Derek and I would like to thank you all for all the kind words and encouragement that has been given, in the build up to and after the actual event. We have managed to raise over £1500 for the MS Society.

As some of you will be aware, we were unable to complete the whole distance due to me damaging my shoulder badly, but we did get to Longridge Scout Centre on the Thames which is some 74 Miles, this by itself was a massive achievement as it is over twice the distance that either of us has ever paddled.

 I am lucky that my cousin’s wife Clare, did a degree in Sports Science and is a qualified Physiotherapy, so I have spent the last couple of days at their house having acupuncture and massage on my shoulder which is now much better, but don’t except to see me in a kayak for some time yet, till it has fully healed.

We had a lazy morning getting ready for the race 11:42 seemed like an age away, its only when someone said its 11:39 should you not be on the water that we started to really move. We hit the start line only 3 minutes past our planned time which did not worry us in the slightest; we had not seen anyone set off in front of us, so knew we were going to have quite a lonely paddle along the canal but this was not the case as all the people out walking their dogs, cycling and on the narrow boats were shouting encouragement as we went by.

We portaged the low swing bridges to give our legs some blood back which worked well apart from the second one where I stood in a red ants nest and two climbed up inside my trouser leg and started to have a feast, I found the first one who went for a swim straight away we paddled on. We saw the support crew on one of the bridges and I shouted about needing some antiseptic cream. They were all thinking oh no he has damaged his hand.  They were waiting at another bridge further on to administer the cream, this is when I found the second ant that was still biting me around the ankle; he quickly went and joined his friend in the canal. We were then almost at Pewsey when a swan took one look at Derek and decided that he did not like him so hissed as we went past. About 30 paddle stokes latter the swan decided Derek was not paddling fast enough so decided to have another go this time he would do it by dive bombing Derek in the back, as he did he caught Derek across the arm, which spurred us on to go a bit faster.

We were soon in a good rhythm, with our support crew feeding us at every opportunity they could. Mike Martin came for a run alongside us for quite a few miles to make sure that the gates were open and that we also had more food. Then we hit a big problem at the tunnel, a big slow barge was coming through towards us, the Marshalls stopped us. We were sitting there for what seemed like forever and by this time two of the crews that had started 15 minutes behind us had caught up with us. Eventually the barge popped out of the tunnel, we had now been sitting there for 10 ½ minutes, we were both starting to feel a bit cold so started off straight away to find Mike the other side after he had run up and over the top.  As we went through Newbury there was a shout from Derek we can’t stop paddling there was no horn.

We then just keep plodding on mile after mile till Woolhampton where I had the first round of deep heat, which seemed to do the trick. At Aldermaston Kari strapped on a heat pack while one of the Marshalls (who is a Physio) gave me a bit of treatment, as we pulled away from Aldermaston the marshal that had given me treatment told our support crew that she doubted that I would be able to complete the race.  We were now over 50 minutes down on our time so we picked up the pace from about 6mph to about 7.1 when we had the little bit of flow there was on the Kennet.

It was now getting dark, we should have been at Wokingham before it was dark but that was still a fair way off. We paddled though the Oracle with a couple of cheers from onlookers and then popped out onto the Thames. This was another big milestone, just round the corner now to some warm clothes, warm food, and another generous helping of deep heat.  Ten minutes was all the time we were given to get changed eat, drink and back on the water as we were now well over an hour down on our time and if this was not picked up we could miss the tide.  In the back of the boat there was a cry from Derek I’m getting high off all this deep heat.

I was now in serous pain and Derek could tell, he kept asking me if I wanted to continue, and told him that we have to make it over half way.

It was now pitch black as we battled our way down the Thames; we had a near miss with one Island and two Canadian canoes, that just appeared out of nowhere. We were still plodding along at just over 7mph and at Hambleldon the third load of deep heat was applied, I was now in real agony as the deep heat seemed to be burning the skin and the pressure of my buoyancy aid was making it worse. I would have given up at this point, but had it not been for Jayne giving me a good talking to and telling me to get on with it and work through the pain, I must point out that no one had told her about the Physio that had look at my shoulder way back at Aldermaston, so we got back into the boat and headed off again.

As we stopped at Marsh to get out I commented to Derek we were now ½ way which was great news. Unfortunately we walked the bridge as every movement was sending pain through my shoulder, but again we got back in and backup to the same pace of just over 7mph, by now I was thinking that Derek must be doing most of the work himself as my paddle stroke was barely higher than the cockpit rim.

Marlow was the low point of the race as this is where I decided enough was enough and before I did anymore injury to my shoulder we would have to call it a day. Gavin offered to put the boat on the roof and drive us to the scout centre but one more bit of defiance, we decided we would paddle there as it was only another 1000 meters and then we could jump in the hot showers before all our dry clothes turned up.

Derek and I would like to say a big thanks to all of our support crews, for all the time and effort they have put in for us over the past 6 months with all the on water and off water training.

Derek and I had a long chat last night and we have decided that we will be doing the race again as we both know that if my shoulder had not gone we would have completed the DW, so here’s looking forward to Easter 2010.

Kind Regards

Derek & Jamie

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Thank you for visiting our fund raising page.

The charity we are supporting for this gruling challenge is the MS Society. To find out more about MS, click: http://www.mssociety.org.uk/about_ms/what_is_ms/index.html

Derek (Leighton Buzzard Canoe Club) and I (Basingstoke Canal Canoe Club) have now been paddling together on and off for the last year, racing over distances of 200 meters to 34miles. This year we have decided to go one better and compete in the annual Devizes to Westminster International Canoe Race which is a 125 mile race, for us this will be a straight through race starting at Devizes at about 10am Saturday the 11th of April and finishing all being well between 7 - 9 am Sunday 12th April (With Easter eggs at the end) there are 77 portages with over ½ the race being completed in the dark.

Over the last few months the amount of training has increased with running and Gym sessions in the morning before work to night paddles and evening weight, gym and swimming sessions. Here are a few of the events we have competed in recently: -

28th December 2008 - 26 Miles - 27 Portages - Basingstoke Canal (1st Basingstoke Canal Challenge) - 1st in 04:30:00

4th January 2009 - 13 Miles - 3 Portages - Elmbridge to Richmond on a very cold day (Frank Luzmore) - 7th in 01:44

15th February 2009 - 13 Miles - 21 Portages - Great Bedwin to Newbury (Waterside A) - 8th in 02:05:33

22nd February 2009 - 12 Miles - 13 Portages - Aldermaston to Reading (Thameside 1) - 9th in 01:46:29

1st March 2009 - 17.5 Miles - 19 Portages - Newbury to Aldermaston & Back (Waterside B) - 6th in 02:40:48

 8th March 2009 - 19 Miles - 8 Portages - Reading to Marlow (Thameside 2) - 10th in 02:18:12

15th March 2009 - 23 Miles - 34 Portages - Pewsey to Newbury (Waterside C) - 13th in 03:35:39

29th March 2009 -34 Miles - 35 Portages - Devizes to Newbury (Waterside D) - 10th in 05:41:32

In the Waterside Series we finnished 3rd overall in the senior men’s category

1st March - This week’s race was made a lot easier thanks for Neil who leant us another Viper and this can be seen in this year’s time as we have improved by 18 minutes.

8th March 2009 - Need to make sure the boat is setup correctly

With less that 4 Days to go we are looking forward to the event with a degree of trepidation, fear, excitement and wonder! (If we will make it)

We would just like to thank everyone for the effort they are putting in for us, as without our support crews it would be impossible to do all these races and especially the DW!

A really big thanks goes to Mike for spending 4 hours repairing the boat for us. ps we will try not to break it again

We have now got our race number which is 392 there are 180 boats in our class you can track our progress as we go through all the check points on the DW website.

Jamie & Derek

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