In the beginning

I don’t really remember when I had heard about the Devizes to Westminster race, it just always seemed to be something I had to do. I’m a keen kayaker and I enjoy the big challenges and this race really pushed my buttons. In 2008 I started a blog to chart my progress, my training, and my preparation to take part in the 2010 DW race. I’m not sure why I gave myself two years to get ready but in the end that attempt was never to be, I had lost sight of my original goal and while I had completed a few events and went to the gym a few times none of it really involved a kayak. By February I realised that the blog was experiencing mission creep and I suppose that’s why I wrapped it up… http://dw-race.blogspot.co.uk/ here is the link if you want to catch up bore yourself with it though.

It didn’t end there though. My obsession with the DW didn’t go away and in 2013 I actually took part in and completed the race piloting a K1 with a time of 26:14:49. I was 32 out of the 39 K1’s that finished the race, I have the medal, I had done it.

I always intended to revisit the DW after that. A decent finish time was second to simply finishing the race but I had quietly hoped for a time that was below 24 hours. My preparation and equipment could have been better and I made a few rookie mistakes that slowed me down. So here I am writing a new blog that will hopefully culminate in Westminster on March 28^th next year.