WE HAVE MADE IT !!!

WE HAVE HIT OUR £5000 TARGET!!!

For those of you who have sponsored us, we cannot begin to thank you enough. Your donations are going to a wonderful charity that made such a difference to Marion and her dealing with her illness and to all the family. With the money we have all raised this means that this care can continue to be given to other families having to deal with these terminal illnesses

If you still wish to give something towards this charity or our Dragon Boat race then please feel free to do so.

If you want to know how we got on on the 13th July at the Dragon Boat Race, Remenham Farm, Henley-on-Thames. Please read on..

We all arrived at Remenham at 9am very keen and energetic and ready to give it our all for Marion and make sure we did what we had all promised and make the whole day something to remember.

To make this even more memorable Jen managed to get us some snazzy Polo shirts printed with our team name “Marion’s Marauders” and a picture of Marion printed so we really did look the part.

The racing started at 10am after having to register our team, give in our sponsorship money and sit though the safety briefing.

Our first race was really hard, Graham was our drummer this race and constantly screamed at us thought the race and really spurred us on trying to get everyone in time but none of us had ever done this before and didn’t quite realise how draining paddling a dragon boat really was. We came 2^nd in our first race and not a very good time so quickly put this down to being our warm up race!

During the break, we watched the other 14 team’s race and knew that we would have to step things up as the times were dropping and new records were being set. We did our first race in 1m.37sec and the record on the first race was 1m 26sec which was fast!

Our second race was just about to start but before hand we spoke to the guy who was steering the boat who gave us some really helpful tips and advise and as the race got going he really shouted at us – and boy did we deserve it!!!! We came in 2^nd again but we had shaved an amazing 8 seconds off our first time which was brilliant and put us 4^th so far.

As the other races started again new time were set and we dropped from 4^th to 7^th! Between the other races we were checking the times and working out where we were and knew that we would have to give it our all to move up and be in the semi-finals.

The 3^rd race was really hard as we were all starting to get a bit tired but we put in an average time of 1m 29sec and managed to come 2^nd again (at least we were consistent!) which was good because all the other teams were also getting tired and putting in slower times during this race.

There was a break and the Semi-Finals were about to be announced.. If we came 4^th we would be up against those that were 1^st which we didn’t want and if we were 5^th then we would be up against 2^nd which again we didn’t want. As the teams were being read out we were all standing at the rostrum hoping that we had come in 3^rd as then we would be racing 6^th and 9^th which put us in good stead for getting into the finals. If we were anything else we would surely be knocked out……………….3^RD YEAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!

As we lined up for the semi-finals Ellie ran over to us and said “6^th place put in a time of 1m29sec on their last race, which was the same as us!” so it wasn’t going to be as easy as we thought!

We were off to a brilliant start and really did give it everything we had...............1^ST!!

YEEEEAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH we were in the finals!!!!!

We had 3 mins to have a quick drink and then we were off again – We knew that we were all knackered and didn’t have a lot of energy but we really did give this race EVERYTHING we had left, we put in a power stroke just before the finish but hit a bow wave of the other boat which rocked us so much that we thought we were going over! 

Ellie was the drummer at the time and with one leg in the air we all leaned to keep us up right. We powered on though but unfortunately we came in 3^rd.

We were really pleased with the position we came though and didn’t really expect to get that far. We had some brilliant support from all our family and friends and they cheered us on though every race thought-out the day. The weather was also on our side which made it even better and I think each and every one of us did Marion and Sue Ryder Care proud.

There were 2 main reasons why we were doing this race 1, to remember Marion and to make her wish of giving something back to Sue Ryder Care come true which I think we done and we are all very proud of and 2, to raise as much money as we could for this fantastic charity that had been the crutch for all the family during Marion’s illness.

THANK YOU

From the Marion’s Marauders team:

Graham Lyons & Eleanor Vesey-Thompson (Drummers) Terry Browne, Lisa Gomersall,  Jennifer Cronin, Lee Boxall, Chris Lyons, Michael Watts, Steve, Martin Cronin, Gareth Edwards and Simon Cronin.