DW2011

356	Milbank	Chris	Male	Longridge CC			29:34:35	80
	Westwater	Tom	Male	Longridge CC

my hardest earned DW medal

We got together as a team 25 days before DW 2011, 29hr 34min makes me really pleased. 11th in class and 80th is also better than I expected. Did I mention that I'm really, really pleased?

This year is the toughest DW I've ever done. I knew it was hot but when my support crew told me that the temperature on Saturday went up to 29ºC and Sunday was 28ºC I was shocked. I saw crews dropping out on Friday with the heat.

DW 2011 gallery

Let me know if the gallery doesn't work

We decided to start an hour earlier than planned due to what I saw on Friday and what support crews and paddlers were all saying. It was a good move. On Saturday we were behind our planned time when we reached Newbury. 

One of the nicest things on the race was shortly before Theale. A young boy on a bike rode up and asked our number and the cycled off. We had no idea why? A few moments later it became apparent when his family in a narrow boar moored up cheered us on shouting, "Come on Chris and Tom". This was one of the nicest things that's ever happened on any DW to me!

The heat was relentless. It wasn't until the sun started to go down that it became manageable. At Dreadnought our support crew fed us hot pasta. It was the right choice.

During the night we picked up the pace and made up a lot of the ground we had lost during the day. However, between Hambledon and Hurley I almost took my first ever DW swim- we hit a large branch which was just underwater and invisible. But, being good whitewater paddlers, our support strokes were intuitive and it was the branch that broke.. I was worried we had damaged the canoe- no Kevlar isn't just bulletproof it's tree branch proof!

There were some low points during the night but for me this is my first DW where I never though about pulling out.

When the sun started to come up we saw a lot more paddlers. Reaching Teddington in time for the tide was a great feeling. I didn't know Richmond Lock was a lock never mind it being closed. I had no idea why there was no flow? Once we were on the tidal flow it was apparent that the 17 miles had been stretched to 37 miles and 25 extra bridges had been put in. In seriousness, this was the latest I had ever paddled the tidal section and the waves from the non-sympathetic tourist craft weren't just big, at one point Chris got air as we went over a wave! One jolly helpful fake Burberry wearing family in a power boat came across the front of us to help swamp the canoe. But being whitewater warriors we survived these trials. 

We talked to a lot of other crews as we went down the course, hopefully they appreciated our mobile entertainment show, when the speakers were working.

Well done to everyone who entered, thanks to everyone who volunteered and a very big thank you to our support crew.

This will probably be my final blog post for DW 2011. As there are only 346 days from writing this until DW2012 I need to start plans for my next DW- 375 down so I need 2 more senior double and three other classes to reach my 1000 miles!

Anyway I've already started my 2012 DW blog

Tom

Supplemental

Day 1 Gallery

Well done to everyone from LCC who took part

All the LCC finishers were under 30 hours!

422	Cornish	Timothy james	Male	Longridge CC			18:28:22	2
	Harding	Ollie	Male	Longridge CC

734

Archondakis

Alan

Male

Longridge CC

18:42:14

7

395	Allen	Emily	Female	Longridge CC			24:45:13	35
	Edge	Chris	Male	Longridge CC

754

Drake

Geoff

Male

Longridge CC

28:43:39

11

356	Milbank	Chris	Male	Longridge CC		00:15:37	29:34:35	11
	Westwater	Tom	Male	Longridge CC