Entering the day, myself and Enda hadn't really set our minds on a time, unlike on Waterside B, however I had toyed with the idea of 4hours 15mins, Blair at the club suggested to Enda 4hours 40mins would be good for us, so we thought okay then 4hours 30mins.
You could say that the night before and on the morning of the race the omens weren't the best, the clocks were going forward and 'sign in' was at 8am meaning very early rises all round. On Saturday night Enda had a text from one of our support team who couldn't make it, bugger, ok though we had 2 of our contingent still coming. Then, after the shuttle, driving back to Pewsey Wharf, a pigeon decided to have a game of chicken with us, lost and the corpse got stuck in the roof bars leaving a rather large blood splat on the side of the boat.
Still undeterred we signed in, got ready and set off. A much more calmer start than Waterside B. As usual took me the customary 10-15mins to settle in the boat, with Enda being the clam influence. Then we got the boat going rather well, portages good too. Found the tunnel (502yards) interesting and run quite a bit of Crofton (7or8 locks in about a mile). All going good then about half way things went a bit south. Whilst on one of the portages Enda's seat fell out, so we had to stop for that. I noticed that my footplate was very loose so didn't feel I could use it too much to push off and then we had a very soul destroying 6 or 7 miles where the boat just wanted to lean to the right. It was a killer leaving us both frustrated and getting annoyed. We decided we just needed to get on with it and find the best way to cope and hope that Enda's back didn't pop out from paddling in a Z shape.
Anyway, the last couple of miles went better again, apart from me being called a rather unfriendly name from a potty mouthed lady, and we crossed the line in 4hours 21mins, so inside the 4hours 30mins, and to be honest, if it went smoother we could have had 10mins off of that time easily
Taking the positives from it, we dealt with the adversity on this one (even if a little frustration crept in), our average speed was above the 5mph target for the DW and we didn't find ourselves falling in at all. However, the tendinitis has come back in my forearm although it doesn't seem as bad as last time, which reminds me I need to get some ice on it now before bed.
A couple of pictures from the day.
The Pigeon Who Lost!
Back on it, Watched by Support Crew
Boys - this only tells half the story! How many other idiots were up at 6am on the day the clocks went forwards, traipsed all over the south of England moving boats, picking up new friends and then charged down a canal for 23 miles! Besides all that I thought this was a canoe race. What's this about running a mile round 7 locks with the boat!?!
ReplyDeleteGreat time and thanks for all the entertainment. You are now officially part of the mad community of paddlers. Here's to hoping that the next month is as much fun. I'm buying the first one in Westminster.
Cheers Blair, I guess we're all a little 'off centre' ;o) lol
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