25th September 2009

Sunday 20th September saw five intrepid adventurers from TwRC brave ‘THE NORTH’ (technically the east midlands, but it’s all the same to Southerners) to take part in the Boston Marathon.

The Marathon takes place over a 31mile stretch from Lincoln to Boston. A women’s coxless four made up of Margot, Sox, Laura and Charlotte and a single with Arctic Tony set off just before midday.

12k in we reached our first landmark – the lock!! – where we lifted the boat, oars and all, across a treacherous grassy bank and into the water on the other side. This was to be the last landmark before the 50k mark.

Halfway in and still going strong the girls began their countdown, ‘enjoying’ every kilometre marker with the distance to be covered getting smaller. By 40k the marathon was taking its toll; the constant weeds on the rudder, the backchat from Walbrook juniors, and the sunburn on one side of our bodies was making what had seemed a good idea on Saturday night a really painful Sunday afternoon.

The time ticked on, the miles built up and we were soon into our last 2k (not soon enough). This was the hardest for all of us. The pain by this point was immense, but we were so close, we had to finish. 5hrs 28mins and arrival time!! Tony was waiting having finished in 5hrs 18mins – superb.

The thoughts of ‘never again’ stayed with us until the blisters healed but we have to return to defend our course record and winners of WIM3 4- next year!!!

The Pioneers & Arctic.