The summer series began in style with a cracking day of SUP action on the Thames in London.
The day got off to a casual start, we all spent the morning messing about on boards, having a paddle around & catching up.
Racing got underway after lunch. The first race was a 4mile race up river, under Kingston Bridge, and round an island & back. I got caught napping on the start, I thought it was the 1 min hooter but actually it was go! I was right behind everyone & not prepared at all! That put me right in the sh*t as I had to paddle hard to get through the chop & turbulance of the 50+ competitors & battle out to the front of the pack.
Eventually I managed to establish position with the front 12’6 boys & slowly picked them off until all that was left was my buddy Mr Slater. I pushed hard past the halfway point & was on his tail but just didn’t quite have enough to get past him. We finished pretty close, very tired!
We had a short rest then the ‘leveler’ sprint challenge began. Basically 5 man heats, all on the same board, 50m sprint, turn & back. Absolutely brilliant fun!
I think there was a slight mistake in the event management as the finish of race 1 & start of race 2 was up river away from our original base, so not many of us had any food & drink. Food was being provided but this was back at the finish of race 2! Not good when you’ve just hammered it all day & need fuel! My good friend Nick Catteneo came to the rescue by pulling out a bag of mars bars which we all dished out to help the energy levels!
Race 2 got underway & i had a pretty good start, leading for a while then Charlie Grey crept past & so did Mark Slater. I was hanging on to them for dear life but my energy just disappeared & I hit a wall. I could feel Shaun Taylor creeping up behind too adding extra pressure.
I knew the finish line was in sight but Shaun sneaked by, I held his tail to the finish but couldn’t make the place up. Pretty disappointed in the second race result but managed to retain 3rd place overall on points & times, only 13seconds behind taking 2nd place 🙂
My results
Race 1 – 2nd Place
Race 2 – 3rd Place
Overall Event result 3rd Place
Nice video from The Sup Store boys:
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