Each year， one Saturday in September， many people line the Thames throughLondon， to watch one of the city’s most unusual events1—the“Great River Race”.Many big cities have one “marathon2”race every year. London has two—one ondry land， the other on water.

The Great River Race is not a marathon. It is too short， and it is a boat race.It starts at Richmond， in the western parts outside London. People have to row3their boats 22 miles， as far as the London docks4， in the east.

The race is a new event in London. The first race took place in 1988. Theidea was born in 1987， when members of a very old organization5 rowed fromHampton Court to the Tower of London.

In 1988， they rowed other “traditional6 boats”to a race. Boats that want totake part must all be of traditional design7. What’s more， each boat has to carryone or more than one persons.

Over the years， the race has become a very colourful8 event with all kinds ofboats. While most are usual rowing boats， there are also Viking longships9， andother unusual boats. In 1995， for example， the race was won10 by a Chinese dragonboat， in a record time of 2 hours， 6 minutes and 31 seconds！

As the years go by， the number of boats keeps growing. From 72 boats in1988， the number grew to 295 in 1997， and it will probably be even larger thisyear. Last year， there were teams from all over the U.K， and also from America，Canada， and five European countries.

每年9 月的一個星期六，許多人沿著泰晤士河穿過倫敦，為了觀看這個城市最與眾不同的活動之一———“大河船賽”。許多大城市每年舉辦一次“馬拉松”比賽；而倫敦有兩次，一次在陸地上，一次在水上。

大河船賽不是馬拉松；它的距離太短了，而且它是一場劃船比賽。從倫敦西部的里士滿開始，人們必須劃22 英里的船，最遠(yuǎn)到東邊的倫敦碼頭。

這項(xiàng)比賽是倫敦的一項(xiàng)新賽事。第一屆比賽于1988 年舉行。這個想法誕生于1987 年，當(dāng)時(shí)一個非常古老組織的成員從漢普頓宮劃船到達(dá)倫敦塔。

1988 年，他們劃著其他“傳統(tǒng)船只”參加比賽。參賽的船只必須是傳統(tǒng)設(shè)計(jì)樣式。更重要的是，每艘船必須搭載一個或一個以上的人。

多年來，這項(xiàng)比賽已經(jīng)成為一個非常豐富多彩的趣味活動，參加的有各種各樣的船。雖然大多數(shù)是普通的劃艇，但也有維京長船和其他特別的船。例如，在1995 年，一艘中國龍舟以2 小時(shí)6 分31 秒的紀(jì)錄贏得了比賽！

隨著時(shí)間的流逝，參賽船只的數(shù)量不斷增加。從1988 年的72 艘增加到1997 年的295 艘，今年可能會更多。去年，參賽隊(duì)伍來自英國各地，還有美國、加拿大和五個歐洲國家。