John Hibbard and Anthony Cooper took on the 125 mile Devinzes to Westminster Paddle Race on stand up boards. Here's the report on Day 1. Check back tomorrow for Day 2. 

Day 1

We crossed the line a little after 8.30am to huge cheers from the crowd. No one could quite believe that we planned to paddle all the way to Westminster standing up! 99% off people had never seen anything like it.

I tried not to focus on the full mileage and just split each day into 8 mile segments. Every 8 miles we would meet up with Gill our support for a refill of our camelbaks and a restock of energy gels and bars. Concentrating on 8 miles at a time was a great way to have something manageable to focus on. Day one was going well and despite having a lot of locks to portage around I was feeling strong.

We were met with a constant wave of questions from spectators along the route. Mainly these were:

· Are you going all the way to Westminster like that?
· What is that called?
· Why are you standing up?
· How much can I get one of those for?

Mostly we were met with positive questions, but some people were total doubters, asking us what we thought we were doing and telling us we’d never make it the whole way, especially not on the tidal part of the Thames! We were written off on many occasions. My response was to laugh at them and tell him they didn’t know what they were saying!!

Most people’s comments though were really positive and supportive.

· “You’re our favourite”
· “That looks so cool”
· Etc, etc

The last ten miles of day one was pretty tough going, but we knew we had barely broken the back of the race distance so just buried those thoughts and pushed on to Newbury and the end of Day 1.

I crossed the line after 32 miles of paddling in about 8 hrs and 15 minutes. Coops followed me in about 20-25 minutes behind.

We ate a lot that night and went to bed early!

John Hibbard - Britain's Most Extreme Champion 

Sponsored by Tushingham Sails, Starboard, Fat Face, ActionVan, Go Fast Sports 

www.k007.co.uk  

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