My Adventure: by Dale Simonson
For a podcast host with a mission to encourage others to get up off the couch, get outdoors, and try some big physical challenge in nature, I was thrilled that a grad school buddy of mine accepted my invitation to do just that. He signed up with me to paddle a canoe 340 miles down the Missouri River in the MR340 race, making him an Exhibit A as a success story for my mission.
The MR340 is one of the toughest endurance paddling races in the country – 340 miles down the Missouri River, from Kansas City to St. Charles. The distance makes it difficult, as does the challenging 88-hour cutoff. There’s no staged racing here: paddlers choose their own pace, sleep when and if they want (many don’t, or barely do), and push through day and night regardless of weather, wind, and fatigue. The race draws everyone from elite ultra-paddlers gunning for sub-40-hour finishes to weekend warriors just trying to survive to the finish line. It’s less a race against other competitors and more a race against your own mind telling you to quit.
What makes the MR340 legendary isn’t just the distance – it’s the mental grind. Typically somewhere in the early hours of the second night, paddlers hit “the wall,” when hallucinations from sleep deprivation aren’t uncommon and every muscle in your body is begging you to quit. Checkpoints along the way (10 of them) offer brief chances to refuel, nap, or drop out, but most who finish will tell you the real victory happens in your head, not your arms.
For anyone chasing a true adventure story, the MR340 delivers one: equal parts physical suffering, sleepless surrealism, and the deep satisfaction of proving to yourself you can go further than you thought possible.
Advice to Others:
My first and most important piece of advice is: just sign up for the MR340 or similar event. It’s that first step of just signing up that people find the most difficult. Once you’re signed up, that commitment tends to get people engaged in the necessary learning and training in advance of the event. Other advice includes:
Believe in Yourself:
People often shy away from such challenges because they think they can’t hack it. Most often, they actually have the ability if only they give it a try. And an event like the MR340 is a great, low-risk event to test yourself because the consequences of not making it are so negligible. Just pull off at one of a dozen or so boat ramps or seek assistance from the event’s many volunteers and patrol boats. No harm done.
Hydrate and Fuel:
As the photo of the customized pee bottle suggests, staying well hydrated (and fueled) during a multi-day endurance event like this is key. It was (and typically is) brutally hot in central Missouri in August. Failing to feed your body correctly is a sure-fire way to conk out prematurely.
Don’t Invest Much:
If you’re experimenting with this sort of event for the first time, don’t over-invest. You don’t need a fancy, high-tech boat. The MR340 is very accessible. If you don’t have a suitable boat, you can rent or borrow one fairly easily. And you can pair up with others for sharing shuttles between the starting and ending points. And you need very little gear. And while some physical training in the weeks or months leading up to the race can only help, it doesn’t require much. Let the current carry you.
Work the Mental Strength:
This race, and many such endurance events, are less about the physical abilities, and more about the mental fortitude. The ability to not quit despite the increasing desire to do so. There is a good definition of endurance that says, “Endurance is the ability to continue despite a mounting desire to stop.”
Have Fun:
An endurance race like the MR340 is highly competitive for a small handful of people. But most are just every-day people out there to enjoy nature, movement, and the moment. Don’t take it too seriously. Focus, instead, on having some fun.
