Well, here we go again... again. This year's 125-mile Devizes to Westminster canoe marathon - the 60th anniversary of its inception - is now less than 7 weeks away, and for the third year in succession there will be Wilton participation.
This year it's my son who will be taking part. Sibling rivalry? Perish the thought.
As before, the school is encouraging its crews to raise sponsorship money for donation to a charity: this year it is Msaada, a Dorset-based charity which is helping surivors of the 1994 Rwandan genocides to rebuild their lives. All the sponsorship money raised goes to the charity; the costs associated with entering the race, training, boats and equipment are met by the school, and the rest (glucose, painkillers, blister treatment) by the parents.
Training for the race is in full swing, the programme being made even more challenging by the fact that Easter falls exceptionally early this year. Most of the school's crews have never paddled a canoe before (let alone a skinny, steerable, two-person racing kayak). This is week 5 of their training programme, and over the course of three sessions, they will cover a total of 32 miles. So as you can see, the physical pace of the training is a beast in itself, before they even get to racing... especially on a wintry day like this:
In both of the last two years blog-readers have been incredibly supportive, and once again this year, any and all sponsorship offers are gratefully welcomed: just drop an email pledge, for any amount, to robin dot wilton at sun dot com. We'll arrange payment later through PayPal or other acceptable means. Thank you!
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