Charity Triathlon Challenge 2008

This year’s challenge was a triathlon with a twist.

Day one was a 90-mile bike ride around the Avon cycle way.
Day two was a twenty-five walk along the River Avon and Kennet and Avon canal.
Day three was a 38-mile dragon boat paddle from Devizes to Bristol.

The weather conditions turned an already difficult challenge into something just a little harder than I think any of us thought it was going to be.

How hard can it be to walk 25 miles; the answer in this case is very hard.

The bike ride

The bike ride went very well; alongside the 90-mile bike ride we also had two other groups undertaking 50-mile plus rides and one pair walking three peaks in the Brecons. 

This part of the challenge sounded the hardest section prior to the tasks ahead but turned out to be the least painful of the all other sections.

It was not easy by any means and we had a few problems along the way which our support crew of Nicola Milton and James Tonkin helped to sort out.

Shaw Beattie had suffered from punctures within the first half-hour and had to be taken to Halfords to have his tyres cut off, new inner tubes and new tyres. But this man must be made of steel as he set off from where he broke down and still managed to catch up with the trailing riders. There were several other punctures on route that where fixed by the roadside.

Ginette Corr hesitated while cycling over a cattle grid and promptly fell of on the grid; she was really lucky not to break any bones but did come away with a glorious swollen and bruised ankle, perfect for the next days walking.

Stuart did an amazing job ensuring that the signs were clear for the rest of us and even doubled back twice to cycle back in to the finish with us stragglers.

Candy, Ian and their two dogs Zak and Dylan (also known as Gary Dog) completed their ascent and decent of these mountains, with only one fall and several bruises.  By some strange coincidence Candy’s bruises were a mirror image of Ginette’s?

The walk

The night saw thunder and lightning and lots of rain, the day was not much better so we set of draped in waterproofs for our 25-mile walk.

I think that most people’s feet were wet after a very short time, as the towpath we had to walk along was flooded. When we got to Bath the rain had stopped but by then the damage was done.

After Bath the weather was kinder to us but that didn’t help our weary legs and feet. In fact as the day went on the pain was from the hips down including the hip joints, Derek Kyme was walking along with traces of blood oozing out of his trainers, Stuart had lost the skin graft from the bottom of his foot.  All in all however, there was a great deal of excellent impersonations of John Cleese and his ministry of funny walks going on (especially after we had finished and tried to walk the 500 metres to the nearest pub).

Janet met us at our final destination in Bradford Upon Avon with a grand selection of food and drink, what a sight to behold for weary walkers.

The dragon boat paddle

The dragon boat section kicked off on Monday morning and yes you’ve guessed it, it was raining again!

We had two dragon boats with a combination of novices and experienced paddlers in each boat. We eventually set off and our support crew James Tonkin and Nigel Brown found that someone had not used the lock system properly and had emptied a section of the canal so they had to set about refilling it by operating the locks upstream.

Janet was due to join our boats at Bradford Upon Avon and I told her that we should be there by 9.30; well we finally reached there at around 11 am. This was due to my underestimation of how long it was going to take to get through all the locks and the problem with the canal.

When we stopped in Bradford Upon Avon, as we had to wait for some barges to come through the lock, we took the opportunity to have a cup of something hot in the cafes by the lock. I remember standing there with blue lips and white fingers as it was so cold and wet. When I looked down there was a huge puddle forming around all our feet where the water was draining of our soaked bodies and clothes, Happy days.

When we reached Bath it felt like we where actually getting somewhere, at this stage friends and family where calling to see what time we were going to get to Bristol, this was because we should have been there by know. But we still had another 3.5 hours to go before we reached our final destination. 

As we approached Bristol through the Feeder canal we had a large cruiser following us down stream this cruiser had already stirred up the water for us on the River Avon making the water quite choppy. The captain of the cruiser decided it would be a good idea to overtake us on this narrow canal, open his engines and come on past. The water conditions were like being at sea with metre high waves crashing onto the boats and tossing them around and we took on loads of water, had we not had two extremely capable helms (Bill Beattie and Roy Benington) we would most certainly have capsized, still it added a bit of excitement for the last bit of the trip (that’s me looking on the bright side).

We finished at Bristol with a last flourish racing together in front of the friends and family (and Nigel Leigh from Worcester who lent us the boats) that had had to wait so patiently for our late arrival, then both boats slamming on the brakes with all our might on the paddles, we had made it.

As always the end of these challenges are a very emotional experience, it’s not just that a small crowd has gathered it is the immense feeling of satisfaction and relief that it is finally over.  Also there is great bond you feel with all the others that have endured the same experiences.

I would like to thank everybody involved in this years challenge we have not yet gathered in all the charity money yet but at present we have a total of £2208 although I expect this will end up at approx £5000.

Gary Corr

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