Extreme sports

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CardsofSTL
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Re: Extreme sports

Post by CardsofSTL »

Freed Roger wrote:This is unreal - a human being climbed up El Capitan with no ropes etc.
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/adven ... 84839113=1
Captain Kirk did that in Star Trek V

AWvsCBsteeeerike3
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Re: Extreme sports

Post by AWvsCBsteeeerike3 »

Before reading the article, I thought the guy that did the climb had to be totally nuts.

After reading though, it's really impressive how he went about it. Made the climb with safety equipment, marked out what he planned to do, practiced those moves, trained, mentally prepared, etc. Really impressive is an understatement.

Freed Roger
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Re: Extreme sports

Post by Freed Roger »

a little 5K anyone?

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Re: Extreme sports

Post by Freed Roger »

MR340 starts tomorrow AM. 88 hours to paddle across the state via the Missouri River. About 500 vessels taking a stroke at it.



AWvsCBsteeeerike3
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Re: Extreme sports

Post by AWvsCBsteeeerike3 »

Wow, never heard of it. That sounds awesome. So, do they camp out at night along a riverbank or pull off in a city and get a hotel? With a current of 3 mph, and figure you have 4 days @ 12 hours per day (probably 14 of sunlight minus a few for rests), that's 48 hours. 340 miles in 48 hours is ~7.1 mph. With a current of 3mph, that helps. But, still not a cakewalk.

Freed Roger
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Re: Extreme sports

Post by Freed Roger »

AWvsCBsteeeerike3 wrote:Wow, never heard of it. That sounds awesome. So, do they camp out at night along a riverbank or pull off in a city and get a hotel? With a current of 3 mph, and figure you have 4 days @ 12 hours per day (probably 14 of sunlight minus a few for rests), that's 48 hours. 340 miles in 48 hours is ~7.1 mph. With a current of 3mph, that helps. But, still not a cakewalk.
I believe most pull off and catch some sleep at the access points. One guy I know, said he stayed mostly on-river and caught some ZZZs on water. The clock continues to roll. Not a stage race ala tour de france.

One would get really good at the calculations if you did this, or crewed someone. I'm thinking about going out to watch tomorrow, but still deciphering where.

I pulled the 2017 results to excel -292 finishers - roughly 60% (though may be higher % since probably had some that didn't start)

Fastest finisher - a Tandem 37 hours 9 min. (over 9 mph)

Fastest Male solo - 42:12
Fastest Female solo - 44:06 (4th overall of every vessel - she kicked some ass)

median finish time ~ 67hrs and change
Mean finish time ~ 68 hrs and change

Overall, it appears to have a festival on the water vibe**. There are many divisions. Many home-made or modified watercrafts. A group from St. Louis has 12 people paddling a dragon boat that they made. Sure there are some elite paddlers with top-tier gear, but also a lot of experienced(old) paddlers with beer guts.

A guy I know thru ultra-trail running did it 2016 -and finished 50th overall 21st in male solo. 58hrs. He said he'd been paddling maybe 12 times in his life before signing up for this. He said it was his endurance experience that made it happen, more than paddling skills - how to hydrate, take in nutrition, deal with blisters etc, and mostly just stay awake and keep moving on.

**though festival on the water, I'm told you eventually can spend a good chunk of your time out their paddling alone, since people spread out over so many miles.

Last month, my daughter and I paddled 26 mile leisurely on the MO in a fun group paddle which had a lot of MR340 people tuning up their skills. It took us about 6hrs on a 94 degree day - which included stopping on sand bars, visiting, having fun. That works out to about 4.3mph - a pace that would put us at 79 hours for 340 miles.

When I told my daughter about this MR340 - how we paddled less than tenth of it - she shook her head in disbelief of the MR340. It wasn't too hard to go 4.3 mph, but to do it for days on end would be rough. The exposure etc. A lot can happen in that time frame. I'm interested in this event, but can't say I'm clamoring to do it. I think I'd rather do a fun multi-day where you paddle, camp along the way. Plus, I know I'd catch the competitive spirit would be compelled to sink a bunch of $$ on better vessels, and a truck to haul it all in.

BTW, we used a basic SUP, and a 10ft kayak from Menards. I've since studied and the kayak was not the safest idea. Open hull kayaks - these cheapies can work great, but if you've ever dump one, it has lot of water weight stuck in the hull and not buoyant. We didn't dump the kayak on the river, but have dumped on purpose on a pond - not easy to flip back. I know we were half-joking about the cooler buoyancy - but will take the suggestion that we secure extra buoyancy in the hull - it could be soccer balls, inflatable toys etc. Or maybe get a better kayak.

Below is website to follow progress thru the checkpoints, at a minimum. Those with the battery and tech also have full time gps trackers that you can follow thru the site as well. My friend notified her followers that she turned the tracker off to save battery.
http://raceowl.com/MR3402018
https://rivermiles.com/
Last edited by Freed Roger on July 24 18, 10:40 am, edited 1 time in total.

Freed Roger
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Re: Extreme sports

Post by Freed Roger »

not sure if these links show up - a few pics the MO river, and from our less than 1/10th of the MR340
[SHOW]
this was a right was around the Greitens debacle. Lots of jokes about him being sited going downstream without a paddle
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fun crowd. I notice there tends to be concentration of the potential hazards around access points, wing dikes, buoys, bridges etc - Jeff City has a dredging operation with barges just downstream. getting on and off a river requires the vigilance. Once you get out in the main channel, it's pretty easy. My kid is fortunately very chill, and doesn't panic -important for outdoor fun. But downside is she doesn't have sense of urgency - when I tell her to get away from that wingdike or buoy, she takes her sweet ole time doing it.

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Spreads out in a hurry.
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stop at a sandbar island. these are awesome places.
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from different days
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AWvsCBsteeeerike3
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Re: Extreme sports

Post by AWvsCBsteeeerike3 »

Thanks for th einfo, so... are they allowed to continue at night? Seems like they'd need lights to do that, not just lights to see but the red/green lights required for nighttime navigation which would require a battery which is heavy....

Freed Roger
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Re: Extreme sports

Post by Freed Roger »

AWvsCBsteeeerike3 wrote:Thanks for th einfo, so... are they allowed to continue at night? Seems like they'd need lights to do that, not just lights to see but the red/green lights required for nighttime navigation which would require a battery which is heavy....
Yes, they go at night. This week looks to be about a full moon and clear, so that should help.

They have a manual of requirements- I'm not sure what they all are, and a mandatory safety meeting last evening in KC

Freed Roger
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Re: Extreme sports

Post by Freed Roger »

Pic of the start for tandem, team paddlers. Under Meriwether Lewis' right elbow is the dragon boat from St. Louis. I believe.

The thing I find cool about this event - it is uniquely Missouri. If the event stays on course and free of calamities, it will continue to draw more attention to MO and the river.

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