The DW is a timed course, so thankfully 300 kayaks don’t all set off together. Our start time was 0930, which by our calculations would bring us to Teddington lock in London at 0630 Sunday morning when the tide was flowing out at its fastest. This tide would then help us on our way to the finish.
The first section was 12km of still water on the Kennet and Avon Canal with no locks. Eventually we arrived at the first lock, followed by another 76 over the course of the race. Each was greeted with woops and cheers as they provided a welcome moment of respite to a squashed bum and a few seconds to stretch out the legs.
The Kennet and Avon Canal took us from Devizes, through Newbury to Reading. From Reading the Thames flows through Marlow and Henley before arriving in central London. In Reading we were spurred on by meeting James Cracknell, who was “already f$%king knackered". Words, which for some reason, we found endlessly encouraging.
Spirits were generally good throughout the race and we kept on an emotionally even keel. The notable exception to this occurred near Pewsey when we can confirm that Nick flapped. We’d paddled past a decidedly territorial swan with a mean glint in his eye who presumably was protecting a nest. As our backs were turned, the swan decided to teach us a lesson by getting airborne and performing a fly-by and wrapping a wing round the back of Nick's head. Fortunately he survived the lethal attack, despite feeble protestations that he could have broken his arm.
We paddled through the darkness and arrived at Teddington Lock just after 0630 to finish off some pasta and a cup of perfectly lukewarm tea. We then began the final stretch down the tideway before finishing under Westminster Bridge. We finished the race in 24hrs 1 min putting us 61/134 (a further 42 crews retired). It felt good. We had sustained a continuous work rate, been fed and watered superbly by our crew and exceeded our expectations as kayak novices.
Our support crew (Nigel, Angela and Jamie- Hamish’s family and Jonno- fellow Army Doc) performed a sterling job providing us with food, drink, morale and race stats every hour or so. We would have been completely lost without them. They fueled us on flapjack, Mama Reid’s chocolate brownies, chicken sandwiches, sports drinks, hot tea and soup.
24 hours of continuous canoeing had left us both feeling a little achey. Hamish had an eery creaking noise coming from his left wrist and Nick must have ingested some not-so-fresh river water leaving him with a slight stomach upset. Work at 8am the next morning in A&E provided a rude awakening and we spent the day plotting how to go faster next year…
