EMMA WATTS INTERVIEW: DEVIZES TO WESTMINSTER

The latest interview in our ThruDark Devizes to Westminster series follows the story of Dr Emma Watts, who is taking part in the race for the first time having previously completed a “virtual DW” alongside her daughter in her garden during COVID.

Emma is a rural GP and business owner who has a passion for tackling health inequality.  She feels strongly about encouraging others to lead healthy and active lifestyles and tries to lead by example.  Emma is a juniors coach at Wey Kayak Club and, together with co-coach Steve, runs 5 juniors' sessions a week. Their aim is to develop resilient, determined and active young people who understand how important exercise is for their physical and mental health... and if they get quick in a kayak along the way then that's good too! 

Emma never switches off and lives by the formula expressed by her surname, power (in Watts)=energy/time.  Her aim is to make as much positive impact in the world as she can in the time that she has.

I'm not entirely sure, I think it's like 10, 12km-ish. 

TD: Okay. 

It's just after 119 miles it's going to feel a little... Yeah… 

TD: And how have you been balancing the training for that with the demands of the kayak and the demands of the running?

Well, it's okay. I mean, that’s what it's all about it, isn't it? Because working and doing all the other things make life busy. But I do thrive on that, so that's fine. And the other thing I've added in, so the running, I'm kind of alright at running anyway. I just need to practice that distance. And the other thing that I've done is started doing ice swimming once a week. Because I figured that would give me confidence that if I fall in, in the race that I’ve actually practiced that cold water shock. I know how cold my hands will be, I know that I can coordinate myself in the water. So yeah, that's my Thursday mornings currently.

TD: Very nice… and what always interests me, and something we get a lot of interest in from our community as well, is how people find the time to train for these kind of things whilst being as busy as they are? Because quite often you hear people say, “oh I'm too busy for that, you know, I've got too much going on” and so for someone like yourself who is clearly very busy… how often do you train a week? How do you find the time to train for something like this which is clearly not just a walk in the park, it's a really serious event?

I think that's a slight personality aspect of “I don't have that time at the moment” and I think sometimes people's personalities expect that this window will open up where suddenly they have time to put towards some major endeavour, that's never going to happen. So I feel that those people have maybe got a different personality. And I think if you want to do something, for me, it’s the fact that I haven't got to Westminster which is driving me insane. I have to. So I've got to get there. And if it's not this year, it's going to be next year. So I've got to make it happen. And so therefore, yeah, when the alarm goes off in the morning, you're like, OK, I've got to get up.

I think for me, it was really, I was in the back of the boat with my daughter in front and I knew that it was a target that she wanted to hit. So in a way, that made it easier. There's no way I was going to let her down. We were a good team generally, but the fear of letting your daughter down on a challenge that she said that she wants to commit to, felt very motivating. And as someone who tries to be an inspiring parent, if you failed your child, that's a shock.

TD: And so you're doing the race solo this time around though, so what do you think the biggest challenge will be during the course this year, do you think that will be difficult for you then doing it solo or do you think it's just a different type of challenge?

Yeah, so there are the Waterside Series races, which are like build up races for the actual event. I've done them in K1 the last couple of years so I've got an idea about how that feels. I'm happy that my daughter was happy with our garden challenge and I am really excited that she's actually going to come back from Glasgow Uni to run the last section with me so we make it to Big Ben in the end together which will hopefully be amazing. I think I am a bit intimidated by doing it on my own but the thing is that I coach kids at the kayak club and I think it's really important to keep challenging ourselves to be the best we can and to live outside of that comfort zone. So for me with kayaking I feel like I've got a responsibility to demonstrate not only to my own children but also the ones that I coach that we can take on things that make us feel nervous, make us feel uncomfortable and make us feel afraid and that's how we grow to be better people. Some coaches stand on the bank and tell the kids you need to do this, you need to do that and that's fine. Everyone coaches in a different way but I think that leading by example and actually being on the water and doing something is important. So for me, the kids I coach, if they see that I'm doing 125 miles, they will realize that we might just do five on a weekend. And 125 is quite a lot. And so that's quite important. I also feel responsibility for our female kids because it's important to show the girls that their bodies are capable of doing way more then they maybe believe or that they may be led to believe and that they should just be fearless and just ignore all the negativity and just go for it with whatever goals that they have and just throw confidence at it and just do it. And I think the best way that you can teach kids to do that is to do it yourself.

Yeah okay and I can probably actually answer that one fairly easily because my business manager from work has just taken on a climbing Mount Kilimanjaro challenge. She's never done anything like that before and she just came to me and said, “what do I do?” In my head I've got a formula for it. So I think the most important thing you need is to understand the what and the why. Why are you doing this? What are you trying to achieve? And so I personally create an exercise book, here's mine, and then in the front of it I literally lay out the reasons that I'm committing to this challenge and then try to then break that down into a one sentence statement. So when things get really tough, you can just go back to your why. Why am I doing this? What is it? Even if it's just a one line statement. And then the other thing that I think is really important to list at that point, aside from the why, is that what makes you strong. So I've got a list of 13 things that I think make me strong. I've got them written down so on a low day I can get the book out and I can read it but also when I’m on the water and everything's feeling terrible and you ask why you started doing this, and you doubt yourself, then you've got things to lean back on. I think if you pre-prepare that at the absolute outset then that's your most important thing and then things like graduated training plans and all the rest but I think you just need to mentally accept that times are going to get tough out there. And where am I going to go when times get tough?

Unfortunately, two weeks before the race I fell off my bike, fracturing my left scaphoid (wrist). I declined a cast opting for a splint instead with the hope I'd be able to paddle in it. The next day I was training with Jon White (incredible para kayaker who lost three limbs serving in Afghanistan) which was perfect as i knew he would understand my drive to continue the race.  When i told him he said "well that'll make the race more painful then!' with no suggestion I should pull out. That was the positivity I needed to hear. That first day I fell in three times so was not feeling hopeful about adapting quickly to paddling in a splint, but as time passed I did manage to adapt.

By the time the race came I was ready to prove myself. Strong easterly headwinds added to the challenge but slowly I ticked off each mile. At Putney, I swapped into my running kit & the support team either ran or cycled with me to Westminster for the Big Ben finish! We took a detour to the Royal Marsden Hospital on our way just as a reminder of what it had all been for.

None of this would have been possible without the help of my support team, & I'm hugely grateful to them. So far I have raised over £23,000 (inc gift aid) for The Royal Marsden Cancer Charity. I definitely feel my endeavour was worth it and as the only female k1 over 50 out there, I really hope I've managed to inspire other women to to challenge themselves.