The Great River Race

12 Sep The Great River Race

Last weekend saw Clifton Gig Club rowing in their longest race to date: the fabulous Great River Race, a.k.a ‘London’s River Marathon’. This 21.6 mile course runs from London’s Docklands to Ham in Surrey, following the familiar, snaking EastEnders map past all of central London’s most iconic landmarks and out into the beautiful countryside beyond.

The crew was selected: Debs was to cox the race, having rowed the course before – and what a challenging coxing job this turned out to be! Nina and Terrey were the stroke pair, with Steve and Bryan in the ‘Engine Room’. Jerry and Tash shared the Number 2 seat, swapping over half-way through the race, and Sean was our bow-rower in Number 1.

Our training included a near 3-hour row to Hanham Lock and back in ‘Lindy’, with a timed run from Temple Meads tacked on the end, just for extra fun. Needless to say, we emerged from this training session a little shell-shocked, badly blistered and fully recognising the enormity of the task ahead of us. What had we let ourselves in for?

Too late to back out now, however. Steve and Terrey towed Avona down from Bristol to the start-line on the Friday; no mean feat, towing a 32-ft boat through Central London (with only a couple of wrong turnings). The rest of us headed straight to the Lensbury hotel near the finish line – quite an upgrade in accommodation for those of us who can remember the barge in Muiden and the tent/car in Porthgain!

The day of the race dawned, and after a hearty breakfast we boarded a special London bus to take us to the start-line. The excitement was starting to build. We arrived at the start to find Avona full of grit and water, the river having come up unexpectedly high over-night. This, along with the hours we had to wait until our start-time, provided maximum opportunity for ‘faffage’ – including binding up our hands with tape, applying various ointments, arranging our ‘jellyatric’ jelly babies by our seats for easy access, trying on our fancy-dress glasses, and naturally seeking out a local cafe.

Once the slowest boats had all set off, it was the turn of the gigs to launch – down an extremely muddy slipway. Once in the water, we just had time to get going and turn around when the gigs were already starting to line up. ‘Watch for the buoy!’ we cried – but Debs had a plan. She spun us around the buoy and took us swiftly up to the line, avoiding all of the bunched-up traffic. We were off!

What a race it was! 28 bridges to negotiate, 323 boats to beat and the most motley array of fixed-seat oar-powered boats, from Whalers and Dragon Boats to Skiffs and Gigs. The crowds of shouting spectators lining the bridges just added to the incredible atmosphere.

We were off to a fabulous start; a relaxed and even 27spm pace took us steadily through the field of boats, and we stayed ahead of Swanage’s ‘Old Harry’ and Bristol’s ‘Wapping Wharf’ for most of the race (they just pipped us at the end). We caught a glimpse of Clevedon’s ‘Ladye Bay’ behind us, and for a while we were neck and neck with Salcombe’s ‘Wolf’ – but we soon left these boats behind us and rowed our own race. The water was changeable – sometimes smooth and calm, sometimes choppy and messy. With so many boats in the water, the odd skirmish is bound to occur, but we weren’t entirely prepared for a whack to our bow-side kit from a boy-racer in a Marshall’s boat. Steve’s sweary tirade directed at a boat full of little Scouts was nothing we hadn’t seen before, however!

Past the London Eye, past Big Ben, out past Chelsea and then past Fulham football club, where an eerie roar from the stands echoed out across the river – the atmosphere was truly electric. As we rowed out into the countryside, the skies darkened, the heavens opened and we were treated to a deluge of hail and rain, with rolls of thunder and flashes of lightning to add to the drama. Utterly soaked to the pants, we stuck to our guns and rowed through it all.

Before we knew it, we were passing the final bridge. 1.2 miles to go! We upped the stoke rate slightly and rowed our hearts out to the finish line, to the sound of canon fire. It was over!!!

Without further ado, we rowed over to The Swan pub and, having stripped off as much wet clothing as was decent, we settled down and got the drinks in. We weren’t sure at this point how well we had done, but the fact that we got a table at the pub seemed to be a good sign!

The results were out: we had rowed the race in 2:33:33 – an incredible time! We were 40th overall, out of 323 boats, 6th out of 49 Gigs, and 3rd in the Mixed Category! Well done everyone, we did amazingly!

After an afternoon spent in the pub, it was getting dark as we finally rowed Avona over to the slipway and got her back on the trailer (with the odd swig of spiced Rum and slurp of Champagne, as was only to be expected!). Out for a curry that evening, organised by Tash; what a perfect way to round off an incredible day, and to toast the fantastic success of Clifton Gig Club.