The pain and
tiredness all
fall away
once you are
over the
finish line
Photo: Matthew Killgallon
We still had a 15-minute break at the
famous Delft Bridge. This is a bridge with
Delft tiles featuring the picture of every
person who has completed the 11 Cities Ice
Skating Race. It’s one of the most famous
bridges in Holland. Everything went off
without a hitch (other than leaving my
gloves at the B&B and having the support
team retrieve them!). The halfway point
came quicker than expected and after a
water refill, a banana, some pasta and a
chocolate sandwich, I was off again (no
Dutch Appeltaart!) for the last 7km.
The closer we got to Franeker the faster I
became as we turned off the great canal
and moved onto smaller rivers. Day three
was a good day, finishing in only 7:26:44.
Day four:
Franeker-Dokkum
42.6 kms
Delft Bridge.
Photo: Matthew Killgallon
Day four has several portage points where
locks stop you from continuous paddling
and the first day without any bells to ring.
Starting in Franeker we had to paddle on to
Alde Leie where my support crew almost
missed me as he had to race back to Sloten
after we forgot several things in the B&B.
The afternoon consisted of me paddling on
another ‘working canal’ of Dokkumer-Ee;
with more barges, speedboats and pleasure
traffic on a weekend ‘sail’. This definitely
made the paddle more of a challenge, with
many waves, as the boats didn’t really seem
too take much notice of the paddlers.
Once back in Leeuwarden near the finish
line you just feel so elated and proud of
yourself for completing the 220km tour –
the pain and tiredness all fall away once
you are over the finish line. People line up to
wave and cheer you on – you feel such a
sense of comradery. It is such a great
achievement. A whole nine months of
training, spending time away from home
and deciding to go paddling instead of
visiting family. It was well worth it.
Day four finished in a respectable time of
7:38:13.
Day five:
Dokkum-Leeuwarden
27kms
Photo: Matthew Killgallon
Thanks
I would like to say thanks to a couple of
people: Marije Elgersma, Ritske Merkus and
Aukje Postma for organising this great event
and all the volunteers. My husband, for
being such a great support crew during
training and the event and my paddling
buddie’s from Suffolk SUP: Neil Morris,
Kelvin Davies, Helen Fincham, and anyone
else I may have forgotten! Di Knights from
MidSuffolk Leisure Centre also needs a
shout. She helped me during gym training.
This is the final day and time to dig deep.
After completing four marathons in four
days I only had to complete a halfmarathon to finish. At the weekend they
have a lot more people who only want to do
the shorter stages and not the whole tour, so
there were a lot more paddlers at the start.
It also meant we set off at 10am which
allowed for a bit of a lie in.
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