Saturday 16th September: London Great River Race (GRR) Day

Posted byCAMTRIERPosted inUncategorized

Up at 5.00 am and had a great breakfast prepared by the Scouts and got ready for the race and went to get the the coach to Millwall from the campsite in Richmond at 07.30 am and we arrived at the start at Millwall docks. We had to move our gig and get it ready for the race. The rest of the šŸ“ā€ā˜ ļø crew arrived and met our passenger Raf who replaced Alison but could not row but was our GoPro film šŸŽ„ director.

Dressed for Action
Morladron Varthys ready for action
PNPGC Crew – Cox: James, 6: Jem, 5: Julie, 4: Steve, 3: Trevor, 2: Sarah, 1: Me
Some boats ready for GRR
Waiting for the start
Planning meeting with some of the PNPGC šŸ“ā€ā˜ ļø crew
PNPGC crew warming up in the docklands Thames
The buildings near the Millwall docklands and Canary wharf
Competitor boat trying to take us out before we start the race
Great shot of the boats in Millwall docks

Once in the water at Millwall docks we rowed against the tide up and down ready for our start time of 12.40. Lots of boats and as you see above we were nearly taken out by a boat that had a cox that should of gone to specsavers šŸ¤“. We moved up efficiently with the tide just before the start time under instructions from our brilliant cox James. Here we go.

Moving along the Thames under a number of bridges
Wow šŸ¤© what a row under some of the iconic bridges on the Thames with great support from the crowds with the usual Oggy Oggy
Moving nicely past the Houses of Parliament and House of Lords

It was so exciting passing all the iconic buildings along the Thames and our passenger Raf was taking a lot of footage on the GoPro which is in the process of being edited. We were working hard with a even stroke rate and a well coordinated water taken by each rower by the cox James to keep our fluids up in a very hot šŸ„µ day at around 27C plus. Further shots below of various sections along the Thames.

Nice shot of our cox James before we went under an iconic bridge
Happily moving along the Thames
Looking šŸ‘€ good further down the Thames
Coming towards the finish in leafy Richmond
Finishing near Ham
Sweaty šŸ„µ Pirate šŸ“ā€ā˜ ļø Craig at finish. Red and Black war paint still intact
Happy šŸ˜† to finish Arrrh we did it well under 3 hours at 2 hours 49 minutes
Thanking Al and Sue at finish line for these photos
But if a hold up on craining or boats which took a couple of hours
Waiting patiently for being lifted out so we could celebrate šŸŽ‰ as a team which was disappointing
Some of the Team šŸŽ‰ after the event both at the start and later onto London Cornish in Ricmond

So that was the fantastic event and challenge for me and the team. This adds to my other challenges I have done in London namely 8 London Marathons and Olympic distance Triathlon in my younger days. We ended the night early morning singing sea shanties. Up at 7.30 for a lovely breakfast at scout campsite and then back to Penzance which took around 6 hours and thanks to šŸ“ā€ā˜ ļøšŸš£ā€ā™€ļø crewmate Steve for driving as my car is getting ready for repair

Published by CAMTRIER

I am a recreational vet runner coming back from injury and turning to triathlons and other adventure sports such as gig rowing for fun, fitness, weight loss. I am also an amateur photographer trying to master my camera and GoPro to produce some great images in future. This blog will follow my fitness progress as well as blogging and taking photos and videos of interesting events on holiday or in the beautiful surroundings of Cornwall.

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