The Great River Race … Simply Oarsome!
Together with a bunch of other certifiable scout leaders, 3HH represented the Richmond Upon Thames RUT Scout District in this year’s Great River Race held on Saturday 13 September.
We covered a monstrous 22 miles from Ham to Greenwich in a traditional Viking longboat, carrying the Mayor of Hammersmith and Fulham as our passenger. The whole thing took a very respectable 4 hours and 7 minutes (we’d expected nearer 5 hours if we were to be honest with ourselves); all the more impressive since we had the largest and heaviest boat in the event!
The Race was simply a stunning spectacle: hundreds of boats of all shapes and sizes, powered only by oars, raced from Ham to Greenwich, through the City, dodging commercial river traffic and tidal turbulence all the way. You can click on the photo above to see more of the day’s action.
As well as the most incredible personal achievement (I am after all far from being a super-fit athlete 
) and huge amounts of fun, I was delighted to raise nearly £500 for the local Scout district. And across the team as a whole, the figure will be a couple of thousand.
But it’s not too late to show some last minute support, you can still donate online through justgiving.com using the donate button.
Many thanks once again for your hugely generous sponsorship and shouts of encouragement, Simon
** update 16 Sept 2008 ** The fund raising total is now well over £500 and that’s just awesome. Thanks masses to all those who showed support to get the total this far.
** update 22 Sept 2008 ** Crickey! The sponsorship total has crashed through the £650 barrier. That’s an incredible total and many thanks to all those who have provided sponsorship.