Paddlers Set Two Records in Fourth Missouri River 340

By Jim Low, Missouri Dept. of Conservation

First posted on 08-17-2009

Lower water held down the number of record times posted in the 2009 Missouri River 340, but the fourth annual event still provided lots of human drama and lifetimes of stories for those who finished the grueling water race.

The MR340’s motto is “This ain’t no mama’s boy float trip.” It challenges participants to paddle 340 miles from the confluence of the Missouri and Kansas rivers in Kansas City to Frontier Park in St. Charles. In the past, racers have had 100 hours to complete the course. This year, with more than 10 times the entries as in 2006, race organizers reduced the time allowance to 88 hours. They said the measure was necessary to keep the pack from getting too strung out to manage safely.

Finishing times were slower this year, due at least partly to the water level on the Missouri River. Record rainfall in 2008 meant the river was higher than usual and moved significantly faster.

The fastest time in this year’s race – 38 hours, 59 minutes – was posted by brothers David and Will Anderson from Washington state. Their time was a record for the men’s tandem division. Even more impressive, it fell just two hours and 40 minutes short of the overall record set last year by a team of six paddlers from Texas.

The only other record set in this year’s race was a 44-hour, 30-minute sprint by Katie Pfefferkorn, of Ottumwa, Iowa, and West Hansen, of Austin, Tex. The previous mixed-tandem record – 65 hours, 24 minutes – had stood since 2006.

Pfefferkorn and Hansen’s first-place finish came as no surprise to experienced MR340 watchers. Pfefferkorn was last year’s women’s solo winner. Hansen has been in the winning boat for whatever division he entered all three previous years.

Other winners included:

· Men’s solo – Santo Albright, of Fenton, 44 hours, 54 minutes.

· Women’s solo – Melanie Hof, of St. Louis, 55 hours, 58 minutes.

· Women’s tandem – “Carp Target Grannies” Cami Ronchetto and Linda LaFontaine, both of Columbia, 61 hours, 50 minutes.

· Team – “Aquaholics” Matt Green, Kevin Schwartz, Tod Wilson and Jim Cowley, all of Jefferson City, 46 hours, 42 minutes.

· Men’s solo pedal-drive class – Carl Phillips, of St. Louis, 74 hours, 47 minutes.

The number of entries in the race has increased rapidly over the past three years. Fifteen canoes and kayaks participated in 2006. There were 72 boats in 2007, 143 in 2008 and 255 this year.

Interest in the race has expanded well beyond the paddlers and their support crews. Spectators lined the riverbanks at checkpoints along the way this year, and traffic on the event’s official website, http://www.rivermiles.com, topped 40,000 hits per day.

“It’s tremendously rewarding to see the public response to the race,” said Scott Mansker, who conceived the idea of the MR340 with Russ Payzant. The idea came to the two after they traveled the river from their home in the Kansas City area to the confluence of the Mississippi River and on to the Gulf of Mexico.

“We thought it was a great idea, but we had no idea it would mushroom the way it has,” Mansker said. “All we wanted to do was get people out on the river so they would realize what an amazing place it is.”

The 2007 MR340 became the subject of a short documentary by Flaming Fiddle Productions, which is making an hour-long film about this year’s event.

Photo: Women’s solo division winner Melanie Hof, of St. Louis, finished the Missouri River 340 water race in 55 hours, 58 minutes. That is approximately 17 hours behind the first finishers, an entry in the men’s tandem division. The shortest time ever posted for the 340-mile race was 36 hours, 19 minutes, by a six-man team. (Missouri Department of Conservation photo)