HUNTSDALE, Missouri — Paddlers who had endured 187 miles of the MR340 race — over half the total distance of the Missouri River course — paused on the river's bank at Katfish Katy's in Huntsdale throughout the day Wednesday.
The MR340 is a 340-mile boat race along the river, from Kansas City to St. Charles. Participants can spend up to 88 hours on the water. Eight checkpoints, including the one at Katfish Katy's, provide safety, participant tracking, food, shelter and rest for racers.
Of the 487 boats entered, 80 had dropped out by early Wednesday evening, and there were over 100 no-shows at the start, according to the race's online tracker.
Rows of cars lined the grass at Katfish Katy's as friends and families sat sweating in lawn chairs and under tents, waiting to offer support to the participants. The smell of ribs and beans from Booz'n Cruz'n Barbequ'n, catered for racers, wafted from the meat smoker and through the air.
This year in particular, though, there was a common factor that slowed the boaters down: the heat. Temperatures on Wednesday climbed into the upper 90s, with a heat index of over 100 degrees.
"You'll see a lot of people dropping today," Tim Murray, a third-year MR340 volunteer overseeing the checkpoint, said. "Earlier, there was a guy face-down on the ramp passed out."
Kati Albers, a women's solo division participant from South Dakota who wasn't used to the heat and humidity, said this year was hotter than the two years she raced in the past. Albers had been taking frequent breaks and occasional dips into the river to cool down.
Albers said she hoped to finish in under 55 hours. Along with about three liters of water she refilled at each checkpoint, her nourishment consists of energy bars, electrolyte tablets and supplemental liquids that serve as a small meal.
"Better than Gatorade," she said, pulling a pill box from a pocket in her vest and shaking the tablets around.
Along with the heat, racers paddled into complications Tuesday night during a thunderstorm, setting some behind and causing others to drop out.
Ken Boehr and Robert Kaufman, sitting in lawn chairs, waited along the edge of the river at Katfish Katy's for their friend Jeff Shelly to catch up. They said Shelly had helped bring a woman to shore whose boat capsized in the storm. Shelly waited with her for the safety crew to come, which set him back. For the past four years, Boehr and Kaufman have traveled on the river bank alongside Shelly, who was racing for the fifth time.
Dan Voss, a third-time men's solo division racer from Kansas City, said he almost lost control of his boat in the sheets of rain, heavy wind and lightning. Even so, he decided to continue paddling.
"I figured I could either be in the middle of the river, or on the side almost being blown into the wing dike," Voss said.
Voss was in his kayak continuously from when the starting gun went off at 7 a.m. Tuesday until he reached the Glasgow checkpoint at 3:30 a.m. Wednesday. Having paddled for nearly 24 hours straight, Voss said the nighttime was a much cooler time to race.
With night paddling in mind, the MR340 is scheduled during a full moon every year, which offers a "hazy daylight" and a "sight to behold" on the river, Murray said.
Despite his persistence through Tuesday night, Voss isn't trying to finish in a certain amount of time. His only mission is to make it to the finish.
"Before the race starts, people have goals," Voss said. "But once you're in it, it seems to all go out the window."
Open since 8 a.m. Wednesday, the checkpoint at Katfish Katy's will be operating continuously until noon Thursday. Midnight on Friday is the deadline to complete the race.
