London's river marathon
- garypritchard1
- Sep 24
- 4 min read
“I’m never doing it again … never … no, I’m not … no chance.”
I seem to remember this conversation in the car on the long drive back from London after last year’s Great River Race.
“I’ve done it now, I don’t need to do it again …”
… and yet, here we were, at 5.45 on a dark September morning 12 months later, sat on a bus waiting for a lift from Teddington to Millwall in order to make the reverse journey down the Thames … again!
The Great River Race is billed as London’s River Marathon; a 21.6-mile race under 28 bridges from Millwall in the east to Richmond in the west.
It is also a race which has always been talked about in hushed tones within Beaumaris Rowing Club in my time as a member.
“There’s Montford, there’s the Madog Dash ... but then … there’s London!”
The race itself started in 1988 for traditional rowing boats which have to have a minimum of four oars as well as having fixed seats and it’s purpose is to celebrate the tradition of the Thames Watermen and Lightermen.
Honouring an historic tradition
Watermen and Lightermen were an essential part of London life for hundreds of years with the Watermen carrying people whilst the Lightermen carried goods - the Lightermen taking their name from the fact they would “lighten the load” of a ship, transfering the cargo to another vessel or to shore.
Ferrying passengers up and down the river in a skiff or wherry started in the late 12th Century and became a chaotic profession as London grew and more and more structures were placed across the river, but in 1650 they were granted a licence by Henry VIII giving them exclusive rights to carry passengers on the river.
This is why there is a requirement for each competing boat to carry a passenger for the duration of the race and as all four Beaumaris Rowing Club crews joined the 263 other boats of varying shapes and sizes on the Thames, we did so in the knowledge that we were celebrating a long and valued profession.
The race itself is run with a handicap system with slower craft such as Skiffs, and Skerrys starting earlier than the quicker and more powerful Cornish Gigs and Thames Cutters.
The Celtic Longboats started towards the back of the pack and it was great to see so many Welsh clubs represented with familiar faces and boats from Ynys Môn, Porthmadog, Aberdyfi, Aberystwyth and Neyland as well as spotting Longboats from clubs of which we weren’t aware such as Lower Thames, Chichester and Dell.
Iconic skyline
Once we were underway it was just four miles to the first and probably most iconic bridge of the race; Tower Bridge. The crowds lining the bridge and the towpath were huge and the cheers and encouragement as we passed underneath the famous towers was as emotional as it was a boost.
The race itself is exhilarating, intimidating, exhausting, frightening, exciting and fulfilling in equal measure. There were times during the race that one genuinely questioned their decision to get in the boat but there were far more times where one honestly felt privileged to be on the water.
The London skyline looks completely different from the water and the Thames’ place as the main arterial route during the city’s formation becomes obvious as some of London’s most famous landmarks roll into view.
A few miles on from Tower Bridge, St Paul’s Cathedral drifts into the skyline before the race flows past the London Eye, the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben before making way for the greenery of Battersea Park and the grandeur of Chelsea and Fulham, including the redeveloped Craven Cottage, home of Fulham FC.
Taking in the sights, however, is not high on the prioity list of the rowers even if the passengers in each boat enjoy taking pictures for their Instagram accounts!
Making our way through the traffic of Skiffs, Skerrys, Gigs and Cutters was hard work with so many boats in the race, leading to the occasional outburst of “Give us water”, “Watch the oars” … or, in at least one instance, phrases one couldn’t possibly repeat here!
Although there were 267 boats in the race, our particular attention was focused on passing any Celtic Longboat we saw, leading to many a game of cat and mouse as the other Celtics had exactly the same idea!
Approaching the last few miles meant many more spectators on the shore clapping and cheering their encouragement as we rowed towards the finish..
Spotting some Beaumaris Rowing Club members who had made the journey down to London to support us gave a timely boost to our crews as bodies began to flag and thoughts turned to that first post-race pint!
All our crews posted incredibly respectable times with Menai (2:42:51) and Cybi’s (2:49:09) men’s crews finishing third and sixth respectivley out of the 29 Celtic Longboats in the race. Siwan (2:59:15) and Seiriol (3:04:00) finished fourth and eighth in the mixed class - finishing 11th and 16th of all the Celtics.
The well deserved celebrations went on for some time at the event’s bars as well as later on in the evening as we all enjoyed a club curry thanks to Mari and her “table for 31 please” negotiations!
Apparently “we’re not doing it next year” … we’ll see!
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