A cold and frosty morning awaited Leighton Buzzard Canoe Club’s members who turned out for the third of four races in the Waterside Series.
Waterside C is a 23 mile race with a massive 35 portages which require competitors to get out of their kayaks, run round an obstacle – normally a lock – and get back in their boats.
The first competitors were due to start from the idyllic Pewsey Wharf in Wiltshire at 9am. But there were concerns the race shouldn’t go ahead because of the frozen water.
And so the help of a barge owner was enlisted to travel up and down to break up the ice which allowed boats to at least get out on the water.
After much deliberation, some considerable delay, and in the knowledge that racers might be required to portage iced up water, the first of over 450 boats began a marathon paddle towards Newbury.
The early starters and the slower paddlers therefore had the biggest challenge, as with little traffic on the water it was left to them to either break ice, run, walk or at the end, hobble, to avoid large areas of frozen canal that could easily damage their boats.
All the Leighton members who started went on to finish, including club juniors Megan Campbell, paddling with her dad Derek, and Oliver Murphy with Dan Fitzpatrick, who all battled difficult conditions and long portages to finish in times of 5:00:49 and 4:48:04.
Luke and Nick Harding in their senior K2 completed the course in 4:37:18. Top honours in the K2s went to Mike Martin partnered by James Treadgold of Reading, who were 2nd in the veteran class in 3:19:37.
Showing her usual guts and determination, Beth Goodlad finished a brilliant 3rd place in the ladies K1 in 4:28:28, while in the veteran K1 class, Paul Plummer was pleased with his 9th place and time of 4:11:09.
The best performance of the day went to Sam Plummer who finished 1st in the junior K1 for the second time in the series in a storming 3:13:10.