As I approach the official London 2012 white water course in my private minibus I focus my mind on the task ahead. Today I will be tackling the Olympic white water rafting course and, with a gold medal in my sights, I know I'm going to have to bring my A-game.

I look out across the water, the bright sunshine streaming across the, as yet, untouched course. In final preparation for the morning's activities I lift the apple custard Danish pastry to my mouth and gobble it down in record time. I have a feeling it's going to be a record breaking day.

The clock strikes 9:00 and my team mates begin to arrive; BBC News Online, London Metro, ITN, Computer Weekly, Computing, Data Centre Management, thedatachain - we're like Team GB, only better. Then in walks our captain, Tim Brabants. Olympian, gold medallist, Cisco ambassador and emergency room doctor (I know, right?!), this is just the man to lead our motley crew to glory.

Unfortunately, we're not quite Olympic ready… not yet. We are in fact all gathered for a Cisco press event to learn about how, as official network infrastructure provider, it plans to ensure the integrity of the network for London 2012. The men delivering the presentation are so intrinsic to the running of the Olympic Games I can't even name them. So, you know, pretty standard stuff!

We spend an hour learning about just how mind-blowingly intricate and awesome the London 2012 network is going to be. 80,000 connections across 94 locations, 65,000 active network ports and over 20,000 hours of network testing before the Games even begin! Then, brain-workout complete, we head downstairs for the first of our physical tests - getting into our wetsuits (and subsequently breathing in for two hours).

Exhausted, we step out into the courtyard to meet our instructor. A few safety instructions later and we are ready to hit the water. Observing the universal rule of not looking below the waist of a person in a wetsuit, we all walk toward the course, looking skywards, feet squelching in our damp booties. I imagine this is just like the Olympics.

On the water our first task is to row forwards. We nail it. Unfortunately, there is more than one stroke to learn… but after rowing in circles for a few minutes we have a quick race with Tim (we win) and then find the start of the course. This is it. We practice our paddle high fives and then we're off..!

If the ocean is a fickle mistress, then truly the rapids are her rabid, feral children. We are thrown about, spun, flipped, splashed and soaked. We scream, laugh, choke and splutter. And then disaster - the water gets the best of us and we are flung from our vessel with dramatic force.

If you had told me a month ago that almost drowning journalists and clients would make for such a great day out I'd have laughed in your face. However, it turns out swallowing all the water in the River Lee and scrambling over one another to get to the shore is the BEST fun. PRs, journalists and Cisco execs bonded and happy, we all walk into the sunset, safe in the knowledge we could probably achieve a gold medal if we really wanted to…

Kirstin