mr340 river race update no. 13

mr340 river race update no. 13 men's solo division

Some of the participants in the men's solo division.

Carter Johnson, who now holds the course record in all of the major ultra-marathon canoe races (MR340, Texas Water Safari, Everglades Challenge, and Yukon quest) at the start of this year's race. Johnson shattered the previous record by 10 hours, paddling the 340 miles in 37 hours 46 minutes. He was beaten only by a 6-person tandem boat full of Texans, all of whom have their own heavy-duty, ultra-marathon credentials, and they only beat him by an hour and a half. Johnson was racing in a Huki surf-ski an evil reflective-tape grin that just screams "you're annihilation is about to begin."

3rd place finisher Chuck McHenry finished in 2 days. McHenry's never met a river he couldn't paddle upstream on. If this race was 340 miles of whitewater, he'd be the favorite every time.










Big Tiny, racing in his first ultra-marathon finished in a respectable 76.5 hours.














Joe Mann, in just his second year of kayaking finished 4th. Joe expects to move to Texas, train with the Insance Clown Posse down there, and return home next year with some even more serious intentions.


Left to right. John Mann, field captain for Joe "the dark horse paddler" Mann, Black Coffee, and Uncle A Dog. In the world of "what's the craziest thing you've ever done" these dudes have one upped everybody. Coffee and A Dog paddled the mr340 in their home-made kayaks in 2.5 days with their dissembled bikes strapped to back and a home-made trailer stowed in the hatch. Less than 12-hours later, they were preparing to return to Kansas City via the Katy Trail pulling their kayaks behind themselves. Purportedly, they had a logical reason for doing this but I don't recall exactly what it was. I think it might have been, "we'll we've never done that -- yet."