Antonia and I had our first marathon experience this Sunday. It was the first of the waterside series Great Bedwyn to Newbury 13 1⁄2 miles including 21 portages. We weren’t sure what to expect apart from a lot of pain but as soon as my coach Andy said we ought to do it I was very up for it actually more up for it than I thought I ever would be, it was the thought of finally competing again thrilled me. Apart from the trials in Notts and the friendly Endeavour race both our last proper races with lots of other crews was Henley Royal Regatta in a much loved rowing boat!
We got to the start on time, the atmosphere was so much more relaxed than a rowing head race, which was nice in a way as it took the pressure off what we were about to do. It didn’t help that we boated the wrong way around and the marshal said it would be a long race if we were to do it back wards! We just made out we were going for a long warm up paddle in the other direction!!! Which he didn’t buy!
We started with 3 other crews and went off hard then settled into a good rhythm but 2 mins into the race we had the first portage. This is a skill in it’s self as you can loose a lot of time hauling your self out and in of the boat. To get the fastest portage you have to do everything in sink, from grabbing hold of the side, getting out the same way and running as fast as your partner to the other side of the lock gates and putting the same foot in the boat before your bums hit the seat and then pushing off the side. We were very bad at this having no experience but got better even though in the last hour I questioned whether my arms would lift my body weight out of the boat any more.
It was such a good experience and to race with all those people around was a huge buzz plus we over took loads of crews. This sport is mainly dominated my men so a lot of the crews we overtook were men and judging by the subtle remarks they made to one another found it demoralizing.
We finished the course in 2hrs22mins coming 9th out of 28 other women’s K2’s and also beat 29 other senior K2 men which we were very pleased with as we have only been paddling now for 7 months.
We also were spotted by Worcester Canoe club coach who has asked us to train with them at the weekends to make a k4 to race in the Summer which will be fantastic!
The canoe community is pretty small so it was good to finally meet a few of them. I can’t wait until the Summer now bring on the racing!
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