Abingdon Blastathon.

Each year the local kayakers in the Oxford and Abingdon area head to Abingdon weir for the annual Blastathon...

The weir is a shallow river wide weir in Abingdon, Oxfordshire. The shallowness of the weir means aerial tricks and any normal wave or whole tricks aren't possible therefore the weir favours local paddlers who are able to pull out legendary "blast" in different varieties.

I will hopefully get hold of some pictures of the event soon, for now just enjoy the results below...

Thanks to Dave Surman for organising!

The Moriston River Race.

In May I competed in the UK's most extreme kayak race. This was the first time I had competed in an extreme race therefore my expectation wasn't too high. I was mainly there for a good time and for the chance to paddle a great river. 

We headed up to the highlands a couple of days before the race and headed out onto a low water Etive in the sun for a good laugh. We happened to bump in to a photographer in Glen Etive and he was super keen to get some shots of us running the river. All credit for the photos in this blog entry go to Geoff Reader. 

Anyhow, race day came around pretty quick and after a heavy night watching the Champions League final the night before we dragged ourselves out our tent and over to the river. My first run was awful. I managed to land top drop almost sideways and subsequently spent too much time upside down....However fortunately by the time my second run came round I had managed to smooth up this drop and clock an 11 seconds quicker time. Unfortunately I finished 58th so I was pretty dissapointed, so dissapointed in fact I have already sold my kayak and bought a new faster one! (looking for excuses....).

Enjoy the video below of a great weekend we spent in Scotland:

https://vimeo.com/96794582 

Here are some photos from our practice days on the Etive, credit to Geoff Reader:

Shout out to Overboard for providing some great kit for the trip up to Scotland. 

Check them out www.over-board.co.uk

The Marathon Bug....

Within the last 10 months I have caught and got rid off the Marathon running bug....

Considering before October I had only once run over ten miles I thought it would be a great idea to enter the London Marathon. Unfortunately the timing meant my training would start after I moved to London. I then spent the best part of 5 months enjoying the lovely fumes, traffic and picturesque views of city life as I trained for the marathon. Within the build up to the London Marathon I managed to clock the below PB's:

5k - 20.46
10k - 45.36
Half Marathon - 01.44.15
15 Mile - 02.12.00

The above is the furthest I got in terms of distance, I only managed to clock a maximum long run of 15 miles before race day!

After moving up to Edinburgh in early January, a loop round Arthur's Seat began to become my local training run, I thought this was great although there were no hills in the London Marathon... Anyhow, March struck pretty quick and I picked up a bunch of micro tears in my calf from over-training... I guess I caught the running bug too quickly. From here I visited the physio a fair few times, began to wear compression socks everywhere and only ran once a week. Not the best Marathon prep. Anyhow I clocked a half marathon PB 7 days before London and I felt in peak condition for race day.

Unfortunately marathon day was super hot, many runners were struggling to cope with the heat and you could tell it was taking its toll on everyone. I managed to clock a debut Marathon time of 04.02.09, not bad I thought, but I did miss out on my Sub 4hr goal.

However, far more importantly I raised £2,287.39 for Muscular Dystrophy. They're the leading UK charity dedicated to beating muscle-wasting conditions by finding treatments and cures and to improving the lives of everyone affected by them. They rely on support from events like this so they can continue with their vital work. It's a charity close to home as my younger cousin Inder whom I live with, is personally affected by Muscular Dystrophy. I was extremely proud to support this charity, and thank you to everyone who donated and offered their support.

A few of the great support team!

After 4 months of no alcohol in the build up to the Marathon I began to go out a lot more, eat much more fast food and genuinely become lazy. However the running bug was still there, and I would occasionally sneak out for a run, never more then 5 miles!

Nevertheless at the back of my head I still had a niggle, I was sure I could break the 4hr barrier in a marathon and I was desperate to beat my dad's PB of 03.58.47 (I think)...

So on June 15th after 2 months of very little running, multiple late nights and a poor showing from England the night before, I headed down to Bournemouth in search of a Sub 4hr Marathon. In my head I new I wasn't as fit as I was for London, I new my preparation had been awful but I had a renewed hunger for the Sub 4hr run and I knew that if I was in the right mental state I could break the barrier! 

I always knew my legs wouldn't last the full 26 miles, I knew I would want to quit after 5 miles however I prepared a race plan that was hopefully going to make me succeed. I decided to run way above my target pace for the first 15 miles, hopefully banking enough time so that when my legs decide to give way I could drag myself round for a sub 4hr time because I was way ahead of target....Most experienced runners will completely laugh at this plan however I was pleasantly surprised as I ran across the 24 mile mark in 3hrs 40mins.... I had 20 mins to run 2 miles. Easy. 

I gritted my teeth and gave my everything in the last 2 miles, my last mile was the quickest mile of the whole race I ran an a 8.14 mile after 25 miles of running. How?! I crossed the line and may have possibly shed a tear, luckily I had no support at this marathon so no one was able to laugh at this. But I had done it, I had broke the 4hr marathon barrier and clocked a time of 03.58.01. This was an amazing feeling.

Sub 4hr Marathon to my name. Very happy.

That's it and the marathon bug was gone, I haven't touched my running shoes since and I don't plan to anytime soon! I hope this inspires some people to try a marathon! Do it, you have nothing to lose.

Cheers,

Chyavan 

UK Steep Creeking

A few months back two friends and I headed south west in search of a new river, countless runs of the Dart and the Erme, left us in search of something new…

Lots of rain was due to fall throughout the evening so a plan was made to head to the East Okement in the early hours of the morning. By the time we were halfway down the M5, the river had dropped too much, it had gone from huge to scrape in the space of 6 hours. However the East Lyn was at a superb level, 1.84 on the rainchasers gauge which was classed as high.

With 1 member of the group having done the Lyn before, we jumped on the river very anxious and excited about what lie ahead. What we found was the best day of UK creek boating I had experienced yet. Numerous boofs, back loops and flairs saw us very quickly descend the river to Watersmeet. The high level meant the Horoak Water drops were running beautifully, we quickly took the opportunity before carrying onto the Sea. We bumped into a photographer who was around taking pictures of the Horoak Water, so we managed to get some great photos of us on the run.

We then entered the Lyn gorge section. This was somewhat different to the rest of the river, as the channel began to narrow and it steepened once more. The gorge was probably one of the best 500m of water I had ever run; big holes and numerous moves to make made it an extremely exciting section. 

Following the gorge we blasted down the last bit to Lynton which had turned into a great bouncy and super clean run. 

I highly recommend this run to anyone looking for steep creeking in the UK, it’s a true classic.

Checkout the East Lyn river guide on UKRGB: 

Upper Section - http://www.ukriversguidebook.co.uk/rivers/england/south-west/river-east-lyn-brendon-to-watersmeet

Lower Section - http://www.ukriversguidebook.co.uk/rivers/england/south-west/river-east-lyn-watersmeet-to-the-sea

Check out the great paddling accessories supplied by overboard - http://www.over-board.co.uk

It has been a busy 10 months.....

Over the past 10 months I have been super busy, hence very little blog updates. I'm going to try condense the past 10 months into one or two small updates so here it goes...

I have spent 10 months working for Accenture, we're management consultants based in central London. The nature of the job has mean I have spent time working at the BBC and a major bank. This has also meant I have been travelling around the UK a fair bit, and consequentially have earned enough air miles to fund a return flight to Geneva!

Throughout my time at Accenture I have been exposed to multiple areas of work, first of all communications, media and technology and then finally I spent 6 months in financial services. The most difficult part of this job is actually explaining to my friends what I do...This has never been successful. Hopefully the image below sheds some light:



Within my first 3 months at Accenture I had the opportunity to travel to Paris with senior clients from the BBC and the management team from Accenture. However this wasn't a important meeting or a client workshop, it was actually to support the BBC in their Children in Need activities. A team of 3 people, 1 Accenture, 1 Contractor and 1 BBC cycled from the Eiffel Tower to the Tower of London in 24hrs! Unfortunately I couldn't be part of the cycling team as their was only room for 3 bikes on the back of the support car, however I traveled along with the team and supported in navigation, nutrition and general mechanical issues. The team raised over £2000 towards Children In Need and a great trip was had by all. Enjoy the short video I produced for the trip:

https://vimeo.com/79624482

Whilst at Accenture I also had the opportunity to work out of town in Edinburgh. This was a great city and we had a very social team which meant we regularly got to explore parts of the city we wouldn't usually see in the working day. Below are a select few of my favorite photos from my time there:

A few members of the team after a great Sunset by the Forth Rail Bridge.

A panorama shot from a roof top high up in Edinburgh. What a great city.

I will sorely miss everyone I got to work with at Accenture, I will be back in a few years and hope to see everyone again,
Chyavan