Missouri River 340 Race from Kansas City to St Charles
Missouri River 340 or Missouri American Water MR340 is an ultra marathon paddling race from Kansas City to St Charles. 340 miles with 88 hour time deadline. The 8th edition of this race will take place from July 23 to July 26 this year. A variety of boats are participating in this long race including …
31 July, 2012. Kaw Point at the confluence of Missouri and Kaw (Kansas) River. Half hour to the start of solo boats in the 7th Missouri River 340 Race from Kansas City to St Charles. I launched my JKK Supernova kayak at the very point of Kaw Point, looked at cityscape of Kansas City, paddled …
10 Pictures from the Start of 2012 Missouri River 340 Race Read More »
The 7th Missouri River 340 (MR340) Race starts on July 31, 2012 with a record number of boats and paddlers – see roster. I paddled the first 5 races missing the last one postponed till October 2011 due to flooding. I used different boats from my fleet: 2006 Spencer Xtreme canoe 2007 WSBS Thunderbolt Kayak …
5 Years of Missouri River 340 Race in Reports, Pictures and GPS Tracks Read More »
160 paddlers in 118 boats started yesterday the 6th Annual Missouri River Race 340. The race was postponed this due to flooding from the original date in July to October.
The MR340 is an endurance paddling race across the state of Missouri – 340 miles nonstop from Kansas City to St Charles with 88 hours time limit. I paddled in the first five races using 4 different boats, but always solo. Unfortunately, I couldn’t travel to Missouri this year in October. Last year, the race was also delayed because of flooding, but only by 1 month.
Well, I am paddling my local lakes in northern Colorado and I already started my countdown to the 2012 MR340.
Related posts:
Paddling and Hydrating during 2010 MR340 Race
Self Shuttle by Amtrak during Missouri River 340 Race
120 Pictures from the Missouri River 340 Race
3 Years of the Missouri River 340 Race series:
Bryan Hopkins, West Hansen, Christina Glauner, Chuck and Di McHenry, Katie Pfefferkorn
My Experience in Three Famous Ultra Marathon Paddling Races
One of the readers of my blog, who is planning to paddle 2011 Missouri River 340 race solo and self supported, sent me some questions:
1. Was the self shuttle as easy as you made it sound or was there some difficulties?
2. I suppose you carried enough food and drink to get you through? Or buy at checkpoints?
3. Did you sleep much during the race? On shore or in boat?
4. This would be my first time event of any kind in kayaking. I will be turning 50 next year and have my sights set on doing this. Are there any extra challenges for the 40+ years set to be aware of?
I paddled the MR340 race five times always solo. I was self supported in 2008, but had a shuttle, and in 2010 I was fully self supported including a shuttle. In both these races I paddled my Sea Wind canoe. I will try to answer the above question in the following posts. Let’s start from the first two.
My self shuttle with Amtrak worked exactly as I described in my previous post. I believe that a key in this operation was to plan enough resting time in a local hotel at St Charles before doing the shuttle.
Of course, it would be nice to perform the entire shuttle operation before the race. I would prefer to spend Friday at a race finish instead of riding a train and driving a car. However, I have a long drive (~10 hours) from Colorado to Kansas City and prefer to spend at least a day to get adjusted to Missouri climate instead of driving between Kansas City and St Charles.
I run the 2010 Missouri River Race fully self supported including a shuttle. I finished the race as planned below 60 hours and, following day, I took Amtrak (Missouri River Runner) from St Louis to Kansas City. I could still see some canoes paddling downstream of Hermann. The entire shuttle operation went pretty smoothly. Here is a time line of my race and shuttle.
Sunday, August 22, 23:00
Arriving to Hilton Garden Inn at Kansas City after 10+ hour drive from Fort Collins, Colorado. I am always trying different routes to Kansas City. This time I drove through Nebraska.
Monday, August 23, 16:00
Leaving my empty Sea Wind canoe at Kaw Point.
Tuesday, August 24, 6:00
Loading my boat at a very tip of the Kaw Point
Tuesday, August 24, 6:40
Driving back to the hotel, leaving my car in a parking lot in front of it, walking to the Kaw Point,
Tuesday, August 24, 7:30
Launching the boat, shooting the race start.
… paddling, paddling, paddling …
Wednesday, August 25, 03:33-05:10
Glasgow
… paddling, paddling, paddling …