A great weekend of paddling with Keni and the Three River Serpents.

On a cold February morning …

…a Paddlers for Life crew eagerly assembled for the training session with Keni. Great coaching helped us all to develop and improve our paddling stroke through the morning session with Tony helming.
Struggling to accommodate a lovely lunch we returned to the Wear. Aly helmed as we practiced our race starts.
We finished with endurance work, a mile long sustained paddle back to the Durham Rowing Club boathouse from the Weir.
As we paddled upriver imagining we were on the Thames Keni pointed out the various London landmarks that will be on the flotilla route. In her usual encouraging way, she made us feel that the Diamond Jubilee challenge is possible!
Our target for the mile was 15 minutes but paddling against a steady current took us to 21 minutes.

 

Sunday paddling commenced to the peal of the cathedral bells. Both Serpee’s boats were on the river, with composite crews. After a brisk warm-up we paddled five races, a test of our strength and stamina as we paddled flat out.
The final two races were very hard fought …and finished just a whisker apart each time.
We’ll all be aching for a week!!
A huge thanks to Keni and the Serpees for a brilliant week-end. Thanks to everyone who came and to Tony and Aly for helming.
Thanks to Keni for giving up her time, the Rowing Club for their hospitality, Jan & Rita for a very fine lunch and the Serpees for a chance to race.
The Paddlers were Aly, Tony, John, Sue P-J, Barbara, Nick, Janet, Mandi and Madeline.