THE LONGEST CANOE MARATHON IN THE WORLD

It could be argued that there are few greater challenges than the Devizes to Westminster International Canoe and Kayak Marathon. The 125-mile race takes place at Easter each year, starting in Devizes, Wiltshire and finishing under Westminster Bridge in London. The first 52 miles are along the Kennet and Avon Canal, the next 55 miles on the River Thames and the final section on the Thames Tideway, also along the way are 79 lock portages.

Entrants who choose to complete the course straight through the night (in double racing canoes or kayaks) will need to draw on every ounce of their mental and physical strength, as most will paddle for well over 20 hours non-stop before they finish, that’s roughly 90.000 paddle strokes Nobody is guaranteed to reach Westminster; and there can be no doubting the fantastic physical and personal accomplishment for those that do.

Entrants into the race are predominantly men - but each year, a handful of hardy women set themselves the challenge. Jean Ashley, a mum from Malpas and Adele Blakebourgh both members of Chester Canoe Club, and Chester Triathlon Club, decided last October to take up the challenge.

Jean said ‘’Training was hard this winter, the weather’s been freezing, they spent a lot of hours - day and night paddling on the River Dee, on several occasions we got back [from training] covered in frost and ice, motivated only by our flask of hot chocolate in the changing rooms!” she laughs. “Luckily, I have a very supportive husband and daughters, who helped with housework and cooking to allow me to spend more time on the water.”

Jean and Adele started canoeing in Devizes at 11.00am on Saturday and finished underneath Westminster Bridge outside the Houses of Parliament on Sunday at 9.21am. They came 38th out of 180 starters and they finished in an incredible 22 hours and 21 minutes - winning first place in Ladies class, and also taking the ladies veteran prize (over 35), they were 3 hrs 30 mins ahead of the next ladies team!

Jean says ‘’Its certainly an amazing journey, it’s a great way to test yourself and push yourself to the limit and find your personal strengths, no mater how fit you are, its the strength in your mind, with the help of your support crew, that gets you over that finish line.

There were highs and lows along the way, it was very tough and dark during the night, and we did attempt to sing a song at one point to help keep us awake! But paddling down the last mile of the Thames, and past the Houses of Parliament with tears of elation in our eyes, knowing we had achieved our goal is a memory that will stay with us both for ever.

We would like to say a huge Thank-you to our great support crew - Dave, Kate and Lucy; Margaret and Graham; Paul Keith and Jenny, they kept feeding us and supporting us throughout the whole race. We also had a huge amount of sponsors back home who have helped us raise so far, just over £700 for Cerebral Palsy Sport, with money coming in they are hoping to reach £1000.

All this just made us dig a bit deeper knowing we weren’t out their on our own, and they were willing us to get to the finish line to!