Battle of The Thames 2019

27th April 2019

This years version of the Battle of The Thames was going to live up to it’s name. Storm Hannah was blowing in from the Irish Sea and with her she was bringing winds gusting to 60mph.

Now for the survivors from The Head of the Dart, Martin Colyer, Andrew Stotesbury and Devon Cumberand, with its tiring headwinds, this was a little bit of “Déjà Vu”. For Jennie Pollard and Ed Milnes this was a whole new experience! They were going the be joined by Sharon Wallace and Anya Williamson, but Anya was called into work.

Word got around that the course was changed as the loop up to Hampton Court had been cut. Now the race would be three loops down to just past Kingston Bridge.

We the ‘Ditton’s Racers’ attended the briefing, then at a slighter later time than originally planned we all headed out to await our starts.

Martin and Devon in the green vest and Jenny and I in the gold/brown. We all finished!! Each had our own adventure, Martin, got quite wet in a passing shower and Andrew had a swim on route – (a Duathlon? – ed)

We all agreed it was grueling, not even noticing rain on route. We later found out that not all starters completed the full course. So with this news we all went home pretty proud of ourselves!! The sun of course came out for the prize giving, but it was still really cold!

Final words from Jennie “I did the full 10k (modified course) but it was bloody hard work paddling into the wind by the end 😰 Thanks for your support & encouragement everyone, shows what a nice friendly club Dittons is 💕”