Post by Speedyak on Oct 9, 2013 13:44:35 GMT -5
CHARLES GOODSON’S
2013 MR340
My experience during the 2013 Missouri River 340 was a blast! Even though I did not complete the race, I did manage to race 223 miles in 35 hours in my Stellar S-18 advantage layup kayak. This boat is 18 foot long and 21.5” wide. The boat performed exceptionally well except for one drawback. The seat did not get along with me and I knew this going in to the race. I placed a wedge foam seat cushion in the seat that I cut out of an office chair cushion to resolve the problem of getting dead leg or my legs going completely numb. This proved to be the downfall of my race. The cushion kept the feeling in my legs but made my lower back feel like it was being crushed in a vice. Let’s get back to the river. The morning of the race was beautiful with the sun coming up over the city of Kansas City as the morning rays hit and reflected off the Missouri and Kansas Rivers at Kaw point. It’s amazing to see roughly 533 paddlers getting ready for the paddle of a lifetime and for me my second MR340 since 2011! I just knew I was going to crush my last time of 66 hours when I raced in a plastic boat! My father and I loaded up what we thought was all my supplies that morning, but in the rush of things and all the excitement I had left a out my food. This is a very important and crucial tool for a ultra marathoners survival. I am now on the water and was able to keep my feet dry by placing my shoes in the boat and drying my feet before I put my shoes on once in the boat. No need in wet feet for the first 50 miles! I started to check my gear to make sure I had everything I needed to get me to Lexington, check point #1, 50 miles down river. That's when I noticed that my food was still in the cooler on the bank. I called my father with no luck because his cell phone was in the truck being recharged. I start paddling up and down the bank and I can’t spot him. I debated on racing without my food for the first 50 miles and thought to myself that would be silly. 'You have to have food Charles'. I headed to bank but was stopped for the national anthem. I took my hat off and waited. The countdown started for the solo paddlers to start the race and I was stuck about 50 yards off shore. The race count down started and then the black powder guns went off. I paddled slow and back paddled trying not to get ran over by more than 200 men and women solo paddlers. They got around me and I got to the bank and got out of my boat and headed up the ramp to get my food. As I rushed back to my boat with my now wet shoes that I kept dry in order to keep my feet from getting cracked as soon. Remember in a race this long distance amplifies everything. I thought to myself now I have to play catch up for a while. I had lost about ten minutes on the bank.
I am now paddling and telling myself that this is a ultra long race and not to burn myself out in the first 100 miles. I paddle out to where the eddy line of the Kaw River meets the Missouri River and didn’t even think about the 2.5 mph difference of the two rivers. I almost took a swim from the fast moving waters of the mighty MO. A quick brace to the left and a hard right and I now could see off in the distance the last place paddler. I was paddling what I thought was a slower pace than I keep in training in order to warm up. I caught up to him fast and noticed that he was weaving and struggling with his rudder. I ask him if he was okay, He stated that his rudder was not working. I ask him if he needed any help and that I would brace his boat so he could work on his rudder. He said he was okay. I paddled on passing paddlers as if I had a current helping me more than it was helping the other racers. I would later find out that I was paddling my Stellar S18 at a 7 to 8 mile per hour pace. Wow, this boat is fast and I was not feeling fatigued at that pace! I was passing a lot of boats as we left Kansas City. Just after Kansas City I caught up with who I thought was Shane Perrin from a distance, but as I got closer I knew that it was the only other guy that would complete the race on a SUP. I ask him if he would like me to tie a line to Shane and let him tow you. I kept on passing paddlers and I knew I joined the main pack of paddlers. Just in front of the main pack I caught up with Shane and we talked for about 5 minutes. Shane and I started racing ultra long distances in 2011 on the same river and the same race. The only October race in the 8 years of the running of this race. I only beat the stand up guy by 40 minutes that year and I had only been paddling for 9 months before that race. I was a rookie to say the least at that time, but I knew I had heart. Shane later joked about the reason I didn’t make it this year was that I was afraid of the heat he was going to bring in the second half of the race! He brought the heat as he always does and after getting to Jefferson City at 7:00 p.m. on Wednesday and loading my boat on the truck at 9:22 p.m. he was correct! Shane Perrin is a great guy that does a lot for SUP and paddling in general. If you ever get the chance to paddle with him, don’t pass it up. That can be said about a lot of paddlers in this race. Like Terry Davison out of Texas and Mark Jacobi out of Illinois just to name a few. I paddle on and now I’m getting near the front of the pack when I hear voices behind me and I can’t believe that a another solo paddler is catching me. It was a team and they were flying. They had to be doing 10 mph. Very impressive two see the speed they carried. I later found out that the very team that passed me set a new record of 35 hours, 58 minutes. The only other team that caught me by the first check point was Melanie and Adam on their Huki outrigger around 35 to 40 miles in to the race. Melanie and Adam won the 46 mile portion of the Volunteer Canoe and Kayak Race that I host in Knoxville Tennessee so I knew they would more in likely win the mixed tandem 340 mile race we was in. Misfortune struck them 27 miles from the finish and tore there rudder from their boat. That’s the thing about racing these kinds of distances. You never know what could happen. Little things turn into big things and lady luck can shine on you or turn her back for a second and you’re out of the race. I know of some racers that complete this race every year and some that have only completed once. Some will never complete this race and my hats off to anyone who has even started this race. Let’s get back to the race at hand. I was nearing the front of the pack and I can see this green and white Huki with a gulwing and think if I can just catch him and stay up here I will finish the race in under 50 hours! I kept pushing.
Two of the guys that I caught up to where from my hometown of Piedmont, Missouri. Kent Elrod and Germy Worly. Very cool to reconnect with guys that come from a small town in the middle of nowhere. I reach Lexington at 1:36 p.m. check point #1 and my father who now is on his second MR340 as he was my ground support the first time I did this race. Very cool to be able to connect with my dad on these races. He handed me a sandwich and then resupplied my boat and I was back on the water at 1:51 p.m. with my food for between check points. I just spent 15 minutes on the bank. Way to long on the bank. My back was already hurting and the relief felt good. It took me 6 hours and 36 minutes to go 50 miles with a 2.5 mph river flow. I continue to catch up with leaders in this race for some time. I got to talk to my wife and at one point I was forth in my division of men's solo. I knew then I was able to race with the best of them. Very cool feeling to know that your boat and you are able to keep that kind of speed for that long. My boat is 21.5 inches wide and I was running with boats 17 to 19 inches wide and a foot or two longer than mine! Stellar builds killer boats! I reach Waverly at 5:01 p.m. check point #2. I get another cold cut sandwich and my dad has my protein shake ready for me. I could feel it go straight to my muscles. I'm back on the water at 5:14. That's 13 more minutes on the bank and I'm wasting to much time on the bank again this year. I have now been 73 miles in 10 hours and 1 minute. I'm now back on the water and I notice that my toes and right knee is getting raw from rubbing on my shoes and the deck of my boat. I shrug it off and keep pushing. My back is hurting good enough for me to take a couple of Advil which seem to work for a little while. I can't relieve the pressure though. My thought was, its just pain and you've been through worse with having done this race in 2011 when it would get down to 50 degrees at night. I thought at least I'm not in the army setting in a foxhole with water up to my knees in 28 degree weather anymore. With that in mind I kept my pace and made it to Miami at 9:14 p.m. check point #3 and my new goal was to make the next check point before the last one closed. I just did 105 miles in 14 hours and 14 minutes and was excited that I was able to paddle that fast with a slow river this year. I'm faster than what I was in 2011 when the river was a lot faster. I took 38 minutes at this check point in order to use a real toilet. 38 minutes well spent and I was back on the water at 9:52 p.m. and now it was getting dark. I'm out of the heat and I love to paddle at night where you get a different perspective of paddling and all you have to do is follow the dark ribbon of water in front of you. This is when I noticed that when you race with over 500 paddlers and your at the very front of the pack, it starts to get a little lonely. Shane and a few other ask me why I don't listen to music while I paddle and I say that the sound of my paddle hitting the water is my music! Some time around 1:00 a.m. on day two (23 July 2013) I struck a 1,000 pound buoy that I could not see. How do you hit a object that big? Well logs get caught on the steel cables that anchor them to the River floor and there was only about 2 to 3 inches of it sticking out of the water. I could here the water rushing around it and I could see another one about 100 yards away but I knew that the one a 100 yards away was not the one I was hearing. I saw it just before I struck it. I know this river is nearly a mile wide in some places and my kayak is only 21 inches wide. The odds of hitting one is low but Murphy is always near! I strike it on the left side of my boat and it starts pushing me up as I braced hard on the left side to keep from swimming. I'm off it fast and I just know that there is hole in my boat just behind my rear bulkhead on the left side of my boat. I keep paddling listening and waiting for the boat to start feeling sluggish because I knew it had a hole in it. My Stellar never felt as if there was anything wrong with it and I now know that Stellar not only builds a fast boat but a tough boat. I am 238 pounds and the buoy is 1,000 pounds and the boat only had a small scratch about a foot long and about 2 inches wide. Most of that buffed out! I get to Glasgow at 2:51 a.m. check point #4 in 19 hours and 51 minutes and have now paddled 141 miles. I still felt good but knew that it was time to get some sleep in order to take some pressure off my back and that way I could finish this race strong. I wrap a heat pad around my back and crawl in to a sleeping bag in the back of the truck. I wake up and the dew and humidity is so bad that my sleeping bag feels like it got rained on. I'm back on the water at 6:12 a.m. and spent 3 hours and 21 minutes on the bank. I did manage to catch the green Huki with gulwing by this point. The leading pack about 25 paddlers are now playing leap frog with each other between checkpoints and the top 3 racers are beyond catching. Now I am racing for time again. I just want to complete in 49 hours or better. That would give me a 17 hour improvement of my 2011 race. I knew I was still on track for that time. I am now heading to Katfish Katy's. This is the hardest push in the race for me. This is where you find out if you have the grit in you to complete a race like this. You have just put up with 20 plus hours of headwinds and the only relief you felt was just after you get through Lisbon bottoms when some nice people high upon a very steep hillside calls your name out with a megaphone. "Are you Charles Goodson from Maryville, TN?" I respond yes, yes I am! They say good luck as you paddle on down the mighty MO! This is a great surprise if this is your first time at this race. Makes you feel like your famous until it hits you that they had a print out of the race roster and they use binoculars to see your boat number and then they have your name! All in all its still cool. The rest of this run is a grind, Even when you get to the cool cliffs and can see and hear the people biking the Katy trail next to the river. You keep paddling and you see the I-70 bridge that seems like you never reach. Once you reach it, the next 4 miles to the check point feels like you paddled 400 miles. I reach Katfish Katy's at 12:56 p.m. check point #5 and my dad ask me if I want a BBQ sandwich with slaw. I was all over it like a fat kid on a cupcake! I was there for 48 minutes and was back on the water at 1:44 p.m. I have now been 187 miles in 29 hours and 56 minutes. My goal now is to make Jefferson City during daylight so I could see the state capitol! I made it by 7:00 p.m. I'm stoked that I made 223 miles in 35 hours. I know that I have 115 miles to go. I take two more Advil and lay out a sleeping bag thinking that if I get a 30 minute nap I can complete the race in 49 hours still and finish strong. That would not be the case. I got up and knew if I kept going that I may have to go to the hospital or be rescued on the bank. I knew from hosting the Volunteer Canoe and Kayak Race that some racers did not know when to quit and some did, after all I still have to go to work and provide for my family! That comes before my big head and the glory of putting my body through the torture of 340 miles. Just like Scott said in the safety brief. You have to know when to fold'um! I walked away and sent the dreaded text to Barbra that I didn't want to send at 9:22 p.m. my race was over. DNF is the one thing I did not want to see beside my name. I figured I would be kicking myself later. I never felt that at all. I know that this is part of racing ultra long distances for time. I am now planning on racing my next MR340 as a mixed tandem with a very fast paddler out of Florida! My next couple of races will be shorter. I'm looking in to the Tour de Tesh and the ChattaJack31. I know the competition will be fierce and thats a big reason to compete. The real reason your out there is because you look inside yourself and find out what you are made of! Then you can anwser your own questions about how much heart you have. I am always training for the next race and if you would like to train for long distance paddling, I will be happy to teach you and work with you to get to the level you want to be at. My website is www.appalachiakayak.com and my email is racetosmoky@gmail.com
Miles to Kilometers for my friends across the big pond.
miles Kilometers
340 547
223 359
187 301
141 227
105 169
73 117
50 80
2013 MR340
My experience during the 2013 Missouri River 340 was a blast! Even though I did not complete the race, I did manage to race 223 miles in 35 hours in my Stellar S-18 advantage layup kayak. This boat is 18 foot long and 21.5” wide. The boat performed exceptionally well except for one drawback. The seat did not get along with me and I knew this going in to the race. I placed a wedge foam seat cushion in the seat that I cut out of an office chair cushion to resolve the problem of getting dead leg or my legs going completely numb. This proved to be the downfall of my race. The cushion kept the feeling in my legs but made my lower back feel like it was being crushed in a vice. Let’s get back to the river. The morning of the race was beautiful with the sun coming up over the city of Kansas City as the morning rays hit and reflected off the Missouri and Kansas Rivers at Kaw point. It’s amazing to see roughly 533 paddlers getting ready for the paddle of a lifetime and for me my second MR340 since 2011! I just knew I was going to crush my last time of 66 hours when I raced in a plastic boat! My father and I loaded up what we thought was all my supplies that morning, but in the rush of things and all the excitement I had left a out my food. This is a very important and crucial tool for a ultra marathoners survival. I am now on the water and was able to keep my feet dry by placing my shoes in the boat and drying my feet before I put my shoes on once in the boat. No need in wet feet for the first 50 miles! I started to check my gear to make sure I had everything I needed to get me to Lexington, check point #1, 50 miles down river. That's when I noticed that my food was still in the cooler on the bank. I called my father with no luck because his cell phone was in the truck being recharged. I start paddling up and down the bank and I can’t spot him. I debated on racing without my food for the first 50 miles and thought to myself that would be silly. 'You have to have food Charles'. I headed to bank but was stopped for the national anthem. I took my hat off and waited. The countdown started for the solo paddlers to start the race and I was stuck about 50 yards off shore. The race count down started and then the black powder guns went off. I paddled slow and back paddled trying not to get ran over by more than 200 men and women solo paddlers. They got around me and I got to the bank and got out of my boat and headed up the ramp to get my food. As I rushed back to my boat with my now wet shoes that I kept dry in order to keep my feet from getting cracked as soon. Remember in a race this long distance amplifies everything. I thought to myself now I have to play catch up for a while. I had lost about ten minutes on the bank.
I am now paddling and telling myself that this is a ultra long race and not to burn myself out in the first 100 miles. I paddle out to where the eddy line of the Kaw River meets the Missouri River and didn’t even think about the 2.5 mph difference of the two rivers. I almost took a swim from the fast moving waters of the mighty MO. A quick brace to the left and a hard right and I now could see off in the distance the last place paddler. I was paddling what I thought was a slower pace than I keep in training in order to warm up. I caught up to him fast and noticed that he was weaving and struggling with his rudder. I ask him if he was okay, He stated that his rudder was not working. I ask him if he needed any help and that I would brace his boat so he could work on his rudder. He said he was okay. I paddled on passing paddlers as if I had a current helping me more than it was helping the other racers. I would later find out that I was paddling my Stellar S18 at a 7 to 8 mile per hour pace. Wow, this boat is fast and I was not feeling fatigued at that pace! I was passing a lot of boats as we left Kansas City. Just after Kansas City I caught up with who I thought was Shane Perrin from a distance, but as I got closer I knew that it was the only other guy that would complete the race on a SUP. I ask him if he would like me to tie a line to Shane and let him tow you. I kept on passing paddlers and I knew I joined the main pack of paddlers. Just in front of the main pack I caught up with Shane and we talked for about 5 minutes. Shane and I started racing ultra long distances in 2011 on the same river and the same race. The only October race in the 8 years of the running of this race. I only beat the stand up guy by 40 minutes that year and I had only been paddling for 9 months before that race. I was a rookie to say the least at that time, but I knew I had heart. Shane later joked about the reason I didn’t make it this year was that I was afraid of the heat he was going to bring in the second half of the race! He brought the heat as he always does and after getting to Jefferson City at 7:00 p.m. on Wednesday and loading my boat on the truck at 9:22 p.m. he was correct! Shane Perrin is a great guy that does a lot for SUP and paddling in general. If you ever get the chance to paddle with him, don’t pass it up. That can be said about a lot of paddlers in this race. Like Terry Davison out of Texas and Mark Jacobi out of Illinois just to name a few. I paddle on and now I’m getting near the front of the pack when I hear voices behind me and I can’t believe that a another solo paddler is catching me. It was a team and they were flying. They had to be doing 10 mph. Very impressive two see the speed they carried. I later found out that the very team that passed me set a new record of 35 hours, 58 minutes. The only other team that caught me by the first check point was Melanie and Adam on their Huki outrigger around 35 to 40 miles in to the race. Melanie and Adam won the 46 mile portion of the Volunteer Canoe and Kayak Race that I host in Knoxville Tennessee so I knew they would more in likely win the mixed tandem 340 mile race we was in. Misfortune struck them 27 miles from the finish and tore there rudder from their boat. That’s the thing about racing these kinds of distances. You never know what could happen. Little things turn into big things and lady luck can shine on you or turn her back for a second and you’re out of the race. I know of some racers that complete this race every year and some that have only completed once. Some will never complete this race and my hats off to anyone who has even started this race. Let’s get back to the race at hand. I was nearing the front of the pack and I can see this green and white Huki with a gulwing and think if I can just catch him and stay up here I will finish the race in under 50 hours! I kept pushing.
Two of the guys that I caught up to where from my hometown of Piedmont, Missouri. Kent Elrod and Germy Worly. Very cool to reconnect with guys that come from a small town in the middle of nowhere. I reach Lexington at 1:36 p.m. check point #1 and my father who now is on his second MR340 as he was my ground support the first time I did this race. Very cool to be able to connect with my dad on these races. He handed me a sandwich and then resupplied my boat and I was back on the water at 1:51 p.m. with my food for between check points. I just spent 15 minutes on the bank. Way to long on the bank. My back was already hurting and the relief felt good. It took me 6 hours and 36 minutes to go 50 miles with a 2.5 mph river flow. I continue to catch up with leaders in this race for some time. I got to talk to my wife and at one point I was forth in my division of men's solo. I knew then I was able to race with the best of them. Very cool feeling to know that your boat and you are able to keep that kind of speed for that long. My boat is 21.5 inches wide and I was running with boats 17 to 19 inches wide and a foot or two longer than mine! Stellar builds killer boats! I reach Waverly at 5:01 p.m. check point #2. I get another cold cut sandwich and my dad has my protein shake ready for me. I could feel it go straight to my muscles. I'm back on the water at 5:14. That's 13 more minutes on the bank and I'm wasting to much time on the bank again this year. I have now been 73 miles in 10 hours and 1 minute. I'm now back on the water and I notice that my toes and right knee is getting raw from rubbing on my shoes and the deck of my boat. I shrug it off and keep pushing. My back is hurting good enough for me to take a couple of Advil which seem to work for a little while. I can't relieve the pressure though. My thought was, its just pain and you've been through worse with having done this race in 2011 when it would get down to 50 degrees at night. I thought at least I'm not in the army setting in a foxhole with water up to my knees in 28 degree weather anymore. With that in mind I kept my pace and made it to Miami at 9:14 p.m. check point #3 and my new goal was to make the next check point before the last one closed. I just did 105 miles in 14 hours and 14 minutes and was excited that I was able to paddle that fast with a slow river this year. I'm faster than what I was in 2011 when the river was a lot faster. I took 38 minutes at this check point in order to use a real toilet. 38 minutes well spent and I was back on the water at 9:52 p.m. and now it was getting dark. I'm out of the heat and I love to paddle at night where you get a different perspective of paddling and all you have to do is follow the dark ribbon of water in front of you. This is when I noticed that when you race with over 500 paddlers and your at the very front of the pack, it starts to get a little lonely. Shane and a few other ask me why I don't listen to music while I paddle and I say that the sound of my paddle hitting the water is my music! Some time around 1:00 a.m. on day two (23 July 2013) I struck a 1,000 pound buoy that I could not see. How do you hit a object that big? Well logs get caught on the steel cables that anchor them to the River floor and there was only about 2 to 3 inches of it sticking out of the water. I could here the water rushing around it and I could see another one about 100 yards away but I knew that the one a 100 yards away was not the one I was hearing. I saw it just before I struck it. I know this river is nearly a mile wide in some places and my kayak is only 21 inches wide. The odds of hitting one is low but Murphy is always near! I strike it on the left side of my boat and it starts pushing me up as I braced hard on the left side to keep from swimming. I'm off it fast and I just know that there is hole in my boat just behind my rear bulkhead on the left side of my boat. I keep paddling listening and waiting for the boat to start feeling sluggish because I knew it had a hole in it. My Stellar never felt as if there was anything wrong with it and I now know that Stellar not only builds a fast boat but a tough boat. I am 238 pounds and the buoy is 1,000 pounds and the boat only had a small scratch about a foot long and about 2 inches wide. Most of that buffed out! I get to Glasgow at 2:51 a.m. check point #4 in 19 hours and 51 minutes and have now paddled 141 miles. I still felt good but knew that it was time to get some sleep in order to take some pressure off my back and that way I could finish this race strong. I wrap a heat pad around my back and crawl in to a sleeping bag in the back of the truck. I wake up and the dew and humidity is so bad that my sleeping bag feels like it got rained on. I'm back on the water at 6:12 a.m. and spent 3 hours and 21 minutes on the bank. I did manage to catch the green Huki with gulwing by this point. The leading pack about 25 paddlers are now playing leap frog with each other between checkpoints and the top 3 racers are beyond catching. Now I am racing for time again. I just want to complete in 49 hours or better. That would give me a 17 hour improvement of my 2011 race. I knew I was still on track for that time. I am now heading to Katfish Katy's. This is the hardest push in the race for me. This is where you find out if you have the grit in you to complete a race like this. You have just put up with 20 plus hours of headwinds and the only relief you felt was just after you get through Lisbon bottoms when some nice people high upon a very steep hillside calls your name out with a megaphone. "Are you Charles Goodson from Maryville, TN?" I respond yes, yes I am! They say good luck as you paddle on down the mighty MO! This is a great surprise if this is your first time at this race. Makes you feel like your famous until it hits you that they had a print out of the race roster and they use binoculars to see your boat number and then they have your name! All in all its still cool. The rest of this run is a grind, Even when you get to the cool cliffs and can see and hear the people biking the Katy trail next to the river. You keep paddling and you see the I-70 bridge that seems like you never reach. Once you reach it, the next 4 miles to the check point feels like you paddled 400 miles. I reach Katfish Katy's at 12:56 p.m. check point #5 and my dad ask me if I want a BBQ sandwich with slaw. I was all over it like a fat kid on a cupcake! I was there for 48 minutes and was back on the water at 1:44 p.m. I have now been 187 miles in 29 hours and 56 minutes. My goal now is to make Jefferson City during daylight so I could see the state capitol! I made it by 7:00 p.m. I'm stoked that I made 223 miles in 35 hours. I know that I have 115 miles to go. I take two more Advil and lay out a sleeping bag thinking that if I get a 30 minute nap I can complete the race in 49 hours still and finish strong. That would not be the case. I got up and knew if I kept going that I may have to go to the hospital or be rescued on the bank. I knew from hosting the Volunteer Canoe and Kayak Race that some racers did not know when to quit and some did, after all I still have to go to work and provide for my family! That comes before my big head and the glory of putting my body through the torture of 340 miles. Just like Scott said in the safety brief. You have to know when to fold'um! I walked away and sent the dreaded text to Barbra that I didn't want to send at 9:22 p.m. my race was over. DNF is the one thing I did not want to see beside my name. I figured I would be kicking myself later. I never felt that at all. I know that this is part of racing ultra long distances for time. I am now planning on racing my next MR340 as a mixed tandem with a very fast paddler out of Florida! My next couple of races will be shorter. I'm looking in to the Tour de Tesh and the ChattaJack31. I know the competition will be fierce and thats a big reason to compete. The real reason your out there is because you look inside yourself and find out what you are made of! Then you can anwser your own questions about how much heart you have. I am always training for the next race and if you would like to train for long distance paddling, I will be happy to teach you and work with you to get to the level you want to be at. My website is www.appalachiakayak.com and my email is racetosmoky@gmail.com
Miles to Kilometers for my friends across the big pond.
miles Kilometers
340 547
223 359
187 301
141 227
105 169
73 117
50 80