Thameside 2 - RACE DAY

The weather had certainly closed in but as we arrived at the club there was no sign of the forecast winds.

The organisers should be congratulated on their focus on the safety of competitors which involved scoring paddlers abilities to cope with conditions and a full clothing (kit) check, support crew check and boat scrutineering. The race was to go ahead but under red boards on account of the increased river flow.

A bit of hanging around in the Rivermead car park meant frequent visits to the loo and Lee falling over in the mud!

We opted for the first start slot at 10:30 and lined up with what must have been 40 - 50 boats of all shapes and sizes. Our start was slow but safe, this unfortunately meant we had to contend with quite extreme wash put up behind the other boats.

After lots of slap strokes to keep us upright we made the first portage at Reading Lock and joined a queue of boats to portage, Matt did well with the current and soon got us onto a good line down the Dreadnought Reach and we began to overtake the fleet without other boats passing us.

We did the same in the Sonning to Shiplake pound, but got caught in a three boat queue at the put in, you join the main river at the put in and the water was screaming by, Matt's navigation was spot on and we were soon making ground on other boats.

At Marsh we encountered a late surge from a K2 on our inside who we had overtaken leading up to the lock and they blagged the portage right, however we ran past this same boat on the run over the footbridge to the put in area. It was here we saw Matt's family for a bottle change and quick mouthful of flapjack and we were back off towards Henley Bridge, welcoming shouts from other RCC spectators added to our motivation at this point.

On the Henley mile whilst windy we did not get the extreme wind forecast and we paddled up to John and Catherine and then slipped slightly ahead, John gave several technique tips all teh while saying how much they enjoyed sitting in our wash; however through better boat control they reached the Hambledon lock slightly ahead. Nick Daniel's was marshalling this lock and gave us the welcome news that there were only five boats ahead of us, whaich was great considering we had slipped almost to the back of the fleet at the start. More flapjack at the put-in then Matt navigated us through really tricky flows with a massive push from the weirpool entering to our left forcing the boat towards the bank and obstructions. The next pound to Hurley felt very odd indeed like we were paddling on boiling water with current coming directly up at the hull.

At Hurley we had to wait for a K4 to get in at the put in point and we had another top up of sweets from Lee's family.

On through Temple lock and now jus one more portage to go, no dramas through Marlow Lock keeping well over the the left away from the weir then a very tricky turn into the right hand side channel under the Marlow by-pass bridge to the finish.

We had a great welcome from our families, and Simon, Sandra and Michael Jeffs who had come down from Marlow to welcome us home.

Our time was: 2:12:49 seconds which was significantly quicker than our K1 times of the summer when we stopped above Marlow Lock in 3 hours, three factors; river flow, K2 boat speed, and I think we are getting better!! We were placed in 4th position in the veteran K2 class.

A great race, we learned several lessons, and many thanks indeed to our support crew, Mel and the kids and Debbie and Daniel for reaching Hurley in time.

Eyes down for another week of training and the Waterside 3 race on Sunday 7th March.........