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Birmingham to London K2 Kayak Relay Marathon |
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On the weekend of the 9th September Pete Scott set us our second test of faith as members of the canoe club; another K2 marathon. As if this wasn’t enough, he planned for us to complete the 144 mile struggle in under 30 hours! We all met on Saturday 9th September at 7 o’ clock in the morning to be greeted by 20 or so groaning individuals and a rather enthusiastic Pete Scott who easily made up for our lack of optimism for the task ahead. We arrived at Birmingham at ten to twelve only to get the boats off the bus roof and to set the first team off down a canal that left you feeling that you would of rather drunk water out of the Exe canal than of spent more than five minutes near this one. With this in mind we reluctantly hurried off to the next change over point. From here on the weekend was a blur of 5 minute ‘micro sleeps’, Boost bars and Richard Hobson jokes. But we have somehow managed to piece the weekend together from this point as follows. We paddled through the day, morale descending, and by the evening every one had completed two of their five, 4 and half mile stages. As darkness fell, the second lot of three teams took on their double shift and teams 1,2+3 were left to find a quiet place to stop for some rest for 5 hours or so. Teams 4,5+6 got off the water at near midnight and left teams 1,2+3 carrying out their half of the deal. The aim of this marathon was to raise money for the Peru’s challenge who we will be supporting out on our expedition to Peru in the summer of 2007. We have managed to raise around £3500 through sponsorship for the event which will be well spent through Peru’s Challenge whom we will be working with. As we neared London with only one leg to go, we were starting to feel the strain and with vain attempts to boost morale by tricking ourselves into thinking that we were paddling downhill and efforts from Ed Grieg-Gran reminding us to think of the children, whom we are raising money for, we managed to make it to the finishing line. To find a bbq and 20 or so relieved canoeists. Thanks to Mr Porter, Mr Clark and Ali Ripper who were driving the buses for us and also thanks to Steve Keane and OE’s Joe Freeman, Paddy Orrell and Laurie Wilson. Special thanks have to go to Pete Scott who never ceases to amaze us with his enthusiasm and the way that he organises the logistics of the event.
Fred Edwards
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