That's the perspective we took for the MR340 race. We broke down the race into twelve 16-50 mile increments comprised of miniature goals. At each increment, each bite of the elephant, we celebrated with a pickle pop and 5-10 minute use of our cell phones. This mental trick helped us accomplish our goal: completing the MR340! Here are the "bites" of our elephant, with mandatory checkpoints indicated by a *
Kaw Point* (river mile 367)
Lexington* (river mile 317)
Waverly* (river mile 294)
Miami (river mile 262)
Glasgow (river mile 226)
Franklin (river mile 196)
Katfish Katys (river mile 179)
Noren* (river mile 144)
Chamois (river mile 118)
Hermann* (river mile 98)
New Haven (river mile 82)
Klondike* (river mile 56)
St. Charles* (river mile 29)
We stopped at other boat ramps not listed above, and we didn't stop at all of the boat ramps listed above. The 'bites' served only as a mental trick to accomplish eating our large elephant: 340 miles on the Missouri River. So, here's our story of the MR340:
Tuesday, July 24, 2018
Total travel distance: 126.4 miles
Total travel time: 8:00 a..m. to 3:00 a.m. (19 hours)
Average Pace: 6.65 mph
Location: Kaw Point (start) to Dalton Bottoms
Temperature: High = 92 degrees
Low = 60 degrees
Checkpoints: Kaw Point 8:00 a.m.
Lexington 3:07 p.m.
Waverly 6:24 p.m.
All boat ramps: Kaw Point, Riverfront park, La Benite, Cooley Lake, Fort Osage, Lexington, Waverly.
First day of the race! The evening before the race we attended the mandatory safety meeting, dropped off Honeybee at the start of the race, and had a delicious dinner with Danielle's mom and dad at Brown & Loe. The morning of the race, we arrived at Kaw Point around 6:30 a.m. and began packing Honeybee for the race. We watched the individual racers start at 7:00 a.m. We got on the Kaw River around 7:30 a.m. and waited for the race to begin at at 8:00 a.m.
We started the race strong. We intended to get to Glasgow (we didn't) within the first day. We passed our very first barge! Passing a barge isn't difficult, it's the wake for the next 5 miles that becomes difficult. Overall, this was a good day. We stopped at Waverly and met our ground crew, Rebecca, and Danielle's parents. We refueled at Waverly and prepared to paddle late into the night. The plan was to paddle until we could paddle no more.
This first night, there were enough boats that we could follow the line of boats back and forth along the channel of the river. If you will recall, going straight down the river is not efficient; we must follow the channel, back and forth across the Missouri River. We didn't need to see the river markers this first night. The moon was bright and there were enough boats on the river that we all formed a line and followed one another back and forth across the river, staying in the channel. Although we intended to get to Glasgow, the night brought cold weather. Our energy was running low and we were cold and wet. At one point, Danielle dropped her paddle in the river. She quickly stuck her hand into the water and recovered the paddle, but it was a sign that exhaustion was taking a toll on us. (Don't worry: we had two spare paddles on board!) We exited at Dalton Bottoms (about 12 miles from Glasgow) around 3:00 a.m. We laid out our tarp and wrapped ourselves individually in our safety blankets: foil burritos on the shore of Dalton Bottoms. Many other paddlers stopped here, and we were familiar with the stop because of our training paddle from Dalton Bottoms to Franklin in June. Dalton Bottoms is in the middle of nowhere. Traveling by car, it would take you 20-30 minutes through cornfields to arrive at Dalton Bottoms. There were about fifty other paddlers at Dalton Bottoms - with a total of two primitive toilets.
IT WAS SO COLD THAT NIGHT. We unloaded every piece of clothing we had in the canoe and layered ourselves to keep warm. Neither of us anticipated such a cold night, and were incredibly thankful for our safety blankets. Our exhaustion lured us to sleep around 3:30 a.m.
Around 4:30 a.m. we awoke to a paddler on the river yelling "Are there any MR340 volunteers here? I'm so cold. Is this Glasgow? I'm so cold. My phone died. I'm so cold. My son is waiting for me at Glasgow. I'm so cold. This is a medical emergency. I'm so cold. I'm dying. I'm so cold." This paddler was likely experiencing hypothermia and, thankfully, the MR340 volunteers were available to aid him. His experience, however, was a wake up call that. although fun, the MR340 comes with real risks. We tried, unsuccessfully, to get back to sleep.
Wednesday, July 25, 2018
Total travel distance: 95.1 miles
Total travel time: 7:00 a..m. to 12:00 a.m. (17 hours)
Average Pace: 5.59 mph
Location: Dalton Bottoms to Jefferson City
Temperature: High = 90 degrees
Low = 62 degrees
Checkpoints: Glasgow 8:52 a.m.
Jefferson City 11:53 p.m.
All boat ramps: Waverly, Miami, Dalton Bottoms, Stump Island, Franklin Island, Katfish Katy's, Cooper's Landing, Hartsburg, Marion, Noren (aka Jeff City).
The second day felt like the longest day on the river. We woke in Dalton Bottoms around 6:00 a.m. and emerged from our safety blanket cocoon to find the river covered in fog. There are few things that were drilled into us during training: (1) Do not remove your PFD (Personal Flotation Device, aka life jacket) unless absolutely necessary, (2) Always have a plan A, B, and C, and (3) DO NOT PADDLE IN THE FOG. The MR340 Safety Boat at Dalton warned all paddlers to wait until the fog cleared. Two paddlers decided to get on the river anyway, but quickly pulled off after realizing that they had no visibility. We got back on the water around 7:00 a.m. when the fog finally cleared.
There is not much to do on the river except paddle and stare at the water. This can become extremely boring. We did make an MR340 playlist through Spotify, but music can provide only so much entertainment. We attempted to listen to podcasts, but that didn't work very well because we shared one speaker on a 17.5 foot boat and every so often we would need to communicate about bouys, mile markers, etc., which would interrupt the podcast. The best entertainment was meeting other paddlers. Even if the conversation only lasted for ten minutes as we paddled together, the ten minutes was a welcomed distraction.
We stopped at Franklin Island to refuel and take a short break. Shout out to Trevor Tilton Farmers Insurance Agent who provided free hot dogs, hamburgers, Gatorade, water, snacks, etc. to all the paddlers at Franklin Island. Here is where we made a major mistake: Apparently we did not have enough bug spray on us because we got bit by a lot of bugs. A LOT OF BUGS. We are writing this blog two weeks after the MR340 and our ankles are still recovering from the bug bites.
One of our favorite stops during our trip was Coopers Landing. Coopers Landing is a private boat dock and offers camping, live music, food (including a Thai food truck), and beer. Oh how we wanted a beer, but our reasonableness prevailed. We enjoyed listening to live music, eating dinner, and watching the sunset. A quick note on how bad we smelled: Danielle hopped into Rebecca's car to change her underwear. She was in the car for less than ten minutes. Rebecca's son got in the car about an hour later and asked what smelled so awful. Danielle didn't leave anything in the car - she just sat in the car for ten minutes. We STUNK. We hopped back on the river after dinner and planned to make it to Chamois (52.3 miles from Coopers Landing).
In addition the barges, nighttime is a time where we needed to be 110% alert on the river. The MR340 is always held during a full moon to provide some light during the night. Although we were not completely blind, keep in mind that we were moving between 5-8 miles an hour down the river. If you can only see 20 feet in front of you, and are traveling 5-8 mph, that doesn't allow much time to move out of the way if a bouy, branch, wingdike, etc. comes into your vision. Before the race we were encouraged to download the MR340 Pro Paddler App. The Pro Paddler App shows, in real time, where you are located on the river and where the channel of the river is located. This is incredibly helpful at night when you need to avoid items that won't be in the channel: buoys and wingdikes. We both own iPhones, and the Pro Paddler App doesn't work with iPhones. Our fantastic ground crew captain, Rebecca, let us borrow an old Android. In the haste of getting ready for the race, we never took time to educate ourselves on the Pro Paddler App. We didn't quite understand the benefit, until this second night.
After leaving Coopers Landing and after the sun had set, we met up with a solo kayaker, LaDon. LaDon had the Pro Paddler App (yay!). This second night there were fewer boats on the river, and there was some cloud cover over the moon. We could not simply follow a line of boats in the river channel as we had the first night. Thankfully LaDon allowed us to stay with him, and stay in the channel, during the night. If we had not met up with LaDon we do not know what we would have done to navigate the river that night. At the very least, we would have gone much slower. At the worst, we would have hit a buoy or wingdike and flipped Honeybee.
It was around midnight when we approached Jefferson City. LaDon intended to pull off at Jefferson City. This left us with two options: (1) we could also pull off at Jefferson City, even though it was fairly early in the night, or (2) we could continue on to our intended stop at Chamois (26.1 miles). LaDon told us that there would be a few sandbars between Jefferson City and Chamois where we could stop and sleep - but none of us were sure if the sandbars were underwater given the high water level of the river. We decided to stop at Jefferson City and get a good night's sleep with the intention of pushing hard towards the finish on Thursday. We stopped around 12:15 a.m. (the Chick-fil-a tent at the boat ramp stopped selling food at midnight, boo!). We found a soft spot of grass and rolled up in our safety blankets for our second night as foil burritos.
Thursday, July 26, 2018
Total travel distance: 115 miles
Total travel time: 7:00 a..m. to 12:18 a.m. (17.25 hours)
Average Pace: 6.67 mph
Location: Jefferson City to St. Charles (finish)
Temperature: High = 87 degrees
Low = 61 degrees
Checkpoints: Hermann 1:56 p.m.
Klondike 8:27 p.m.
St. Charles 12:18 a.m.
All boat ramps: Noren (aka Jeff City), Moreau, Bonnots Mill, Mokane, Chamois, Portland Access, Gasconade Park, Hermann, New Haven, Washington, Klondike, Weldon Spring, Frontier Park (aka St. Charles)
We awoke around 6:00 a.m. and were surprised to see there was no fog on the river! We packed up and headed out. Although we were hopeful to finish the race today, we also did not know what surprises lay ahead of us. As soon as we got on the river we hit a barge, which means we hit a delay.
We stopped in Chamois and met Rebecca. Chamois is a campground - with showers, porcelain toilets attached to a sewer, and sinks! Although we did not shower, we had the opportunity to use a 'real' toilet and wash our faces/teeth in a sink with running water! After two days on the river this was a welcomed break. We continued paddling and planned to stop at New Haven.
Then, the rain began. Our lightning app on our phone notified us that there was lightning in the area, but we didn't see any. We heard the thunder, but didn't see any lightning. We discussed whether we should pull off the river and decided we would only pull off the river if we saw lightening. It rained, and rained, and rained. It was a cold rain. Typically, an MR340 paddler may take a dunk into the Missouri River to cool down if they feel like they may be overheating; the river is usually colder than the air. However, during the rain, Danielle used the river water to warm up her hands; the river was warmer than the rain and the air. All the rain gear was with our ground crew; we had not expected rain. Our clothes became soaked. Lesson learned.
The rain started to let up just outside of Hermann. We planned to push to New Haven (another 16.3 miles) but we saw smoke from a food tent set up at Hermann. We were hungry, cold, and wet. We decided to stop, get something to eat, and change into dry clothes. This provided the extra benefit of changing into non-stinky clothing. (and THANK YOU Rebecca for washing our stinky clothing before we finished!). Due to this unexpected stop, we decided we would make every attempt to finish this race without stopping again: 68.7 miles.
As we got back on the river, a safety boat came up to us and commented to us "looking good, you might move over a bit more, but you're in a good spot." We thought such a comment was odd. We were over 250 miles into the race, why was the safety boat commenting on our paddling skills now? About that time we ran into LaDon, who noted the large barge behind us. It clicked - the safety boat was noting the barge, which we had not seen because it was behind us! This was the largest barge we'd see on the river. We discussed pulling off the river instead of riding it out. It was SO BIG. We 'hid' from the barge near the wingdikes. We became anxious as the barge approached us. Then, as it passed and, nothing. No large wake. Why? this barge was traveling down river, not up river. Every other barge we'd encountered was traveling up river, against the current. This down river barge didn't cause a large wake because it was traveling with the water, not against it. We were relieved!
We ran into two other guys and mentioned to them that we hoped to be in Klondike by 8:30 p.m. They said "if you stay with us, we'll be there by 8:00." Okay! As we approached Klondike, the two men we were following got off the river. We saw three boats getting on the river at Klondike and paddled quickly to reach up to them before the sun set. Remember, it was getting dark, we needed someone to paddle with (that hopefully had the Pro Paddler App). The three boats were comprised of: two men in a canoe leading the charge with the Pro Paddler App, two men in another canoe, and a single man in a kayak. They planned to finish the race this night, and so did we.
About an hour after leaving Klondike we received a text from the MR340 organizers stating that Klondike was covered in fog and reminding paddlers to not paddle in the fog. We were thankful that we had not stopped in Klondike. We continued paddling and mentioned how awesome it was that we were going to finish the MR340. This was the first MR340 for all seven of us. Our excitement grew.
About ten miles outside of St. Charles we hit fog. We were SO close to the finish. The two guys in the canoe leading the rest of us told us to keep close and keep paddling. Our thought: if they hit a buoy, wingdike, etc., we would hopefully have enough time to avoid the obstacle because we were traveling behind them. We slowly, and cautiously, continued forward. The fog lifted within twenty minutes or so. Then, we saw it: Frontier Park, the FINISH LINE!
We paddled to the finish line and were greeted by friends and family at 12:18 a.m. on Thursday night/Friday morning: 64 hours and 18 minutes after starting the race. WE DID IT!
LIGHTNING ROUND QUESTIONS!
1. What was the best part of the race?
Danielle: Finishing. And I saw two of the most beautiful sunsets of my life.
Jeffrey: Evenings on the river - enjoying the sunset and relaxing on calmer waters while anticipating the moonlight paddling ahead.
2. What was the worst part of the race?
Danielle: The cold. And the boredom of paddling, paddling, paddling.
Jeffrey: I don't know.
3. Would you do it again?
Danielle: Yes! I think it would be fun to do in a peddle-boat next year! I also recently learned of the Yukon 1000. 40th Birthday Goal?!?! Who wants to do the Yukon 1000 with me!??!?!
Jeffrey: Definitely! Hearing stories from multi-year MR340 veterans, we learned how different the race is each year. River levels and weather conditions are game changers beyond our control, so a new year brings new challenges. Also, several of our friends are considering participating next year.
4. Did you have any injuries?
Danielle: I got two blisters on my fingers from paddling in the rain. I have too many bug bites to count from Franklin Island. Annnnddd I got a diaper rash from sitting in a wet seat too long.
Jeffrey: Blisters. I developed nice tough callouses during training but after days of paddling with wet hands additional blisters were unavoidable. They didn't affect my ability to continue paddling, but they were pretty gross looking and 10 days later my hands are still healing
5. Why did you do the MR340?
Danielle: My second cousin, Chad, did the race last year. I learned about it in August 2017 and
thought, that's cool. I mentioned it to Jeffrey at our annual friend-float-trip in late August 2017 and he said "I'll do it with you!" The rest was history. We signed up as soon as we could (January 1st!) and started training. Up until we started the race on July 24th I thought to myself, "this isn't really happening. I cannot believe this is actually happening. Will we finish!?!?" We did! To all those who said I could not complete this challenge, thank you. I'm stubborn and your lack of faith in me only pushed me to finish this race. Never tell me I can't do something, I'll prove you wrong! I've loved becoming part of the Missouri paddling community and look forward to many more paddles!
Jeffrey: Paddling is something I've wanted to pursue for over 10 years, yet I never prioritized my time or money. The MR340 has been on my radar for several years, so as soon as Danielle mentioned it I was all about it. New Years Day 2018 is when I decided to stop making excuses and just get my paddle in the water! I'm sure I'll be involved with the MR340 for many years to come either as a racer, ground crew, or volunteer.
2018 MR340 RACE STATISTICS
Total Boats Registered: 500
Total Boats Started: 433
Total Boats who DNF (Did Not Finish): 57
Total Mixed Tandem Boats Started: 31
Paddle of the Sexes Rank Overall: 217/433 (50.12 percentile)
Paddle of the Sexes Rank in Mixed Tandem: 16/31 (51.61 percentile)
First Place: Finished at 5:01 p.m. on Wednesday, total time = 33 hours, 1 minute (A RECORD!)
Last Place: Finished at 10:15 p.m. on on Friday, total time = 87 hours, 15 minutes
Our Place: Finished at 12:18 a.m. on Thursday, total time: 64 hours, 18 minutes
Final notes: First, yes, we are still speaking to one another. In fact, we only spent 30 minutes giving each other the silent treatment. Second, and more importantly: THANK YOU. Thank you to our AMAZING ground crew captain, Rebecca, who took time away from her family and selflessly supported us, physically and emotionally, during the race. Thank you to Danielle's mom and dad who met us at multiple boat ramps and got a hotel room for Thursday night since we finished a day early. Thank you to those of you who came to Kansas City early Tuesday morning to cheer us on as we started the race. We would pretend that all the people cheering for their paddlers were actually cheering for us - it was nice to have real cheerleaders at many of the boat ramps. Thank you to those of you who and came to St. Charles at midnight, with homemade signs (Denise), and congratulated us as we tiredly paddled up to the ramp. Thank you for all the texts and Facebook messages we received during the race. We didn't always respond to those messages, but we appreciated each and every one of them. WE DID IT!
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