Lincoln 2008

Perhaps because Lincoln is in a northern corner of the Midlands region, there seems to be a myth that the weather for the Lincon marathon is cold, wet and windy. A quick look at the photos from 2007 shows that this was not the case then and apart from a steady breeze, not the case in 2008 either, as you can see from pictures from this year's race.

This made for a near perfect start for some of our newer Lightning paddlers to venture into their first race away from the club. Like other canal races, it's a good course for Lightnings, with tow-path access for the entire length, plus a excellent vantage point at the end of the Brayford Pool.

They obviously enjoyed themselves despite only a small number racing from a few clubs. Numbers this year mark an increase in the Lightnings entering Lincoln, so let's hope this is a trend. Well done to Max, Harvey & Olivia. Lincoln were generous in their allocation of prizes, so cups all round.

At the other end of the scale, Rex had a good race coming 2nd in Div 4.

Mick enjoyed the Div 5 race, coming ahead of Mark from Gailey for a change, but as can be seen from the photo, caught by Matthew, a young lad from Burton, who had started in the Div 6 race, a minute behind!

Lincoln is one of the marathons in the Midlands that incorporates real hazards as a challenge, rather than streams of red and white tape on false portages. This adds to the interest not only for the paddler, but the spectator. Of course you have to do the 8 or 12 mile course to enjoy the succession of low bridges, but long may races like Lincoln survive un-homogenised, with their own character.

In the combined divisions K2 race, Norman and Cathy managed to come both first and last, much to the distress of the finishers and the results compilers.

Not wanting to miss out on the low bridges and the extra 4 miles, they finished the short course, but then carried on to do the most interesting bit of the race and crossed the finish line for a second time! No extra points I'm afraid Norm, the Hasler Race Management system has difficulty in allocating points equitably anyway, without people attempting to get two lots. Nice try though!

Thanks to Julie for the photos. Maybe more to follow.

Full Results http://www.marathon-canoeing.org.uk/results/Lincoln2008.htm

More on DW

Thanks to Norman, some of the DW results that I'd missed or forgotten can be revealed. The double spelling mistake in the results database meant that any search for Nottingham or Butler, completely missed one of our best results ever! In 1988 the crew reported as J G Builer & I D Livsey of Noltingham Kayak Club was none other than Jimmy Butler & Ian Livsey in disguise. They won the Junior K2 in 15:53 which puts them in the top 20 Junior K2 times of all time.
I also notice that the Junior K2 record of 14:12:59, set in 1993 by A Richardson & S Jensen of NKC & Richmond still stands.
Thanks to Norman, we have more pictures from this year's race.
Boat checking at Devizes

The cheering section.
Norman, Mick & the girls.

Richard M winding Cathy up at Devizes ... or maybe just holding the boat.

Harriet ready to start, with Paul, prepared to leap into action.
Ooh! A last minute adjustment.
Rich G and Harriet somewhere in the first 16 miles.
Fern and Cathy just before the tunnel, oblivious that they are only 15 minutes away from a serious modification to their boat.

It can at last be revealed the magnitude of the miracle that Nigel and Norman performed on Fern & Cathy's K2 using only matches, meths and tape. More meths and it would have been a heap of cinders, less tape and it would have been 2 separate pieces of boat! As it is, the patch allowed them to paddle from Crofton to Newbury, a distance of 15 miles. Some slightly more long term repairs overnight, allowed Fern & Cathy to use it again on the following morning.
So just remember, the next time you make a bit of a crack in your boat, all is not lost!

Photos by Norman & Shobhanna

Back at DW

After our trip to DW being one of the highlights last year, everyone was in high spirits for DW number 2.
There were afew new additions to the car. One being Mick's new sat nav which although I have to admit was quite helpful, doesn't provide all the fun of being lost in the middle of the night like my map reading did!
Shob, Sarah, Mick and I were also joined by Leanna who I really hope enjoyed the day and I'm sure will someday complete the race!
Watching the four day event was very different from the straight through race. It felt strange to be leaving so early but mainly because I really enjoyed the day. All the paddlers did brilliantly and I hope our cheering helped a bit. A huge well done to Richard and Harriet for doing so well; you were amazing, especially with the weather being so horrible.
Thanks again to Mick, without whom none of us would even know what DW was, let alone get to see it ourselves. Thanks guys for a lovely day.
I really hope we have lots of people racing next year, my best wishes and luck go to everyone hoping to have a go.
Once again, a big well done and thankyou to everyone. It was a great day.
Beth x

First Experience of DW

Well it was definitely an early start to the day but everyone was surprisingly perky and bright for 4 o’clock in the morning! The drive to the start of the race didn’t seem that long and we were soon at the start of the race, we waited for Fern and Cathy to start but we unfortunately missed it and also missed there finish at the end but we managed to see Harriet and Richard’s starts.

Time whizzed on through the day as we followed and supported the crews round the course. (Driving in like the middle of nowhere is quite hard and I’m sure Nigel and Norman had a tough time finding places!) The crews looked to be doing well and Cathy always had a big smile on her face and seemed to really being enjoying herself!

We watched other crews and they had some odd boats and ways of portaging! There were always supporters standing by feeding the paddlers like pigeons which was quite a funny sight but some of the crews were really fast at portaging and were so swift!

Anyway it was a great day (only I think it finished too soon)! Well done and congratulations to all the crews paddling!

My View on DW :)

Woooo I managed to get back into my blogger account!... Well the 4am start last Friday was definitely worth it as the whole day was very enjoyable and it turns out that we had in fact gone to cheer on both the winner of the k1 race and the winner of the ladies k1 race. So fantastic results for both Rich and Harriet- Congratulations you two!
The company was excellent, I certainly had a real laugh on the way and on the way home, hope everyone else did too!
Thankyou Mick from all of us for another great trip out to watch DW. Look forward to watching the race again next year.
:)

DW 2008 - Senior K1 - Harriet

For anyone doing DW or Waterside for the first time, Harriet is a good model for portaging. Most slower and novice paddlers or crews generally seem to get out too early and back in early, perhaps due to the lack of experience of their support crews. This always causes a "clag up" of bodies around the portage. If you do as Harriet does, and get out late and in late, it avoids these and usually gets you round the slower crews plodding the portages with more ease unless there is a width restriction along the lock.

Obviously if the bank has places that are clearly easier to get in and out they too tend to be cluttered with hangers on. Anyway, it was a pleasure to watch Harriet portage down the canal. Here she is at Froxfield Middle Lock ...



... and again at Hungerford, with Paul & Richard doing one of the important support jobs of feeding the paddler. It's possible to see inexperienced supporters making a variety of basic mistakes in the way that they feed paddlers. It always shows when when supporters are paddlers themselves, or very experienced. They stand in the right place (out of the way) step beside or in front of the paddler when they are back in the boat (might seem obvious, but ...) say helpful things cheerfully (you should hear some of the things supporters shout at their crews - I would hit them) and stay out of the way of other competitors. The best example of getting it wrong that we saw this year, was one of the junior crew supporters who tossed a piece of food at each of the paddlers in a K2 as though they were sea-lions and managed to get one paddler's food in the water and one paddler's food on the deck of the boat in front of them, nicely out of reach. At night time it is the inexperienced ones who always wield the brightest torches and dazzle every passing paddler and supporter as well as their own crew.



Here are Paul & Richard M again at Kintbury after a drinking bottle change.
The end of the first stage, just before Newbury Lock. I'm sorry we couldn't follow Harriet down all the stages as it was a pleasure to watch her. Having trained with her for several of the sessions during the winter, it was appropriate that the "cheering section" followed her down a stage of her successful race. Thanks Harriet.

All photos by Mick & Sarah. (Any more that people have of Harriet, Richard, Fern & Cathy, can be posted by sending them to the NKC e-mail address or one of the Bloggers.)

DW 2008 - Senior K1 Richard

Richard and Harriet started from Devizes at the same time and stayed together for the first 15 miles or so.






After Wooton Rivers, Richard was obviously portaging faster, because by the time he reached the start of the tunnel, he was well clear of Harriet. This meant that the 3 Nottingham entries were now well separated and the "cheering section" opted for following Harriet, hoping to catch glimpses of either of the other two. This was the last we saw of Richard as he disappeared into the tunnel.
Following his progress on the DW website though it became clear that having pulled out a 10 minute lead on Paul Wells, he was hanging onto it over the 4 days.

DW 2008 & NKC at DW

Thanks to the great DW database of results at http://www.canoeraceresults.co.uk/, it is not only possible to see "copies" of DW finishers' certificates going back years, but search results by name, club, year and so on. Armed with the information from here, it is possible to see how NKC members have faired over the years.

Obviously Norman, with his partner Andrew was the first in 1971 and Kath was there to support Andrew! In the spirit of Capain Oates (Scott's polar expedition) Norm told his mum he was just popping out to go canoeing and that he might be "some time," and went off to do DW. We hope that this year, when he went to support Fern & Cathy, Judith knew that when he said, "See you later!" he meant several days later this time! Anyway, he and Andrew opened the NKC account with 24 hours 48 minutes and there would be plenty of crews who would be pleased with that, even these days.

Unfortunately, in 1973, the weather was even worse than this weekend, with bad icing in the Thames Valley and a head wind that blew steadily the wrong way from the start line onward, when Norm popped out again, this time with George. The decision to fish them out at Putney Bridge, just before the finish (5 miles), was not taken lightly. They were a good crew to support apart from George tending to fall asleep if you allowed him to stand still for a few seconds. In the end, it was a toss up between, hypothermia, exhaustion and water conditions that stopped them finishing against the turning tide in the early hours of the morning (as you could in those days.) Fortunately Pete Roney (NKC Chairman for several years) and Taff Jones managed the course that year, in 29 hours 4 minutes after chips, a pint and an overnight stop on the bank at Teddington, as they wisely waited for the next tide.

Heather & Colin were next in 1977, with Heather the first woman to complete the course in under 24 hours. They were followed by Kath who dragged 3 partners all the way in 1981, 82 & 84. Despite rumours, she stopped after 90 miles in 83 because of hypothermia, not because George fell asleep. That was another year of poor conditions and we just couldn't get enough leg warmers on her arms or woolly tops on her body, to allow paddling to actually take place. Thank goodness for modern thermal tops!

In 82 Kath & George had taken the club record time to 19 hours 48 minutes. Actually, Kath only agreed to race on the Wednesday before, as Heather had gone sick with food poisoning. (She was a caterer at the time!!!!) In 84 she paddled with Mick, so there was little chance of improving the club score due to his ability to doze off while supposedly taking "comfort stops!"

That was really the start of the "Golden Age" when NKC members had a go at getting the time down every year, frequently with Dave Enoch, George Oliver, or Dave McAllister-Hewlings in the boat, sometimes with two of them together. Most crews managed between 19 and 21 hours until Brian teamed up with Dave Hewlings and brought the time down to 17:25.

In 1998, we did have a member in the winning crew of the junior K2. Last year, Kat & Gilly, racing for Loughborough Uni, won the Ladies K2.

Meanwhile, 1989, Adam Brewster started the NKC string of K1 runs in the 4 day race with 17 hours, 1 minute. James Treadgold, best known to us these days as the organiser of the Waterside Series, followed in 1991, but slower than Adam.

Then in 1993 came Jimmy Butler's legendary 14 hours 46 minutes. People get excited over 15 hour something times these days & make a fuss about Brian Greenham & Tim Cornish's long standing record "straight through" K2 time, but Jimmy's K1 record time, done in flood conditions also still stands. True, the organisers would probably cancel the race and send everyone home if the Thames looked like that nowadays - in fact they did once, so one is left wondering if anyone will ever beat Jimmy's record. He did do 15:07 the following year, so perhaps it wasn't too fluky! (Everyone got excited about Simon Fennimore's time of 15:13 last year, which was 3rd fastest ever.)

Apart from Jimmy, most NKC K1 attempts went down in between 19 and a half and 17 and a half hours. Paul did 17:20 in 1996 and also came 5th, so that puts Harriett's 17:27 into perspective (do you reckon he slowed her down a few times just to get that 7 minute edge.)

Also apart from Jimmy (3 times), as far as I can tell or remember, no NKC member did a K1 time quicker than 17 hours until Rich Golder did 16:32 last year. He got onto the record books, way down the list with that time. Well, let's get excited again - he managed to win this year in 15 hours 51 minutes 10 seconds, which brings him up to =12th fastest of all time. Jimmy & now Richard are the only NKC members to win the K1 race. Great result!!!

Now just let's think about Harriet! You have to go back to Anne Plant (Independant) in 1986, to find a Woman who was overall placed higher than Harriet, when she came 4th. Anne and Andrea Dalloway also did faster times than Harriet, but 17:27 is the 3rd fastest ever Women's time and the second highest Women's placing. (As far as I can tell.) It's the only NKC win by a woman in K1! Great result!!

OK so apart from celebrating Richard and Harriet's successes, where is all this going? Well start making your plans ... we can return to the Golden Age, with them and Kat & Gilly, showing us the way! There are 3 Enochs and 3 Nadals on the record books, are there more families out there ready to add to that list. We've never had many juniors do DW, perhaps that is set to change. Only a handful of members have won a class or sub-class. Now Richard and Harriet have done it in the same year, who's next?

More pictures on the next post I promise.

DW 2008 - Endeavour K2

Fern & Cathy set off from Devizes while the "cheering section" were hiding from the cold & eating breakfast in Mick's car, but it wasn't long before they were tracked down to the Kennet & Avon canal, where like a few other people, they had gone for a little paddle. The first bridge where we spotted them could have been used as a wind tunnel for aviation purposes, the wind was so strong. We managed to see them several more times during the first 18 miles.




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Apart from Newbury, this was the last time we saw them as they disappeared from the radar sometime between here, which is seconds before they plunged into the Savernack Tunnel and the end of Crofton a couple of miles later. Richard was getting rapidly further ahead once the portaging started at Wooton Rivers, Harriet was in the middle and Fern & Cathy were a bit behind her, so it was hard to see all the NKC entrants at any one vantage point after this anyway.

DW 2008 - The Cheering Section & Supporters

With Harriet, Richard, Fern & Cathy racing, there were quite a few supporters and on the first day, the numbers of NKC members at DW were swelled by the "junior cheering section."

The sunny sky could mislead you into thinking that the weather was wonderful, but Beth wrapped in layers of warm clothing suggests otherwise.
Actually, there were strong winds, snow & sleet flurries & rain showers.

Paul & Richard supported Harriet and by her result, must have done a great job.
David Bailey (alias Norman) and Orange (alias Nigel) supported Fern & Cathy, together with Fern's dad. Between them, they performed minor miracles using only meths, tape & matches, on the tissue paper K2 that Fern and Cathy were using, shortly after this photo was taken!

DW 2008

Having followed the race from the warmth of either ours or Donna's house, the reality got a bit remote, but the driven snow outside the window at New Mills and the broken slates, blown from our roof, remind me what it was like.

The conditions this year make the results even more outstanding than they would have been in a good year.

Congratulations to Rich Golder on winning the Senior K1 in 15 hours 51 minutes 10 seconds.
Congratulations also go to Harriet for 5th place. Harriet also won both the Ladies K1 and the University K1 sub-classes with ease in a time of 17:27:12.

We watched the first day from the tow-path and enjoyed watching the NKC paddlers as far as Newbury. Fern & Cathy managed to reach there despite a flimsy boat giving up the ghost at Crofton. Fortunately Nigel had a few tricks with meths and duct tape and the boat was revived enough to get to Newbury. Sadly the same trick didn't work with the crew on the second day.

Richard was mostly moving too fast for us to keep up with him, but we managed a few photos of Harriet that will appear here in the next few days. Hopefully a few more comments or posts will be added by other NKC members who were in the vicinity.

Full result on the DW website at http://www.dwrace.org.uk/index.shtml

Sunday Lunch (No.2)

Thanks to Harriet for yet again organising the Sunday lunch after the last Winter Race. There was a bigger turn out of juniors with representatives from across the age range 7 - 17 alongside senior & veteran members and some of the national Wild Water squad. Great to see so many there again. The meal was at the Ferry Inn at Wilford this time and yet again offered good value for money if you had the Sunday lunch.
Thanks to Shobhanaa for recording the event on her phone!