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Congratulations Derrick! Read below to hear how Derrick's MR 340 went!

From Derrick:

"What a week! Caught a ride from Lake of the Ozarks with Brittany Hursh to gear up for the MR340 (340 mile river race down the Missouri River from Kansas City to St. Charles). I teamed up with Diane McHenry to paddle the race this year. We started out with my barely on time arrival at 7:45a on Tuesday with the race starting at 8a for non-solo boaters. We got the boat and gear to the water, paddled to the starting line and had a couple minutes to situate gear before it was time to paddle. I brought my tablet and hot spot with me so I could address work issues that may come in and they certainly did. Diane was gracious enough to keep the boat moving while I handled several calls, managed to get some banking done and such. I had to manage phone calls in between headwinds which as we approach our first touch point with our support team (Henry Cinciripini and Chuck McHenry) at Napolean had worked their way into being consistent head winds. What were annoying head winds started to pick up speeds and became white cap making head winds that flipped many abouts. I just put my head down and pushed through them with power strokes thinking they would let up...which took a couple hours before they were back to persistent head winds that were no longer flipping boats but still robbing miles per hour from our paddle strokes. As the day progresses, I start losing track of what stops we made for getting more food and water from the team. We did a bit of a longer stop at Miami that involved getting the boat out of the water around 10p (Henry's post have better details) and got some rain gear and decided against stopping despite the rumors of big storms brewing downstream. We shove off and paddle towards the lightning and Glasgow. We make it perhaps 3 miles and our rudder pin breaks making the kayak extremely difficult to navigate let alone progress forward with any speed. We try our best to counteract the effects of this situation to no avail. Finally a canoe with four gentlemen make their way closer to us and we ask if they could help get the rudder out of the water. I offer a usb lightning cable and a sunglasses holder and they fashion a fix where the rudder stays attached to the top of the stern with the rudder cables. What a race saver that was! I was not looking forward to pulling over in the dark and sinking into some Missouri River mud to address this issue. So we get some momentum going and start to sort out how to steer this 23' duet kayak and get ahold of the support team. Henry agrees to meet us at Dalton Bottoms about 11 miles upstream of the Glasgow checkpoint. So we figure out our new method of paddling which involves me ruddering and trying to help also propel us forward. Took a bit of extra energy than is ideal to utilize but necessary to keep us competitive. We rendezvous with Henry after 2a.m. at Dalton and he just happens to have a screwdriver the right diameter and length to fit the pin hole and we are back on the water in pretty short order. As we headed downstream we were surrounded by storms displaying really wild lightning activity. They illuminated the open spaces of the trees making for some super wild art. There was one set of clouds that made shapes of many types of birds but they all were a little evil looking. Quite entertaining to say the least. We kept seeing boats pulled over waiting for the storms to pass I suppose although we never were in any rain and rarely heard any thunder accompanying the lightning. We cruise into Glasgow and decide as we approach that we spent too much energy to not take a break. So we have the boat pulled up the ramp and I go try to figure out how to set my tent up. Being mentally and physically spent it took me 15 minutes to do a 5 minute job but it eventually got up and I set my alarm for 59 minutes giving me 7 minutes to wake up post alarm and head to the boat ramp by 6a. So it is 6:15a and I have got a solid 40 to 45 minutes of sleep and 59 minutes of total horizontal time to recuperate for the big day 2 push I like to have. We start paddling downstream on what is very comforting slick water...meaning that we finally have a break from the nearly all-day wind we had on Tuesday. Diane and I were both quite excited about this breakthrough when we get to Lisbon Bottoms and encounter WIND! The wind means taking turns with resting, eating, hydrating is more complicated and energy zapping. We don't see many folks and the ones we do we paddle up to, say hi and keep on cruising by. We did get a nice refreshing rain about 15 miles into this stretch and just paddle through it enjoying not being hot or sweaty. The rain lets up and we work our way to Lamine River just upstream of Boonville Missouri. This is where the race changes big time. The Lamine is spewing out a forest worth of trees in a continuous way. It is impressive until it starts to become annoying. We paddle into the Franklin check point and get more food and water albeit I barely went through any with all the wind we had to push through and then the debris we had to navigate around. We shove off from there and start heading downstream. The further we go, the thicker the river is with trees and branches and sports balls and styrofoam cups and such. The trees are the real problem. We stop into Catfish Katy's briefly and catch up with Chad Prouhet who is helping Henry get a break at this point as he only got 10 minutes of sleep thus far. It's a quick in and out stop. We cruise down past Cooper's Landing and call Chad for a weather report as we have started hearing rumors of a large expected rise in river levels along with another 3-5 inches of rain this evening. We just keep our hard push towards Hartsburg to get ahead of this debris field that continues to get worse and worse. To the point where it is hard to find a route to navigate your kayak downstream safely with current. Our goal is to push into Hartsburg, gear up for rain and knock off another 30 or so miles ahead of the rain and be east of Jefferson City before it is supposed to start. About five miles from Hartsburg we get the text that the organizers have cancelled the race. While I feel we were far enough ahead of the debris field that we could get out of it and catch the rise for a quick push in there were still hundreds of people not in such a good position. I had lighting available to illuminate the entire river all night, I doubt most had that setup. Trying to navigate through that debris with even more coming and the river rising would prove very dangerous. Plus the safetly boats would have to be able to help people who may get flipped by tumbling trees in the river and I'm not so sure those boats could safely navigate to help. While disappointing to not be able to finish the race, it was certainly a smart decision on the behalf of the organizers. Kudos to them for doing the right thing and ensuring the safetly of the racers! While the race is over, the fundraising for Lydia's House is still open and I would very much love to see more donations to come in to help those who are truly in need!"

Sincerely,

Derrick Weisbrod