Find a Boat

Find a Paddler

Devizes To Westminster Canoe Race


More to follow......

Major mojo dip

It's been a hard couple of weeks since we completed the DW. It's common to read about people completing a big event that's been all consuming and then finding it hard to adjust with the loss of focus that then entails. I have never really suffered from that before. Yes, I've been miserable if things haven't gone my way but I've usually bounced straight into the next thing, but this has been different. This has been a full on case of the CBA's. Part of that is down to the injuries that I am carrying from the DW. My right wrist has all the hall marks of carpal tunnel syndrome. I am waking up at night with pins and needles in my first and middle fingers and it's been particularly bad this week with me being back at work, so I think that it's going to be a good few weeks before I get back into a boat again. In an effort to force my mojo back to the surface I went out for a few half hearted runs but my left leg was aching like hell so after 20 minutes I stopped both times and then spent another 30 minutes stretching. I was meant to do the first evening 10 mile tt's with the Kingston Phoenix on Wednesday night. I usually love these events. Turn up, beast myself on the bike for 25 minutes then have a cup of tea and a chat; all for £2. However, it got called off owing to the torrential rain and I have never been more relieved in my life. I just was not in the right frame of mind to do it. So I sat on the sofa and watched Harry Potter with the kids instead and it was fab. :-)

Yesterday I learnt that the Outlaw Triathlon had opened up another 50 places for the race. I had missed the original deadline and Simon had entered while I had not. I spent a good 20 minutes umming and aahing about whether to enter. I even had my credit card out at one point but then common sense (for once) kicked in. I'm just not prepared to do another Ironman again when I am not fully fit or not fully committed. I will do an Ironman again but only when I KNOW that I can get off the bike and run a marathon and do it to the best of my ability. At the moment I'm finding it hard and at times painful to run for 20 minutes and that's no basis for an Ironman that's 10 weeks away.

So what now then? Well, the Edinburgh Marathon is not going to happen as I am simply not in shape to get round let alone get near 3 hours and the Cotswold Tri just isn't floating my boat. At the moment I just want to get fit, run pain free and enjoy riding my bike again and to do a bit of paddling. Simon is ramping up his training for the Outlaw so I intend to meet up with him when I can and help him along and enter a few tt's with the Phoenix.  I also want to paddle regularly, even just once a week with the guys from the Royal and hopefully Adam and Jamie as well. I have invested too much time in it over the last few years to stop and I want to get better. At the moment it's not about racing it's just about putting a smile on my face. The racing can come later when the mojo has returned from wherever it has gone.

A favourite Picture

Another picture taken by Lee as we left Dreadnaught at 7.30. I really like this one. It's the Marines boys just behind us who eventually flew past us on the Tideway.

Had a week off repairing myself but went for a small run yesterday, but having a big mojo dip at the moment. I guess it's to be expected after the exertions of last weekend. I'd quite like to get back in a boat but I'm not sure my coccyx has quite recovered.

The Devizes to Westminster Canoe Race 2012

  This is a long one, so get yourself a cup of tea first.....

Pre-race

This was to be my third start in the DW with one completed attempt at the Senior Doubles in 2010 and one retirement in 2011 after 17 hours. Adam and I had been training together since the summer of 2010 so the best part of two years were behind this latest attempt. For Adam,  it was to be his last attempt so we wanted to ensure that we knocked it on the head this year. We had been let down by our technique in the past so the focus over the winter had been to do plenty of technique work rather than just concentrating on distance. Like many people, we had not been able to do as many big sessions as we would have liked but all in all, we went into this race feeling better prepared and more confident than in 2011. That said we desperately wanted to get this right and complete, with so much effort having gone into it. However, the DW Gods could still have the last laugh.

I spent the four days before the race on holiday so Adam was left sorting out the final nitty gritty. Extra torches, lots of food, more base layers, extra socks; we probably went a bit nuts in those last couple of days, not wanting to leave anything to chance. Dad, who was going to be support crew with John from Devizes to Dreadnaught had gone back down to recce the portages again during the week to ensure that they were comfortable with the meeting points. On Good Friday we loaded up and travelled down and when we arrived at the Travelodge we made the final preparations to the boat before we headed off to the kit check. It was here we discovered that we didn’t have the Garmin despite much rummaging around. I had written a thorough checklist and had ticked it off into a box, but could I find it? Bah, we’d just have to do without.

Devizes Wharf was nice and quite and after hanging around for our slot we got a marshal to check things over and all was good. It was only afterwards Dad told us that the other marshals were all standing around Sir Steve’s boat that was having his kit checked as well. Anyway, we went off to get our race number and safety bracelets crimped on and as we came out we bumped into Steve so we took the opportunity to wish him luck. He’d probably need as much as anyone else who starts the DW. We trooped off into town for a meal and then it was back to the Travelodge and in bed by 9.30 for a 5am wake up.

Let’s go

After the worse continental breakfast I have ever had, ever, we got down to the wharf by 6.30am and got our boat straight to the front. We bimbled around, used the portaloos, had some food and then decided to get on the water with 10 minutes to go. We spent a very uncomfortable time trying to keep relaxed and stationary while the clock ticked down. Eventually I took pity on Adam and held onto a narrow boat while a C2 crew decided to create waves. Thanks a bunch.

We got away at just gone 7 and for the first 10 minutes were in 3^rd place in the DW. J We took a while to settle down and relax and thankfully not many crews were coming past us so there was not too much wash for us to contend with and it was just a case of finding our rhythm and getting those first couple of hours done. At

Honey Street

we took fresh bottles and carried on towards Pewsey and the first of our portages.

Capsize and Crofton

At Pewsey we were already over 10 minutes up on schedule; we felt really comfortable and relaxed but Dad and John urged us to cool our jets. We didn’t feel that we were pushing at all and I had thought beforehand that a small buffer might be useful later on. As we left I thought about our pace and effort level and it seemed spot on so we continued on. We approached the Savernake Tunnel with a couple of crews ahead of us but we had a horrible transition through. I zigzagged all over the place and we felt particularly wobbly. Of the four times Adam and I have been through it was by far our worst go and as we came out we could see that the couple of crews ahead whom we had been keeping pace with were now more than 200 metres further ahead. A short while after Savernake we had a capsize. There was absolutely no reason for it as it was a particularly benign piece of water. Thankfully the water was not cold which could have well caused us to become tense so we emptied the boat pretty quickly and got back in. The rudder didn’t seem right but on inspection all seemed okay but when we got going again the rudder was stiffer than before. After a couple of minutes a C2 crew removed a piece of weed which they could see poking out and immediately it felt better. The capsize really annoyed us at the time but with hindsight I think it helped. We focussed more and were more relaxed in the boat determined that would be our only one. It seemed that our time buffer was already coming in useful. A big shout out goes to the crews who went past as we sorted ourselves out. Every single one checked we were ok and offered support. Thank you. J

We took the Crofton flight much more steadily using more walking breaks and we paddled one of the longer pounds so that we would keep our heart rates down and able to digest our food. With a couple of the bigger and more iconic obstacles out of the way it was now time to get our portaging as smooth as possible as we headed towards Newbury. About an hour out of Newbury I noticed the first signs of an ache in my right wrist. Although it’s common for peoples’ control  hands and wrists to fatigue and is a common cause for retirement it is not an injury that I have suffered before. I started to be much more careful in opening my hand to alleviate it, but of course it immediately started to play on my mind. I just hoped that the nurofen would be able to control it for the rest of the race and stop it from getting worse.

We arrived at Newbury, still 5 minutes up so we decided to get out of our wet tops as we were starting to cool off and we felt a lot better for this. Dad and John had some tea and coffee for us and after that we felt happier and good to go.

Swing bridges



Portage at Burghfield



Adam was looking really good, well, as good as he’ll ever look. ;-)  I could tell that his confidence was high, which was really encouraging for the rest of the paddle on the canal. A couple of the swing bridges were open but the last one was quite low. I thought we could do it and initially so did Adam. We paddled hard at it and I got my head down only to hear Adam shout “No!” and the boat came to a complete stop with me under the bridge and Adam holding the front of it. Doh. We managed to inch our way over to the edge where Adam could get under it also as we pushed ourselves through. The people standing along the bridge were quite surprised to see us emerge unscathed and dry. During this section we were receiving a lot of support from Bob, as well as Dad and John, as his crew, Laurence and Lesley were just behind us. Bob was great, giving us loads of encouragement and as I turned round I found my mouth crammed with a jaffa cake and a slurp of energy drink before I had time to refuse it. He was a top bloke, popping up at various points along the route giving us advice. We saw Laurence and Lesley a few times at a couple of portages and they were finding it tough. Their day was made harder by a problem with their rudder which cost them some time and after that we didn’t see them again. Unfortunately, they didn’t finish, retiring at Shiplake, but I am sure that they will learn from it and come back stronger next year.



Leaving Burghfield



As usual, our portaging became a bit more clumsy and haphazard as we got tired. At one portage we decided to get out at a low grass bank instead of the higher portage point. As a result I found myself face-planting into some stinging nettles and had a numb forehead for an hour or two. Unfortunately, that was not the only thing going numb. My right hand was steadily getting worse again and I was finding it painful to open it, which meant I gripped the paddle all the time making it worse. All of a sudden I had a shooting pain down the inside of my wrist which made me stop paddling straight away. We were both worried and I immediately started telling myself not to panic. I could tell Adam was concerned and I just couldn’t believe that we may be dropping out before we had even got off the canal. We were still comfortably on schedule so we soft paddled for a bit, determined to not let the situation get out of control. It was great to have a quick chat with Hodge at Burghfield lock, who had come down from the midlands to offer his support and then we saw Bob for the last time at Fobney as he led us down to the get-in. I ended up knee high in mud instead of in the boat but eventually we were on our way, covering the last few miles to Dreadnaught.

Dreadnaught came into sight and we were bang-on schedule. We had lost the 10 minutes we had in hand from the first pound, but all in all it had gone well. We met up with a good crowd. Mum had come down with Adam’s Mum and Colin and Phil and Alex were there ready to take over from Dad and John. We got dry kit on and had some hot soup, coffee and a sausage sandwich. We said bye to Dad and John. They had been brilliant. While the adrenalin had been pumping for us they had been calm and reassuring and been a great support team. They were now able to head home for a well deserved rest.

All in all we were there for 20 minutes and set off feeling pretty good. Adam looked fresh and determined while I secretly worried about my wrist. I had a feeling that it was going to be a particularly long night.

The Thames

Leaving Dreadnaught

So we were now on the Thames and able to get our heads down and pick up some speed. While there was very little flow I was expecting the greatly more spread out portages would allow us to pick up our average speed. In the back of his mind, Adam’s big intermediate goal was to get to Marlow in order to get past where we had bailed last year and we were confident that this was now in the bag, but my wrist was getting worse again. We had a couple of short pounds to Sonning and Shiplake before we met up with Alex and Phil at Marsh. When we got there I got them to strap my wrist up with duck tape (is there nothing that can’t be fixed with it?) It helped to support it just enough to take the edge off of the soreness but I could tell that this was a situation that was only going to get worse. We began switching from cold food to predominantly hot food. Towards the end of the canal I had reached new depths of culinary ghastliness; 2 mini scotch eggs, a jaffa cake and 3 jelly babies in one go. I think with my skinny neck that I must have looked like a boa constrictor digesting a sheep, swallowing that lot. My favourite during the night became Heinz tinned spaghetti that Alex heated up and spooned into me. I normally can’t stand the stuff but I found it really easy to eat and filling. Adam was on coffee, chocolate raisins and soup which the boys kept coming throughout the night.

We started losing time as we approached Hurley and it was a combination of two things. Firstly, our portaging was taking longer as we got food inside us but more worryingly we had to stop on the water every 10 minutes or so for me to rest my wrist. I would take the opportunity to dip my hand and forearm into the water hoping that the cold water might help keep the swelling down and reduce the discomfort but there was no doubt in my mind that we were potentially going to be out the race. Adam was getting tired but was still in good shape and at Marlow we were 40 minutes down on schedule but half of those were from the Dreadnaught stop, so things were still looking pretty good, all in all. We were keeping up with the crews around us when we were actually paddling but it was the constant stopping which was causing us to gradually lose ground.

The length of time that we were paddling became shorter and shorter. I was using the micro-chunking technique to break it down as much as possible. We’d paddle to a tree, a light, a bridge, whatever landmark that looked about 5 minutes away and then have a quick break while I dunked my wrist. 

Cookham proved eventful. We couldn’t see Phil at first, standing by the pub so we lost a bit of time coming back to pick up a feed and we then went and paddled into the weir stream instead of towards Boulters. In all we lost a good 7 or 8 minutes there. The next few hours were a real struggle. I was becoming increasingly concerned about my wrist and discomfort was now moving well and truly into pain territory while Adam’s control wrist was also seizing up and he was looking increasingly fatigued. Slowly but surely, our extra time in hand slipped away as our portaging slowed drastically. We were letting faster crews through which was fine but that was costing us time that we didn’t have. On the water, we were still paddling well despite having to rest my wrist every 10 minutes or so. We had a couple of crews who put in the water in front of us having caught us up and we were comfortably keeping pace with them. One crew we held onto for over an hour only losing them when we stopped at another portage. We were able to use these episodes to gee ourselves up and give ourselves confidence that we could still make Teddington by 8 o’ clock.

I can’t remember how it happened but as we went through Old Windsor and Bell I got my calculations wrong. By this time it was 3am. I must have asked a marshal how far it was to Teddington. I had then done some maths (not my strongest subject at the best of times) and deduced that there was no way we were going to make Teddington by 8am. As we paddled towards Bell I broke the news to Adam. We’d given it a go but it wasn’t going to happen. Adam was looking very tired and my right hand was literally a claw on the paddle shaft. I genuinely felt that it was over. We pulled the boat out and Phil came running up, telling us that we had not lost any time on the last 2 pounds. We told him that we were not going to make Teddington and that we were going to call it a day. Phil looked at us like we were nuts. “What do you mean, you’ve still got 40 minutes spare?” Adam and I just looked at each other. We had decided that if there was still a chance of making Teddington by 8 then we simply had to carry on but I have to say it took a lot of mental strength from Adam to get back into the mystere. He was beginning to hurt and daybreak was still a long way off, but we were now paddling on a much more familiar part of the course. We just had to keep ticking off pounds and hopefully Teddington would be in the bag but we would have to be much quicker with our portaging and feeding.

We got to Shepperton at 5.26 which in theory should have been plenty of time but the weather was deteriorating. Adam was going off his food so at Molesey I was literally popping chocolate raisins into his mouth like coins into a slot machine in order to help him keep some calories going in. I got a piece of steak pastie from a supporter for another crew which was absolute heaven before we headed off on the last pound with 4 other crews down to Teddington. We had 75 minutes for the last pound. We normally do it comfortably in 45 but it was going to be a very close run thing. I can honestly say that over those hours between Penton and Teddington we were genuinely racing, trying to stay in the race. Again, we had to take it in sections; get to Ravens Ait, rest; to Kingston Bridge, then teapot island and finally Teddington lock. There was a big crowd of supporters for us there and the adrenalin was really pumping. The last 10 hours or so had been really hard and at many times it had seemed likely that we wouldn’t get there. We were the second to last boat through Teddington and we made it through with 4 minutes to spare. I celebrated by having a little cry.

The Tideway

The tideway from 2010 is blotted from my mind. I now know why. It’s bloody horrible. We got going again with fresh bottles and a bag of food in the bottom of the boat and we paddled steadily down to Richmond where we had to portage the half lock. There were 3 other crews there and we stood around chatting. I don’t think any of us felt particularly inclined to get back in the boats and we were on a bit of a high knowing that we were on the final leg and that Westminster was at least theoretically, in the bag, but I was also conscious that we were on borrowed time with us starting this section so late into the tide window. There was mud everywhere. I’m not particularly prissy but it was pretty nasty and I realised that there was mud in the tube of my drink bottle which meant I was not to have any fluids for the next few hours.

By now Adam’s back and shoulders were suffering and my coccyx was really sore and while we were making good progress on the water, paddling with the C2 crew that we had been with at Richmond, Adam was having to get out of the boat often in order to stretch. I was getting tetchy as I just wanted to make progress and that’s hard to do when the boat is stationary on the shore. We must have stopped 4 or 5 times with every stop costing us at least 7 to 8 minutes. We had lost 2 of the crews that we started the tideway with but we were constantly swapping places with the C2 crew as we made our way through South West London and into the centre of town. The traffic was not too bad; we had a few rowers to deal with but they were all really friendly with one of the support vessels even giving us a gee-up through his megaphone.

 The real problems started with a few miles still to go. Unbeknown to us the tide had turned and with that we started to get some pretty big washes to contend with, the worst ones being those thrown up by the safety boats as they rushed down river. We just hoped that the crews behind were ok and had not got themselves into too much trouble. By this time we were crawling along the bank just to ensure that we stayed upright and Adam saved us from a capsize caused by another wave. We were both running on empty when Westminster came into view but it didn’t seem to be getting closer. I estimate that it took us well over 20 minutes to cover the last mile or so as the tide was now beginning to flow back upstream and we had very little left to actually move the boat forward. The last couple of hundred metres we could here our families shouting and cheering and they couldn’t understand why we kept dropping our paddles; we just had very little left. The rib told us to go through the second arch.

“Not the first arch?”

“No.”

“Why?”

“There’s no water in it.”

 That might be a problem then. So the last 100 metres, and I paddled while Adam supported. As we went under the bridge and steered to the steps I just felt completely done in; I was more spent than any other time I could remember. Two lovely chaps helped me out the boat and up the steps, both promising me that I’d be back to do it again and when I got to the top I just burst into tears. I felt pretty silly especially as I was faced with dozens of tourists looking on with completely bemused faces and taking pictures while I cried and hugged Adam. I have never felt relief like it. After all that effort that we had put in over the last 2 years we had finally been able to complete the DW. It was every bit as special as the first time I did it with Jamie.



The last 10 metres





Being helped up the steps.





Jones and Kew; 28hrs 40 mins 87th /161





Aftermath



The aches and pains have subsided although I still have a bit of numbness in my right hand, and my coccyx, well, let’s not go there. Mind you, I really don’t mind, I am just so pleased that I was able to help Adam get to the end and complete this very special race. If you’re thinking of doing it; do it. You’ll never regret it. It might take you a while but it will be so worth it. But join a club and learn to paddle a boat first. Trust me, it’ll help. ;-) Adam’s on holiday so I’m not sure how he’s healing up, but like me, I’m sure that he’s not bothered  and he can bask in the knowledge he’s done something very special. I found our Garmin in one of the boxes when we got back home. I knew I'd packed it.

Thank You to;

Dad, John, Alex and Phil – Simply brilliant. Upbeat, unflappable, funny and prepared. We simply could not have done it without you and we could not have asked for a better support team.

Bob – Without his help and guidance with our technique this year I do not think that we would have finished this year. Cheers mate.

Lee – Thanks so much for coming down to cheer us on, the documents you lent us and the never ending good vibes. Cheers mate.

Organisers, marshals, supporters; THANK YOU.

One last thing……

For most of the race we were leap-frogging with these guys. They were simply awesome. It’s rather hard to feel sorry for yourself when you are paddling behind a triple amputee. Inspirational doesn’t do the word justice and although they don’t know it, they played a big part in us finishing this thing. If you’ve got a spare £5, go onto their just giving site and give it to them. They have really earned it.

Thanks for reading.

We did it

A tough, tough day. 28hrs and 40 minutes.  87th/161.

Will blog a race report in the next week or so.
Thanks to everyone for their support and kind messages.

More sleep now. :-)