Photograph Courtesy of Race for the Rivers
The river can take its toll.
Take, for instance, the couple whose boat was sucked under a fuel barge and chopped to bits. Or the young woman who swore she saw trees trimmed to resemble cartoon characters. “It took me three weeks to convince her they weren’t,” laughs Scott Mansker, founder of the Missouri River 340 (rivermiles.com/mr340), named for the race’s mileage.
Launched in 2006 and billed as “the world’s longest nonstop river race,” the three-night haul goes from Kansas City to St. Charles August 4 to 7. Naturally, a lot can happen in between. “I’ve seen excellent athletes break down and guys who look like they haven’t been off their couch in 15 years finish the race,” explains Mansker. Dozens quit after the first day, long before seeing the banner near Glasgow that reads “ONLY 199 MILES TO GO” (154 of the 216 racers finished last year). Some ultramarathoners push through late into the night; others savor the scenery.
“A lot of people think, ‘Oh, it’s the Missouri River, and it’s gonna be the same thing the whole way,’ but that’s really not true,” says Mansker. “People say they never knew the river is so beautiful.”
For the Greenway Network, a local environmental group hosting its own river races this month, that’s the point.
“Our purpose is to draw attention to the river,” explains president Charlene Waggoner, who’s helping organize the Race for the Rivers and Clean Water Challenge (racefortherivers.org), August 29 and 30. The former runs from Washington, Mo., to the Mississippi River, while the latter goes from Weldon Spring to St. Charles. “We tell those guys who do the MR340, ‘You haven’t really done the river, because you stop at St. Charles,’” quips Waggoner.
Along the ways, paddlers often discover something. “They’re back at their desk three days later thinking, ‘This isn’t the real world,’” says Mansker. “‘That was the real world.’”
