Anyway. You probably don’t know, but I write this blog in a word document before I upload it to blogger because my spelling is atrocious and I need a spell checker before I submit this to the web.
This word document of mine also has loads of other stuff written on it to do with the Devizes to Westminster race. Copy and pasted text, links, and other useful bits of information, and whenever I have a good idea, I add that too.
One of the things I did when I first had the idea of taking part in the race was to write down some date specific goals. A lot of the goals are months ahead, things like, April 2009 - Get a boat. July 2009 - Start getting sponsorship. April 2010 – go to Devizes.
Well it has been a while since I looked at it so I just had a quick read down the list, and for November 2008 I was going to paddle from Shrewsbury to Telford. Well it’s now the 25th of November and I haven’t done this yet. The river levels have always been too high or I have been to busy, so here I am with only one weekend left in the month.
Well I have nothing planned for this weekend, the river level is not too dangerous, I set myself a goal, and I am feeling like I have let my whole training regime slip. I am going to kayak the 25 miles from Shrewsbury to Telford on Saturday…..
…. I have just found out that this is possibly the dumbest thing I have planned to do to date. Having checked with the wife to see that it is okay for me to book a Saturday of paddling I then checked my favourite weather website. Metcheck. This is what it tells me…
(You will need to click on the image to see the predicted weather in it's full chilling glory.)
1 degrees centigrade that feels like –2 degrees! (that’s about 28 degrees Fahrenheit for my international friends, or 271 Kelvin’s away from absolute zero for anyone of a scientific disposition) With an unhealthy dose of sleet to keep me feeling really chirpy. I have paddled this route a few times in the past and the one memory that remains of this trip is the chill that sets into my hands and face. And I usually paddle when the sun shines.
Though, as I start to talk myself out of going because of the weather, I am reminded that the DW race itself doesn’t exactly take place during the summer.
As I sit here now, I am telling myself that I must go. Potentially on Saturday I won’t be so keen to test my metal. Place bets now. Will I or won’t I?
If I do go though, I will take my mate SatNav to give me some statistics of speed and time.
3 comments:
Your metal implies that you are doing a litmus test of the iron content of your blood - whereas, if you are testing to see what kind of a man you are, it's generally spelt mettle - one of the problems with relying on computers - they really are very stupid, although they tend to know some tedious stuff!
Garn, beaten to it...
:)
I have faith in you Owain. You can brave the weather. As you say, you'll have no choice come race day so look at it as preparation for adverse weather conditions.
Really? when I wrote mettle it looked all wrong. Ah well, it wouldn't be written by me if it was perfect.
And thanks for the vote of confidence. It makes it just that little bit harder to chicken out now :)
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