DW Team Colyer - Ness & Amy

WE HAVE COMPLETED IT SUCCESSFULLY WITHOUT FALLING IN ONCE !!

Day 1 - Devizes to Newbury 34 miles

Day 2 - Newbury to Marlow 36 miles

Day 3 - Marlow to Teddington 38 miles

25 hours and 18 mins of paddling 🥵.

Dehydrated, achy and tired at several points but generally we have come out the other end pretty unscathed thanks to our fabulous club coaches; wonderful training plan which we stuck to and brilliant support crew looking after our every need.

Got a hole in the bottom of the boat at Old Windsor - 20 miles from the end but gaffa tape applied and reapplied got us to the end 🙏.

VERY PROUD OF OUR MEDALS AND THE ACHIEVEMENT.

Thank you to everyone for your moral and financial support - it was truly motivating and we have raised a huge amount for worthwhile causes.

Amy trained for DW 2020 when she was in the Lower Sixth at Dauntsey’s only for the race to be cancelled just 4 weeks before the event due to Covid. Her cohort, like so many others, missed out on several “rights of passage” due to the pandemic - A’Levels, driving tests, University Open Days and places, 18th birthday celebrations etc. It is gradually being recognised that the impact on young peoples’ well being and mental health from Lockdown is significant. Challenges such as the Devizes to Westminster Canoe Marathon, also known as “The Canoeist’s Everest”, requires resilience and as British Canoeing attests, “the race is a severe test of skill, physical and mental stamina and planning which produces a memorable sense of achievement for those successfully completing it”.

For Amy to fulfil this goal, I rather foolishly offered to be her partner!?! I had also been suffering the effects of Long Covid since November 2020 and thought such a challenge would help me improve my fitness and rid me of lethargy and painful joints.

Not having stepped into a Kayak until September last year, I quickly nominated Ayms to go in the front and steer.

Since then, we have been training three times a week throughout the winter, two weekday nights in the dark and on Sundays, supplemented by circuit training, a tiny bit of running (which I loath), yoga and walking. With just over 4 weeks to go until the event, our most recent achievement is paddling 30 miles on the Thames from Marlow to Sunbury. We just need to paddle a little over that and to do it three days in a row!!

The event this year is 108 miles with 77 portages (where you have to climb out at locks or bridges, run along the tow path carrying the boat and get back in downstream). Also the Bruce Tunnel near Savernake which is 500m long and pretty dis-orientating to navigate through. Things to avoid - swans, weirs, sluices, debris (reeds, branches and fallen trees), narrow boats, cruisers on the Thames, going head over heels on muddy tow paths, falling in and swallowing canal water !?

Our Support Crew, vital to our chances of completing the race are Andy and Evie, who have supported us unstintingly over the past few months. Thank you both!

To make this challenge really worthwhile, we would like to raise as much money as possible for two charities which are important to us. Amy has been volunteering at Riding for the Disabled in Wilton (RDA) since last summer until she goes to Uni in April. They support over 140 riders from 3-83 years with a wide range of disabilities, providing life-enhancing and life-changing opportunities. We also have family and friends who have been impacted by Alzheimer’s and Dementia, not least very dear members of our family in Scotland. The Alzheimer’s Society funds vital research and supports the care of those blighted by this cruel disease.

You can find out more about DW at dwrace.co.uk but I thought you might be interested in this snippet:

WOMEN AND DW

From its inception, it was assumed that DW was much too arduous for women, and, when the rules were formulated, women were excluded from the race. The first woman who is known to have done the race was Sheila Burnett of Cambridge University Canoe Club, who, with her partner Colin Dickens, in 1971 finished in a time of 46 hours 50 minutes. However, they were subsequently disqualified by the committee when it learnt that Sheila was, in fact, female and they were removed from the race results. Sheila went on to represent Great Britain at the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal. Two years later in 1973 another lady, Anne-Marie Evans, entered under an assumed name with her partner Jonathan Hutt, both members of the Canoe Camping Club. They finished in a time of 49 hours 57 minutes. This time the committee allowed the result to stand and awarded them finishing certificates, while still firmly stating: "There is not and will not be a women's class, since the committee will not encourage women to enter".

WISH US LUCK AND PLEASE DONATE GENEROUSLY !