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I can think of no other event in the schools’ calendar that pushes its competitors so hard and for so long. The Devizes to Westminster presents an enormous physical and mental challenge that calls for impeccable teamwork. The most disciplined urge each other onwards but expletives and tantrums are common as crews sink further into a state of exhaustion.
The end of a day’s paddling does not mean the work is over: crews have to dig into reserves of energy, pitching tents and cooking those huge quantities of food needed for the next day’s onslaught. Yet, this year, the atmosphere remained positive with paddlers comparing blistered hands and recounting stories of demented swans and heedless, swamping, pleasure boats.
To merely sit in a canoe for up to nine hours on successive days would be a feat in itself, let alone to have to paddle hard all that time. Once on the water, there is no time to stop and eat: food is shovelled on the run as competitors carry their canoes around 77 locks that mar the way.
Westminster Bridge, sitting as it does between the Houses of Parliament and the London Eye, provides a fitting finale to this race. Competitors stagger up the steps at County Hall to receive their medals wearing a strange combination of elation and exhaustion on their faces. If this is a moment to consider whether all those months of hard training, falling into icy canals, physical pain, and mental exhaustion have been worth it, one only has see the pride in the eyes of those who have completed this event to know that the answer is yes. |