PADDLER 104
PADDLER 104
OUT OF WORDS FOR EACH OTHER
Teddington arrives, and for the first time in the race, there is congestion. It’ s 08:20. By some miracle, we’ re in time but spent. It’ s time to decide if we can go on. But no one wants to push us. I’ m drained, Keiran is broken, and we’ re out of words for each other. Zerran arrives with bacon butties for everyone, and after supportive words from the team, Keiran looks up,“ OK, let’ s go.”
The rest is just pain and persistence. Keiran rallies, and I fall to bits. I can paddle for no more than 10 minutes before my hip flexors start to scream with pain. We hop from beach to slipway, leapfrogging other crews in the same situation. We help one paddler get out of his boat for a stretch and then are helped ourselves by two Irish supporters, who replenish our drinks and food and wish us well for the final push to the finish. With Westminster in sight, we need one last beaching to get some feeling back in our legs and then the final 400m of chop and flow, which turns us into nervous twitching wrecks!
But we’ re there, under the bridge and dragged out at the steps by a well-drilled finishing team who understand that our bodies no longer function. But we’ ve done it, and as we walk up the steps, the emotions explode, and I turn into a sobbing mess.
THANK YOU TO THE DW TEAM
The winner’ s time was 10 hours faster than ours, and well done to all of those elite paddlers who raced the course from start to finish. Well done to all those crews who attempted this race and found themselves at their lowest, only to find a spark that kept them going. Thank you to the DW team for giving us this rare opportunity to dig deep and ultimately feel proud. And, of course, a massive thank you to Nicola, Zerran, Lee and Mel; the phrase“ We couldn’ t have done this without you,” might be overused, but in this case is the absolute truth.
THE DW TEAM
Simon, Keiran and the team are from Bude, Cornwall. Simon and Nicola run a small outdoor pursuits business. Keiran has a creative company called Rakker and is marrying Lydia later this year. Zerran is 100 kg of muscle. Lee and Simon did this race 30 years ago in a home built C2 and Mel knew what to say to keep us going.