17 April 2008

24-hour canoe marathon

21st March 2008, Dave Apps, Crew Manager, White Watch, Preston Circus community fire station completed a marathon 125 mile canoe race from Devizes in Wiltshire to Westminster in London!

The Devizes to Westminster marathon canoe race is 125 miles long and is held annually, every Easter weekend. The grueling race can last up to 30 hours and requires entrants to paddle the 125 mile distance non-stop, except for the parts where participants have to get out, lift the boat on to their shoulders and run on land, only to throw the boat back into the water to begin paddling again. This is repeated 77 times with the longest distance on land being over a mile.

This was the 60th year of the race and it’s been deemed the toughest so far. The beginning of the marathon was actually postponed due to the terrible weather conditions! Dave Apps entered the race, with his rowing partner Steve, after 6 months of intense training. They had set themselves the target of completing the marathon in just 24 hours and had a fantastic result, managing to finish 2nd out of 22 independent teams and 34th overall out of 128 teams, of which only 60 actually managed to complete the whole race!