Anna and her partner finished the Devizes to Westminster canoe race - Anna's second completion in consecutive years! Their finishing time this year for the 125 miles was 25:05:21 - slightly slower than Anna's time last year, but I guess that's what you get for doing it on less than half the normal training schedule. The six weeks they did have paddling together were disrupted by injury and illness (both girls picked up a nasty gastro-enteritis bug - probably from a Thames training outing - and missed the entire last week of training), so it was a huge relief that they finished at all.
Photos will follow. In the meantime: high and lows point of the weekend -
- The Low: grappling with the possibility, at 9am on Sunday (Day 3) that Anna might have to pull out because of a recurrence of the neck strain that had already cost her a week of training. Not a good half hour! It's pretty gut-wrenching to see your offspring in tears of pain, but still determined to get back in the boat and keep going.
But...
- The Highs: seeing them at our next support stop, ten miles down-river, and realising that it was going to be OK...;
- watching them and two other crews sprint-finish at the end of Day Two...
- and, of course, seeing them come up those steps after Westminster Bridge.
I know I said this last year, but even after watching them do the race, I still find it hard to believe it's humanly possible.
Thank you again to all those who sponsored them this year; I'll let you know how much the team raised for the Meningitis Trust as soon as all the contributions are in.
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