Page 130 - Mind, Body and Spirit 2015-16

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Herbert and Burt with a few metres left
The following year, 1949, despite no formal race having been organised, nearly 20 boats set out from Devizes to attempt the run. Most failed. The interest shown in the event prompted Frank Luzmore to run an annual contest.
Armed forces and Army crews in particular were to dominate the race for the next 20 years winning the race every year from 1951 until 1970, (except 1952). 1951 saw an outstanding performance by the SAS crew of Dansie & Dry bringing the time down to just over 24 hours, a phenomenal achievement given the primitive boats and the requirement to be self-suf cient. In 1969 Roy Evans and Pete Pagnanelli were the rst crew to go under 20 hours on one of their 3 winning runs (1968, 69 & 70). DW has always attracted strong characters and over this time competitors included Paddy Ashdown for the Royal Marines, and Chay Blyth and John Ridgeway who both competed in 1961 for the PARAs. Even today most of the Army Marathon paddlers are either PARA, Commando or Special Forces trained!
The Armed Forces success stems from the similarity between active service and the demands of DW. Like a military operation, DW demands training, preparation, mutual trust, cooperation, physical and mental fortitude, meticulous logistical planning and subsequent execution. Paddlers need to be motivated, tough and disciplined and the Armed Forces saw the race as an opportunity for training and great teamwork.
The current race record is 15hrs 34mins 12secs and was set it 1979 by Brian Greenham and Tim Cornish, however, the course challenge record is 15hrs 17mins 45secs set by Baker/Capps Elmbridge/Army in 2000. Military crews still form a large part of the even entry and in the last 2-3 decades no club has dominated the team competition more than the Royal Engineers & the Army.
In November 2014 Maj Burt Approached (then) WO2 Herbert and asked him if he would be keen on racing the DW with him the following Easter. WO2 Herbert retorted to Maj Burt “In the unlikely event I am selected for promotion... then yes!” Some weeks past and the WO2 to WO1 results were released; WO2 Herbert was selected for promotion and Maj Burt held WO2 Herbert to his offer.
Our training commenced early December 2014 with the rst race being the 4th January 2015 which is a pre-season bust-up for most civilian paddlers; the Frank Luzmore, Sheperton lock to Richmond
Approx 13 miles. We raced the vets category and despite being relatively unknown to our competition nished a surprising 2nd, this set us up in good stead for the forth coming training and we had a realistic new goal, to win the DW veteran Class but to do so we would need to to win the Waterside series veteran K2 class and the Service category, to win the Thameside veteran K2 class.
Despite our early success there was a long way to go between 13 miles and 125 miles. Furthermore we had many crews which we
Col White, Maj Burt, WO2 Herbert and Lt Gen Pope
had only just beaten at the Frank Luzmore. Pushing on with the training our crew became more cohesive. Our portaging improved and our ne tuning of the setup of our boat became re ned (there is approx 20 Km of running on the DW with every lock added up). After both Thameside (TS) races leaving us in 2nd to the same Richmond crew (after 33 miles of racing) it seemed that our fate was sealed as being the runner up at Easter for 1st Veteran K2. After the rst 2 Waterside (WS) races we were over 6 mins behind the same lead crew. On the 3rd Race WS C 23 miles Pewsey to Newbury 23; it all came together we managed to pull over 5 mins out of the next fastest boat and we won the race. We entered the nal pre-DW race Devizes to Newbury 34 miles 23 locks. We started the race 40 seconds adrift in the series from our Richmond adversaries and after another eventful race of things not coming to plan they beat us by 15 seconds which gave them an overall lead of under 1 minute after 77 miles of racing.
Our pre-race preparation had been done and as a crew we were optimistic and felt that we would perform well, we felt we could beat the Richmond pair after WS D. Prior to the race there was a lot of social media hype around this years DW as a Mixed crew of Moule/ Brougton had broken every record and was set to be the 1st year a female won the race. Prior to the race we were seeded 9th overall as pretty much unknowns.
The most interesting part of the DW is the planning part, unlike other hard events such as double or treble Ironman you have to plan your feeding and plan when you will get to the tide 104 miles into a 125 mile race. As both we and the Richmond crew would be planning on a similar time we booked into the race and lingered around the car park at the same time, ”stalemate” waiting for 1
Herbert having assitance at Westminster