Lincoln Marathon

The day dawned … well hardly! What’s this disturbance in the middle of the night? Oh Yeah! The first proper marathon on the calendar for 2007, but why get up so early? The clocks leapt forward an hour last night & you have to get up early for Waterside. But George, Brian & Tim are the only ones who were hard enough to do the D race - 34.5 miles of mud, blood & tears. I exaggerate … slightly!
No just Lincoln, but force of habit on Kath’s part meant that we then had hours to kill before leaving. Just as we were walking out of the door, a phone call from one of the girls meant that we got to NKC late anyway!
Arriving at Lincoln, the long traipse from the car park to the club substituted for a warm up as usual.
It was a reasonable turn out by NKC for the familiar windy ditch crawl on the Fosse Dyke, although the sun felt warm if you could find a hiding place from the wind. Ages ranged from 10 to 60 something, made up of 4 seniors, 9 veterans, 3 juniors & 1 lonely Lightning paddler. In fact he was so lonely that no one turned up to race against him, so Tadek valiantly paddled the 4 mile Div 7/8 race with Geordie.
The Vets dominated Div 7/8 K2 with Heather & Alison in 1st place followed by Kath & Tony whose total age was well over 110, in 2nd place. Other notable performances came from Rex, winning Div 5 by so much that he was half changed before the rest of his race arrived back. Norm & Cathy managed a similar feat in Div 5/6 K2. I plodded round the 8 mile, Div 4 race, at the opposite end of the field to Ralph. My spirits lifted slightly as I caught, Steve Riley from Anker Vally, but he promptly retired from the race. Baggy needs a mention, as the only NKC paddler lucky enough to do the 12 mile course, finishing 2nd to Chas Fleeson of Anker Valley in the final sprint. Congratulations on promotion for Sarah, Shobhanaa, Rex & Ralph. You can read the rest of the results for yourself. The link will be on the NKC website as soon as the organiser sorts out the tangle in his computer & posts them on the Lincoln site.
Well that’s a few white & blue mugs on the shelf & a stack of points towards the Hasler Trophy then!