Suffice to say that DW has taken up a fair amount of spare time over the past 6 months or more. First Will got Covid on the eve of a training race then they came close to hyperthermia on the Banbury 20 mile marathon before Jamie took his turn with Covid. They eventually got into their stride and strung quite a few races and training sessions together along most of the canal and the Thames.

Jamie managed to do this whilst juggling a prolonged GCSE mock exam period and Will managed to keep his normal 6 training sessions a week regime up.

Anyway – we enter the final week carb loading and gentle training. We’ve spent a small fortune on kit, isotonic drinks, gels, jelly babies and rather natty support crew hoodies. Richard has tried to teach us all he knows about being a support crew and his coaching of the boys has been amazing. Now it’s down to the boys and the canoeing gods! The forecast looks good (we knew it was worth the last minute spending spree on thermal gear 🙄 ☀️ ) and everything’s getting packed ready. And in a weeks time it will all be finished. I’m not sure what I’m going to do with all the extra time I’ll have on my hands – perhaps I’ll go for a paddle!!

Jon (half of the support team).