I decided to take on the DW challenge (and a few other kayaking challenges such as the 2011 Tay Descent) after my kayaking accident in 2010.  I thought I should do as much as I could before the complete loss of my left eye and prove to myself I have the capability of succeeding.  I asked a few people if they were interested in taking on the 24hr challenge and ended up with a very able div 3/4 paddler named Mike Fitzsimons from the Mercia Canoe Club’s small racing team (though only after I promised to buy him dinner!).

In November, we started training for longer and longer evening sessions in our K1s, going anywhere from 10-16 miles.  Meanwhile we searched for a suitable boat to use in the challenge.  We went on our first 32 mile training session of the course in early December where we went from Thatcham to Reading and back.  It was a particularly cold day with ice forming on the banks and even on the boat as we paddled along! Once our entries had been accepted, we went to our club with our support leader (Nigel Wooltorton, experienced DW supporter) to ask for more supporters and found we were overrun with volunteers.  We now have a team of six supporters ready in three cars for the event.  From this point Mike and I started taking it seriously and no amount of flotsam and jetsam on the river (such as dining room chairs, mattresses, TVs and even one portaloo) would stop us.Our training suffered heavily throughout the cold period.  Mercia Canoe Club is located in the Canal Basin at Coventry and the cold meant the canal was frozen and out of action for around two weeks.  In that time, we had to cope with indoor weights and rowing sessions which were particularly hard on me (much to Mike’s amusement when, after the second session, I couldn’t even put my jacket on unassisted!)  The club also purchased a kayaking machine from Marsport to help with technique coaching and training sessions and from that point forward we have started putting in 3+ 2hr sessions a week on it on top of our evening water training.

Only two weeks ago we went for our first training session on the course with our full support crew on the Thames.  We made the decision not to take part in either the Waterside or Thameside series as we thought this would be counter-productive with our banana-shaped boat and all the washes.  So we went down to train from Dreadnought Reach on the 12th December after Waterside A was cancelled due to the ice.  We thought the river would be clear as it was flowing water… how wrong we were.  There was ice formed on all the banks and we had to bash our way through to two of the locks.  On one of them we had to take a 25 minute detour though a very cold if pretty snowy woodland to reach the lock.  It was a bit of an eye opener for both us and the support who realised just how tiring the support was.Our strategy now is to go down to the course over the remaining weeks and do a number of 30-35 mile training sessions until we have trained on every section of the course.  We are also continuing with our current indoor morning sessions and evening 16 mile sessions too.

Mike and Laurence in synchronised harmony

Getting near the end...