The MR340: Kayaking 340 Miles
Last Friday, after a long and grueling 79.5 hours, I finished the MR340, a 340 mile paddle race down the Missouri River.
The annual Missouri River 340 is the world’s longest nonstop paddle race, 17 years running. Solo paddlers have 86 hours to cross the state of Missouri down the Missouri River, from Kaw Point (basically Kansas City) to St. Charles, just to the northwest of St. Louis.
You probably assume that I’m quite the kayaker to have taken on such an event. But the truth is, my only time kayaking before 2022 was in a peaceful cove off the island of Antigua during my honeymoon. That 45 minute trip was far from grueling – I was just admiring my new bride’s bikini if I’m being honest.
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My friend and I decided to give the MR340 a go over bourbon last winter. He invited his buddy and his brother and our team was born.
The MR340 is a brutal race. If you’ve never visited Missouri in July, trust me when I say that it is not a dry heat. Imagine 90º to 100º temperatures in the baking sun, mixed with humidity so thick you can practically drink the air. Then imagine that your only sources of shade while paddling are the infrequent, ever-fleeting bridges and overpasses.
Doing so while remaining hydrated and full of calories requires a delicate balance of carrying enough food and water to get through, but not so much as to weigh you down.
And to protect yourself from the sun, you have to wear long sleeves and a wide brim hat. Not usually my go-to clothing in the beaming sun. And you have to avoid barges and wing dikes and Asian Carp that jump out of the water. We’d be sleeping on the banks of the river in tents wherever we could find room. We only slept about 5 hours during our nearly 80 hours of race time.
And you also have to beat “The Reaper,” a pacer boat, to each of seven checkpoints. Otherwise, you’re disqualified. My point isn’t to impress you with my completion, but to explain that this was no casual stroll on the river as depicted in my favorite George Caleb Bingham painting.
I’ve already shared a bit about my training regimen, so will focus more on the ins and outs of the race. Here is a recap of how it all went down.
Day 0 – Trip to Kansas City
Our journey began on Monday, July 11th. Our team is all from St. Louis, so we used a kayak shuttle service to get our boats out to Kansas City. At about 10:30am, the five of us (four paddlers and a friend serving as our Ground Crew) packed up our boxes, climbed into a minivan, pointed due west, and took off for Kansas City.
We made it out there in the early afternoon and went straight to our Airbnb. We started unpacking and organizing for the race before making a Walmart run to gather some final supplies.
From there, we were off to Kaw Point, the race’s starting point. This is also where we got our boats off the shuttle and set them up. We packed some of the essentials onto our boats and took off for a fancy dinner at Olive Garden.
We got back to our house later than we were hoping – maybe 9:30 or so – and finished packing. The house was a mess. Sometime between 11:00 and midnight we all crashed, our alarms set for 4:00am the next morning.
Day 1 – Setting Sail
Tuesday was race day. We got up before the sun and immediately started hydrating, fueling, and loading up the minivan. By 4:45, we were off to Kaw Point.
The morning of the big day, Kaw Point is a busy place. There are people and boats and cars scattered about. It is total mayhem, but excitement and energy are in the air.
We unloaded the van for what we hoped would be a long leg of our journey. The goal was to make it 105 miles to the dock in Miami, which is past the first two checkpoints, without sleeping. Our best guess was that we could push and do this by 1:00am. This amounted to about 17 hours of paddling and limited breaks, including one to get out and prep for nighttime on the river.
We wanted to get some distance between us and The Reaper so we could bank some hours and get rid of any time-related pressure.
What happened instead was as follows.
With 30 seconds before the race began, one of our guys went overboard before we even entered the Missouri River (you start by just sitting in the Kansas River). The river is crowded and he was about to t-bone a very expensive kayak, and he bailed to avoid it.
Right decision by him, not the best start for the team. We got him up and started our race dead last. That doesn’t matter when you’re not in it to win, but felt like we had catching up to do immediately.
Once we got rolling, we just went. We were in our boats for 11 straight hours, 73 miles, until we got to Waverly, MO, where we took our first break.
When you get out of a boat after that length of time, you can barely walk. Your head is in a weird place and your legs have already forgotten how to function properly. It’s a strange feeling indeed.
Our Ground Crew, Kevin, met us at the ramp and helped resupply our hydration bladders and food. It wasn’t a long stop, and my guess is that we were out of the boat for 45 minutes or an hour.
It was at this point that we began to question if we could make it further than Miami on the first push. A lot of people we’d talked to as we paddled had intentions of making it to Glasgow, some 140 miles from Kaw Point.
We paddled to a little sandbar island called Hills Island, just 12 or so miles down river, reconvened and agreed we’d be passing Miami in favor of Glasgow.
Passing Miami at 105 miles at 1:00am was an odd feeling. We knew it was the last place we could realistically stop before Glasgow, and that we’d be paddling another 35 miles through the night without breaks.
Let me pause to tell you that paddling the Missouri River at night is among the coolest experiences I’ve ever had. The full moon, the trees along the shore, the peaceful water…it is unbelievable and something I can’t fully describe. It is on par with the most beautiful mountains or beaches you’ve ever seen.
We finally made it to Glasgow a little after 7:00am. We’d been at this for 24 straight hours and were at our third checkpoint. Kevin had pitched our tents for an early morning snooze. We all managed to sleep about 30 minutes or so before the heat from the morning sun woke us up.
We were exhausted, but the good news was that the park we were in had a shower. We rinsed off and got ready to leave again.
Day 2 – The Longest Day
Our second day on the water was a bit of a blur. I remember it being very hot. Our pace slowed because of the sun and because we were running on caffeine and 30 minutes of sleep. We weaved through the river making what felt like very little progress.
It seemed like half the time we were just trying to figure out what our plan was for the night. We talked about stopping at Cooper’s Landing, about 56 miles past Glasgow, because it was supposedly a cool place to visit – live music, drinks, just sort of a party vibe right next to the water.
Kevin stopped there ahead of time and told us that getting off the water, resupplying, and resuming our trip would be a major hassle at Cooper’s. The place was just way too crowded. Besides, we were set to land there a little after 10:00pm and they stopped serving food at 8:00. We decided to stop 10 miles later in Hartsburg.
Hartsburg is a tiny, quiet dock with very little going on. We weren’t going to stop long, just enough to refuel and prepare for our push to Jefferson City.
It was at Hartsburg that I learned what an insane thing the MR340 is. We pulled in and carried our boats up the ramp. To my right were two guys sound asleep, directly on the concrete ramp. One was face down, completely zonked.
As I walked to the van, Kevin gave me a heads up. “There’s a lady sleeping on the other side of the car, so be quiet when you go over there.”
A woman had fallen asleep directly on the gravel parking lot next to our van. Kevin had almost hit her because he wasn’t expecting to share the lot with sleeping kayakers. The toll that this race takes on your body is no joke, and I realized that in Hartsburg.
Kevin cooked us some hot dogs on his camping stove. We ate, loaded up, and were off once more.
Once again, paddling through the night was amazing. As we approached Jefferson City around 4:00 in the morning, we could see the Missouri Capitol building lit up. It was beautiful.
We camped out again, this time sleeping an entire three hours or so. Around 10:30am, we were back on the water.
Day 3 – The Hottest Day
Thursday was brutal. I don’t remember where we were exactly, but I remember checking the weather and the “feels like” temperature had reached triple digits. Crazy.
One of the biggest differences each day, besides fatigue, is that you see fewer and fewer racers along the way. Tuesday everyone is pretty much packed together. By Thursday, different paces and stopping decisions have really thinned everyone out. The solitude can be nice, but the adrenaline is mostly gone.
We made it 46 miles from Jefferson City straight through to Hermann, MO around 6:45pm. We finally felt like we were within striking distance of home.
Unfortunately, what should have been a 45 minute stop turned into something closer to three hours. We set out once again in the dark. We were strong for a few hours as we approached Washington, MO. And then…
Around the same time (who knows what time it was, maybe 2:00am), my friend and I both started to doze off. It may come as a surprise to you, but falling asleep in a 30” wide, 50-pound plastic vessel on the largest river in the country in the middle of the night is not particularly safe.
Twice I remember “snapping out of it” after nodding off for probably just a couple of seconds. We needed to get to Klondike, our next stop, but it was still about 12 miles (~2+ hours) away.
We pushed on hard, because the faster we paddled, the harder it was to fall asleep. We finally landed in Klondike in the early morning and decided to sleep. Kevin had tents pitched and I hit the ground hard.
I remember waking up to my friend shaking me because yelling in my ear hadn’t worked. We were just 27 miles (sounds like a lot thinking about it now) from the finish line in St. Charles. We packed up and departed onto the final leg of our journey.
Day 4 – The Finish
While the main goal was just to finish, we also were hoping to complete the race in under 80 hours. At this point, the countdown was on.
We took off and within about 90 minutes passed Weldon Springs. Weldon Springs is where we put in on our first and only practice run as a team. We knew we were about 20 miles away, and the territory was no longer foreign to us.
We paddled at a good clip, but spent the last bit of race time talking about what we were about to accomplish: the longest nonstop paddle race in the world. Not bad for some guys that had never kayaked before 2022 and had only logged about 40 miles of total training prior to the race. Oh, and we had no rehearsal or dry runs with Kevin, whom I’d just met for the second time when we drove to Kansas City together. Not bad at all.
It was 2:30pm on Friday when we landed in St. Charles. My wife was waiting for us and we were grateful to be done.
There were a lot of people around and you could tell that a party was going to erupt later that evening. But not for me.
After packing up our boats, we jumped in the truck, and my wife drove me home. I was ready to see my kids and take a shower. It was time for both.
The MR340 is an event that is hard to describe to someone that hasn’t done it. The dichotomy of monotonous daytime paddling against the beauty of nighttime kayaking is indescribable. The pain and fatigue are different from other sports I’ve played or challenges I’ve done.
But it was fun, and I think we may all have the itch to do it again and push ourselves harder. We’ll see what next July brings…
Would you every participate in the MR340? Or any long distance paddle events? Send me your thoughts at michael@theothermichaeljordan.com. I hope to hear from you.
Comments
6 Comments
I always spent my half an hour to read this blog’s
content every day along with a mug of coffee.
I wanted to thank you for this excellent read!! I certainly
loved every little bit of it. I’ve got you bookmarked to look at new stuff you post…
michael
Thank you!
Mark
Thanks for your blog, nice to read. Do not stop.
michael
I appreciate it, thank you for the support!
Finally had an opportunity to thoroughly read your commentary from start to finish. Looking at the distances, I knew it would be hard, (having run 7 marathons, which doesn’t compare), but the beauty of it was a surprise! Photographs captured both the calm and the power of the river. The night travel was especially moving. I love how you do everything with such passion, even the repetitive parts of the race. What an accomplishment! Love to talk with you about it while it’s still fresh.