Sunday 30 July 2017

National Championships, Pangbourne

Hhh
All things considered I probably should not have entered the National Canoeing championships, but I did. It was only because the club sent e-mail reminders to 'get your entries in' and in my ignorance I thought that there can't be too many over 69 year olds that want to race k1s and possibly it needed a bit of support.... I was wrong. It turns out that there are at least thirteen others who are able, willing and ready to do so.

The National championships were this year held on the Thames at Pangbourne, just a couple of miles upstream from Reading on a lovely stretch of water between Mapledurham and Pangbourne locks. The weather was fine with only a light breeze blowing against the outward leg of the out and back course of approximately four miles.

Looking at the start list, published the week before the race, it became obvious that I had maybe bit off a little more than I could chew. The absence of entries of the usual suspects from the club, except for the A team, should have told me something. In fact, I found that I was up against the likes of our own club coach, no slouch in a boat and Brian Greenaway, author of the DW bible. Both of them long time racers and still rated in the mid-upper groups. Most of the other hopefuls were also in the upper echelons with only one other like myself, in group 9.

My start at something past 10:00am was its usual lack-lustre style as I was balked by the two adjacent paddlers getting ahead and closing the gap so that I had to stop paddling to prevent a collision. By the time I was going again the main field was was ahead and cutting across to the left side of the river to take advantage of bend in that direction. Clearly I was out of my depth, probably in more ways than one, and I tagged along as tail-end Charlie. 

One of the guys next to me at the start also seemed to be having a bit of a torrid time of it and I got ahead of him after another hundred meters or so and I kept up my effort to at least try to keep the main field in sight. The practice efforts I'd been putting in seemed to be paying off and I was able to keep paddling for most of the outward leg and I judged I was about a minute and a half behind at the two mile turn. The only real problem that I was having was from the wash coming across from the phalanxes of paddlers of the previous starts, which meant having to adjust for the sizeable wave they were creating.

Coming back was a different matter. Even with the flow and wind, which was with me, I was tiring fast. Gradually I was overhauled by the paddlers from the start just behind me. But they did serve something of a purpose as I tried to stay with them as they passed. It was nice to have someone to race even if they were in the race after mine. Nevertheless I found the finish line and came in at least ahead of the guy I'd passed just after the start. It turned out that he was the other group 9 paddler and I beat him in by about five minutes. 

My time for the race was 45:59. That's probably my best time for four miles, even accepting that the course might not be as accurately measured as a road race distance. Considering that my best time for the H&H 4.3 miles is around 52:31 I'm quite pleased with the outcome. It shows the value of actually having someone to race in a race. 

Oh... Did I mention that I wasn't last.

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