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Down The Thames to London

Rob / 08.04.2004

The Devizes to Westminster race, one of the best known canoe marathons in the world, starts on Good Friday and continues over the Easter weekend. This is the 56th year of the popular race, and there are more and more adventure racers entering as a 125 canoe/kayak race is good motivation to get out training on the water in the winter – and it’s a classic race to complete.

It started as a bet in a pub (of course) and the original challenge was to take a boat from Devizes to Westminster in under 100 hours with all food and camping kit to be carried in the boats. The record for paddling non-stop is now just 15 hrs 34 mins 12 secs (set in 1979), but today there are many classes, plus a 4 day version of the race, and most paddlers have support crews to meet them at the checkpoints.

The 4 day race began as a junior event with fixed campsites but is now open to all and is a more leisurely way travel down the Thames over the Easter long weekend. Over the years the race has gradually become more inclusive. It wasn’t until 1976 that women were allowed to race after “embarrassing situations in the showers demonstrated that the rules were being breached�. There was also a Canadian canoe class introduced in 1976.

The classic non-stop race is the Senior Doubles class (mens, ladies and mixed), but all the other classes are on the 4 day format with camps at Newbury, Marlow and Teddington, before the final eighteen miles of the Thames to Westminster on Easter Monday morning. The race starts on the Kennet and Avon Canal to Reading, then joins the Thames to continue downstream to Westminster. In that distance it involves portaging around 75 locks and the later stages are on tidal waters so it’s a daunting challenge, which needs careful planning and good preparation. ‘The DW’ is often referred to as ‘the canoeists Everest’.

Among those taking part this year are Fiona Paterson and Howard Lowe of Team SleepMonsters, and they will be providing a race report when it’s all over. As part of their preparation they’ve been doing the ‘Waterside’ and ‘Thameside’ races, which between them cover many sections of the course, and they came away with a handsome trophy as winners of the mixed pairs class in the Waterside series! They set off on Easter Saturday for the non-stop race and you can read about their preparations on the SleepMonsters team site here.

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