It's kayak racing time again!
Posted: Sat Jul 21, 2018 8:12 pm
Next week I am paddling in a kayak race called the MR340. It's the worlds longest continuous paddle race - a non-stop 340 miles from Kansas City MO to St. Charles MO - across the entire state of Missouri. The race will start at 7:00 am CDT on Tuesday 7/24 with an 88 hour time limit. This year there are about 550 boats registered in ten different divisions. I am in the largest group - male solo - with 290 boats. My goal is pretty high as I'm going for a top-10 finish. This would put me at the finish line about 47 hours after I start.
No, there's no sleeping going on and no real rest breaks. I have a ground crew of my wife and brother will meet me about every 35-40 miles along the river to swap out my water bags and give me some food. But for the most part it's some heavy duty paddling non-stop for two days.
If anyone is interested in tracking me, it's fairly simple:
1. Go to Raceowl.com
2. Click on the link for 2018 MR340
3. The top ten boats will pop up in a box. Go to the "view all" icon
4. Put my boat number in the search box - 3489
5. This will show my time at the last checkpoint and my position in my division. I also am carrying a SPOT tracker so if you click on the SPOT symbol on the far right it will show exactly where I am on a map.
A brief history of me in this race: My first time in 2015, I finished in 48:40 and came in 17th. I went back in 2016 looking for a top-ten finish but messed up my eating. I made it 188 miles after 27 continuous hours of paddling but then passed out and had to drop out of the race. Being diabetic certainly didn't help there. I've been working on my race nutrition and overall fitness for the last two years and now I'm back again. We'll see how it goes.
No, there's no sleeping going on and no real rest breaks. I have a ground crew of my wife and brother will meet me about every 35-40 miles along the river to swap out my water bags and give me some food. But for the most part it's some heavy duty paddling non-stop for two days.
If anyone is interested in tracking me, it's fairly simple:
1. Go to Raceowl.com
2. Click on the link for 2018 MR340
3. The top ten boats will pop up in a box. Go to the "view all" icon
4. Put my boat number in the search box - 3489
5. This will show my time at the last checkpoint and my position in my division. I also am carrying a SPOT tracker so if you click on the SPOT symbol on the far right it will show exactly where I am on a map.
A brief history of me in this race: My first time in 2015, I finished in 48:40 and came in 17th. I went back in 2016 looking for a top-ten finish but messed up my eating. I made it 188 miles after 27 continuous hours of paddling but then passed out and had to drop out of the race. Being diabetic certainly didn't help there. I've been working on my race nutrition and overall fitness for the last two years and now I'm back again. We'll see how it goes.
