K3 on the Murray - 404km!

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Murray Marathon 27th December-31st December, 2009

I have paddled in the Murray Marathon for years now but only as a relay team member. This year it was going to the be full distance in a K3. The K3 was purchased out of the trading post for about $150 several years ago. Bern, Elizabeth and I had every intention of taking on the Murray some time. In fact, it was after paddling the Hawkesbury Canoe Classic (111km overnight paddle) in about 2001 that we planned to paddle the whole Murray. Only it was after this race that paddling the whole Murray didn't seem like such a good idea for me! I can remember not being able to lift my arms, open car doors and struggled to pick up a jug of water. I do have some recollection of the pain even now! Bern did end up paddling the full distance this same year but paddled in a TK2.

I am not sure what has changed but I think I still had some plans to complete the whole Murray and this year was going to be it! I was paddling lots in London and do intend to paddle the DW (Devizies to Westminster) canoe race in England at Easter some time.

We were an awesome sight on the Murray and the only K3. It was a great conversation starter and believe me we needed a lot of conversation with spending so many hours on the water each day. We had a battery operated CD player taped to the deck of the kayak which also kept us going with some of our favourite tunes but the batteries only lasted for about 4 or 5 hours. It was around this time that some of the school relay teams caught up with us - we had a good chat to them and then tried to stay on their wash to the finish line each day.

I was given some good tips before taking on the full Murray - don't think past the next checkpoint and have lots of laughs. Making it to each checkpoint was certainly a good short term goal each day. At each checkpoint Rupesh (aka best road crew ever!) greeted us with everything we needed, usually food, water and sunscreen. At each checkpoint we changed seats - varying things really helped. Also we seemed to sometimes have this damn left lean which was felt more by the person sitting in the back. We did have a lot of laughs but I think they tended to be when we finished paddling at the end of each day! Erin and Mark visited us and it was great to have their support for a couple of days.

It was amazing how at the end of each day I couldn't possibly imagine paddling any further - yet we got up next morning and did it all over again for 5 days! We had a massage most days after we finished paddling and I'm sure this did help. There was some pain and soreness but nothing that didn't go away and allow us to paddle another day.

So, in about 35 hours, give or take a few minutes, we paddled 404km over 5 days. Just amazing! And there are a lot of paddlers who do this in a kayak only made for 1!

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