Fitness is also why I joined Blazing Paddles’ dragon boat racing team. Sea wind in my face; sea splash on my brow; the sparkle of ocean water in the sunshine, moonlight or city lights; the close proximity to salt life – these are powerful motivators!  Why wouldn’t anyone want to get on a boat?  Dragon boating offers all of these perks and a whole lot more, in a slightly more aggressive fashion.  It not only offers the opportunity to be up close and personal with water but it also challenges you to face yourself, explore your limits and reach your ultimate fitness goals.

Joining Blazing Paddles was a “no-brainer.”  Dragon boating combines my love of water with the prospect of adventure.  This sport has given me the opportunity to become a better-rounded athlete.  It is the perfect complement to the other sporting activities I enjoy.  Taken as a whole, my sporting activities have transformed me in the most literal sense, physically and mentally.  Dragon boating with the Blazing Paddles team has become a major part of that transformation.  Being part of their team offers something extra, something not found in the solitary disciplines of running, cycling and swimming.  It delivers camaraderie!  Here is an opportunity to get to know other sports-minded individuals from varied backgrounds and bond in ways that only a team can.  Practice sessions are intense but fun, and most of all, my teammates are supportive.  It didn’t take me long to feel at home.

My next challenge is the completion of my first full marathon in about 6 months.  I cycle; I can go the distance on a road bike and handle my own on a mountain-bike trail.  I also swim.  Last year, I completed my first sprint triathlon; I plan to complete another this year and hopefully an Olympic-distance triathlon next year.  In addition to these activities, I enjoy tennis, snorkeling, canoeing and camping.  And, of course, I now paddle!

What’s my advice?  If you’re sitting on the sidelines and you feel like life is rushing by and you need some adventure, get active.  Life is way too short!   If you love being near water and nature, consider dragon boating.  You will experience the outdoors in a unique way that only this sport can offer. Hey, even the British Royals are into dragon boating these days; you’ll be in great company.   If you want to surround yourself with an awesome bunch of people who love to compete, thirst for adventure and are committed to reaching the top of their game, join Blazing Paddles.

David Fletcher

Blazing Paddles Member since February 2011

Post Race
I slept for thirteen hours.  After I woke up and ate something, well, a few things, several of us went to move the boat to a ramp about a mile downstream from where we left it, to a place where we could take it out.  The ramp at the finish line had been obliterated by mud.   As we set out, Eric Farris called out to the folks on shore “On to New Orleans!” Of course, we were all tired and sore and weren’t going anywhere far, and it got a good laugh.

The next day most of the paddlers went to the Shriner’s Hospital.  A young woman who had been a patient there gave us a tour.  The hospital treats children without charge.  It is mostly focused on orthopedic diseases.  They have many of the best specialists.  Our guide told us about some of the diseases and disorders they treat there, and how the doctors had come with some amazingly effective, often rather simple treatments.  She also took us to where they make prosthetics.  The designs were innovative.   She also showed us how the hospital makes things as easy as possible for patients and their families.  There were strategies and resources for distracting kids from their troubles.  The specialists were gathered in one place so instead of a kid having to go all over to see doctors, they could come to one place and seem them all.  And Shriners would give them rides, often early in the morning and over great distances, to make sure they could get to the hospital.  I think it is laughable that people suggest no one would do stuff like that if not forced to.  Shriner’s does not take government assistance – their resources are all gathered without force or coercion.

We then visited a brewery/restaurant by the finish line which had sponsored our team and had lunch.  Some of the crew also sampled the brews.  From there we went to the finish line, where the easterners on the team toured the small Lewis and Clark Museum.  Soon it was time for the awards ceremony, which was held in an open air space beneath the museum.  The organizers acknowledged every finisher.  Everyone got a medal.

The Pirate Crew
Jeff Barrow  Columbia, MO
Jeff is very knowledgeable about the river, and it is obvious he deeply loves it,

Michael Maples  Branson, MO
Michael was recruited late in the game.  He took the challenge having very limited paddling experience.  He was very coachable and open and improved a lot in the course of the race.  He was always positive and friendly. He is a personal trainer and during a period when many of us were sleepy called a spirited cadence that kept the crew going.  Great sense of humor.  Kind of guy that tries to learn and apply what he learns.

Barry Brown  Ft. Worth, TX
Biggest man on the team  Brought serious power.  The strong, silent type, I never heard him complain about anything.

Ryan Mason (Steer)  Davie, FL
As always, Ryan was unflappable and virtually tireless.

Sean Butler  Pittsboro, NC
He took this on having never seen a dragon boat.  He was steady throughout.

Will Murphy (Steer) Hollywood, FL

Lisa Grossman  Lawrence, KS
She sat row one the whole way.  I only got to interact with her a bit on the penultimate leg.  She was friendly and in good spirits.

Joseph Ringling  Chesterfield, MO
He was instrumental in getting a lot of the practice and other prep taken care of, and was johnny on the spot with equipment and other details.  He even had a back up steering arm and steering oar made.  He was so generous to give five of us a place to stay for several days, among other things.

Mark Handley  Holt, MO
Mark picked us up from the airport.  Quiet, we never heard any complaint from him about anything.

Kelly Sumner  Harrisonville, MO
Genuine, kind, patient and coachable.  Accomplished adventure racer.

Krista Patterson Harrisonville, MO
Another accomplished adventure racer. To use her favorite expression, she was “AWESOME!”  Upbeat, warm, coachable.

Joseph Heger  St. Louis, MO
Young engineer looking for race experience.  Intelligent, coachable, diplomatic, wise beyond his years.  I think he could be a future winner of this race if he sticks with it.

Scott Swafford (Steer)  Columbia, MO
Kind. Knows the river.  Entertaining.

Ken Tilford   Edwardsville, KS
In the latter part of the race, I rode Ken like a rented mule, and he didn’t hit me with his paddle.  Maybe he was just too tired, but I think he is a patient, kind-hearted guy who really appreciated being part of this.

Black Coffee
I was disappointed I didn’t get to talk to him more.  He has done this race in a boat he and his teammate made out of a garbage bin, and has done it while carrying his bike and a homemade trailer, riding home on the Katy Trail towing his boat.  Huck Finn.

Doug Jennings  Kansas City, MO
Opened his home to us, always calm, always steady.

Rick Wise  Columbia, MO
Strong man.  He threw us for a loop when he shaved shortly after the race.  “Uh, do I know you?”  Man’s man.

Christina Glauner Lawrence, KS
Without her, there is no BnB. Dedicated, organized, mature.

Jonathan Redfern Scott AFB, IL
Funny guy, excellent skills and boundless energy.  Probably the best racing resume on the boat.

Eric Farris Branson, MO
Intelligent, fun guy to talk to (the Great Communicator) and a prodigious pee-er (the Great Urinator).

The Ground Crew
Kelly Barth Lawrence, KS        Maurita Collins Kansas City, MO
Maria Crusius St. Louis, MO        Dianne Maurer Holt, MO
Bob Collins II Kansas City, MO     Lisa Swafford Columbia, MO

If you’ve  never done a long, support race you know this, but without a good support crew, you’re screwed.  They get no glory, lots of work and little sleep.  We had to have a GREAT crew to keep such a big team well-cared for and moving through CPs.  They were excellent at a hard job.

As we got to the last stretch, some of the crew were checking the time, trying to make the 38 hour mark. Once they thought time had expired, I reminded them that the race had started 5 minutes late – they should still have 5 minutes to finish.  I went back on the tiller for the last couple of miles.  Redfern knows this area very well and was talking me through what I would see.  At one point he was advising we bear to the left a bit and I told him I would as soon as we passed “that structure.”  It took me another minute or so to figure out the “structure” was just the tree line.  I had had almost no sleep in over two days, and was starting to hallucinate.  We went under the last bridge, and could soon see the blinking light that marked the finish.

By now, the crew was yelling in unison with each stroke.  We were traveling over 10 mph and the energy was amazing!  We later learned that the folks on shore could hear us coming from over a half a mile away.  I had to ask others to confirm that there was nothing in front of us, as there were some shadows and they were starting to look to my sleep-deprived brain like some kind of manmade structure in the water in front of us.  I aimed just a hair upstream of the light, unable to make out the shore and relying just on Redfern’s instructions (which were excellent).  I could not see it at night, but there was a powerful eddy near the finish and the boat veered left. I had to call to the crew to the hold the boat, and use draw strokes and the oar to turn us to the finish, and we touched in at 38:05 – we had held onto our 3rd place finish!  In fact our final push had lengthened our lead to 39 minutes.  We were about an hour behind Los Humungoes, and about 73 minutes behind the overall winners which were, no surprise, West Hansen and David Kelly.

(next time – post race and meet the crew)

I moved to row two for the next leg of the race. A strong paddler had aggravated a shoulder injury and felt he would do better further back.  I wanted a chance to interact with some of the folks up front, including to help one of the paddlers up there with his stroke.  I also wanted to show that I was complying with the discipline we had been imposing to keep up our speed, and encourage others to do so.  And I was paddling pretty well and felt I could help out, including by setting the cadence when row one was on a break.  Also, Scott needed a break from paddling and by removing myself from the steering rotation for a while, I gave him that break.  I moved a couple other paddlers around as well.

Our plan was to resupply at Washington and then fly the CP at Klondike (that is, have our crew check in without us needing to stop, as permitted by the rules this year).  At Washington, the currents around the ramp were very strong.  I was back to steering as we left and asked the ground crew to walk us upstream a bit as we would need to get around a rocky outcropping and I didn’t want to risk hurting the boat.  They got us forward just a few feet when Missouri mud bogged them down.  I decided that they had given us enough room, and had the crew paddle us up and out and we were easily into the current again at 5:55 pm.

Perhaps six miles downstream, I saw it coming – a very big, laden, upstream barge.  This one was much bigger than the one we had encountered earlier.  It was coming around a bend, staying to the outside where the channel was.  I formulated a plan, ran it by the other steers, who agreed, and went for it.  It would keep us further from the barge, and it would mean we would encounter a wake it had left some time ago, shortening the time we would need to travel through troubled waters.  It worked perfectly.  We encountered the wakes head on.  By the time we got back to the channel we were through the worst of it.

At Klondike, we had a bit of concern.  As we approached the CP, we could not see or hear our ground crew.  If we didn’t spot them, we would have to put in and send someone from the boat to sign us through.  It would cost us only minute or so, but with the race nearly over and Santo not far behind, we didn’t want to risk getting caught.   But the ground crew either arrived as we were approaching or revealed themselves at that time, and we were able to fly by without stopping. We were still in 3rd, but Santo was like the Terminator, relentlessly closing it down.  We now know he reached Klondike just 16 minutes back.   The fact that at the time we didn’t know precisely where he was only made it worse.

(next time — on to St. Charles, and the finish line)

The current is roughly 3.5 mph so our boat was traveling at almost 10 mph.  There were boats around us for a couple miles and then things started to stretch out, with us in about 10th place.

There were three of us that would be steering – Ryan, Scott Swafford and I.  Scott is a local and knows the river quite well.  He is generally soft-spoken and has a gentle manner and his assistance was very helpful when Ryan and I were steering.  Ryan and I had studied the written materials on the navigational markers for the river.  The Missouri is managed – there is a channel, and there are wing dikes which project from the banks and direct water into the channel (and help control erosion).  Markers are there to help the tugs pushing heavy barges stay in the channel.  But this was my first time actually seeing the markers and the river.  I watched what the other race leaders did and also asked questions of Scott.

Santo was riding our stern wake, his bow just 4-6 inches off our stern.  At times 3-5 other boats where in a line behind him.  I started referring to the following boats as “the goslings.”  The weather was about perfect.  Cool for this time of year.

The first CP was at Lexington. We arrived in 5th place, but we spent 8 minutes resupplying.  Thus we started the next leg in 6th.  We knew before the race started that it would be very challenging to get in and out of CP’s quickly with such a large crew.  We ended up doing pretty well in this regard, and most of the credit should go to our fine support crew: Maria Crusius, Bob Collins II, Maruita “Mo” Collins, Dianne Maurer, Lisa Swafford, and Kelly Barth.

The competition was a Who’s Who of the best ultramarathon paddlers on this particular planet. West Hansen had entered a different division in the MR340 in each of the four prior years. And he has WON a different division every year, too.  His teammate this year was David Kelly, a top-flight adventure racer, who races with Robyn Benincasa (who was doing this race as a soloist).

Los Humungoes appear at ultramarathon races wearing face masks, tights and capes, a la Nacho Libre.  But don’t let the light-hearted antics fool you – those boys can GO.

Aquaholics were in a Huki SX2 with the gull wings.

Joe Mann was racing under the inaccurate title of Dark Horse Paddler.

All these folks are serious paddlers.  So we were in good company.  We left Lexington at 1:24 pm.

The next CP was Waverly.  Our ground crew checked us into Waverly in 6th.  We had passed Santo, but were caught by Andy Condie.  We called him “Brawny” throughout the race due to his full beard, which reminded one of our teammates of the marketing lumberjack for Brawny paper towels.  We passed Condie (Brawny) on the way to Miami, Missouri, and were back in 5th.

We resupplied again at Glasgow. We arrived in 5th place but Joe Mann was faster in the CP and left before we completed our resupply, our slowest of the race.  It was 11:23 pm

By this point I had already been thinking that we could finish on the podium in this event.  That would be HUGE.  This is a very competitive race and there were over 200 boats in the race (and those were largely the most dedicated folks out of the 340 crews signed up before the race was rescheduled.)  I started to encourage the crew to think about this possibility.

Below Glasgow was the part of the course the veterans all seemed to approach with some trepidation: Lisbon Bottoms.  I had studied some satellite images of the area.  There is a chute on river left.  From the satellite, it almost looks like a tempting shortcut.  The main river makes a sweeping, ox bow turn and the chute cuts across.  But descriptions, including the story of a strong paddler ending up in the chute and getting broken ribs trying to extricate himself, made it clear that the route was not safe, especially not in a dragon boat in the dead of night.  As luck would have it, I was on the tiller when we got to this section.  I could hear the water in the chute even before I could see it and got us past it.  About two thirds of the way through Lisbon Bottoms, my turn on the tiller ended and Scott finished it.  By then there was fog on the water, but he knows the river well and had no trouble.  By now I was getting sleepy.

In this section, even before Lisbon, we got into a duel with the Aquaholics.  This tandem team would sometimes wake ride for a few minutes, but would then launch a major attack, often getting so far out we could barely see them or their lights.  We would continue to grind ahead at a fairly constant speed and perhaps 40 minutes or more later would pass them.  A few minutes later they would launch another attack.  Their ability to put such big gaps on us so quickly was worrisome, but at one point when they were drafting I overheard the bow paddler tell the other “Dude, I’m paddling as hard as I can.”  I felt then that we would grind them down eventually.

At Katfish Katie’s we were 5th.  We left 34 minutes ahead of Santo, 8 minutes ahead of Joe Mann and 12 minutes behind Condie aka Brawny.  We were still behind the Aquaholics here. We were on our way at 4:44 am

Soon after Katfish Katie’s we were in sight of the Aquaholics and saw them pull into Cooper’s Landing.  Cooper’s is a popular stopping point with good facilities.  We didn’t know if they were going to resupply and be on their way in 5 minutes, or stop to sleep.

At Noren (aka Jefferson City or Jeff City) we were still 5th.  We had held our lead over Santo and put two more minutes into Joe Mann.  But Condie was now 20 minutes ahead of us.

(next time — the rest of the race)

Sleepless in KC
After a largely sleepless night in anticipation of the race, we were back at the Kaw River early.  Things were hopping there, with hundreds of paddlers, about as many support people, plus race officials and the media and spectators.

I had spoken to teammate Barry Brown and Imperial Commandress Christina Glauner the night before and we had decided that our best bet was to turn the boat to face the start, and then only load up the crew shortly before the start.  That would allow the team to be as relaxed and comfortable as possible for as long as possible.   We just had to back up a bit to get behind the boat ramp that is the starting line.  The gentle flow of the Kaw pushed us forward, and I had to have the crew back us up periodically as we waited for the start.  This required a little finesse, as there were so many canoes and kayaks in the area.  A paddler named Santo was nearby in his Huki SX1 with gull wing stabilizers.

At 8:05am they had finished the national anthem.  Gentlemen dressed as if contemporaries of Lewis and Clarke fired their muskets and we were off!

I secretly felt we were unlikely to take longer than 40 hours and could probably run it in 38 hours if all went well.

(next time — The Race!!)

Last Supper
By the time we got things squared away with the ground crew, it was time to go to the pre-safety meeting dinner.  Most of us went to the dinner that was at the same location as the safety meeting.  The food was good and plentiful. The safety meeting itself consisted mostly of a video.  I gather it is a challenge to make it engaging, since the warnings are the same from year to year, but they had used an Indiana Jones theme in which they cleverly interspersed clips from those movies with clips of the race organizer, Scott Mansker, discussing the various hazards of the race: hitting things like buoys and wing dikes, fog which could make it easy to hit things like buoys and wing dikes, bugs, fatigue, Asian carp which jump and sometimes injure people from the impact, sleep deprivation.  Also hitting things like buoys and wind dikes.  Actually, Mansker himself suggested that the video could be used for a drinking game based on the phrase “high, fast water.”  While levels were not as high as they had been in July when the race was originally scheduled, they were still high.  And fast.

(next time — sleepless in KC)

Welcome Aboard
The race starts where the Kaw River joins the Missouri River, and that is where the boat was.  The team slowly gathered and was milling around, so we got them seat assignments, and loaded up, with me on the oar.  The boat, Lynn’s Lion, named after the benefactor who purchased the kit from which it was made, was beautiful.  The fit and finish seemed perfect.

I headed straight for the Missouri River, just 100 meters away, wanting to get a feel for how to break the line where the confluence occurs.  It’s funny to see two bodies of water touching and yet so clearly distinct.  Water is water, right?  But you could easily see the line as the Mighty Mo’ swept from our left to our right.  The crew was alarmed that I was steering into the confluence, and a chorus of protestations arose.

Having been steering in Missouri for no more than 22 seconds, I deferred to their collective, indeed seemingly unanimous and certainly heartfelt, judgment.  We turned up the Kaw and practiced commands, switching steers and switching sides. I also took the opportunity to tweak some strokes that looked like they could be more efficient.  All in all, it went well.  In retrospect, I think some of the paddlers, who all had way more experience paddling solo or tandem than in a dragon boat, were a bit surprised at the directness of commands in a dragon boat.  Since my style is actually more laid back than a lot of dragon boat captains (I know Blazing Paddles members might dispute this), I didn’t think much of it at the time.

Once we got the boat tied up and the crew out, we went to give our supplies to the ground crew, who were also at Kaw Point.  Getting things ready for the ground crew was time consuming, even though I had done most of it in Florida before packing my bags. They were concerned about being able to keep the varying demands of 20 athletes straight, so we had been asked to simplify things for them as much as possible, and that meant having things very thoroughly separated and labeled.

Next time — more on the lead up and start of the MR340.

Come Hell Or .. . .
The race was slated for late July, and Ryan and I made our preparations for the trip to Missouri accordingly.  But dangerous floodwaters forced a postponement.  We had to change our reservations, of course.  Worse, Dan Grubbs, my original contact for this adventure and a very nice guy (among other things, Dan is the editor of Canoe and Kayak magazine) would no longer be able to participate.  So my lodging and ground transportation would have to be rearranged.  We lost a number of paddlers who couldn’t attend on the new date in August, and we started recruiting.  I was preparing seating charts, and ultimately prepared about 20 versions, as paddlers came and went.  (Like any boat, a dragon boat steers best and moves most efficiently when the load is distributed correctly.  The crew itself would be the vast majority of the load in this boat, so I prepared charts determining which paddlers would sit where based on the distribution of weight, personalities of paddlers and the relationships some had to each other, who would be steering, and several other factors.  As much as this can get to be a complicated undertaking for a regular dragon boat sprint, the importance of the subjective and personal factors in a race of such a long distance made it more so.)

I invited Sean Butler, who had raced with me in the Florida Coast to Coast adventure race twice.  He had been talking to me about doing the Texas Water Safari for the last couple years and this was a bit similar.  After I explained to him what a dragon boat was, he initially declined.  He knew that team dynamics are challenging in a long race and with so many personalities involved, he thought the odds were against a good experience.  But he rethought it and joined up.  With a few days to go, I did the “final” version of the seating chart.

Then, with only a fay or so to go before the race, one of the first members of the team decided to paddle in a different division with her husband.  We debated looking for a replacement, but decided to leave that seat open.  I reshuffled the seating chart to balance the boat with 9 paddlers on one side and 10 on the other, and was flying to Kansas City in the morning.

A dragon boat is steered with an oar that is positioned through a metal ring on a wooden arm near the stern (rear) of the boat.  Oars and the wooden arms to hold them do sometimes break.  I had been practicing steering a DB with a steering paddle from an OC6 (outrigger canoe for 6 people), as a back up to the oar.  So we had that steering paddle with us.  Ryan and I flew together, of course, and we met up with Sean at our first stop.  although I had competed in adventure races with Sean and with Ryan, it wasn’t at the same time, so it was fun for me to both see Sean again, and to be able to introduce him to Ryan.

At Kansas City, we met one of our new teammates from Missouri and a member of the support crew at the airport, and they drove us directly to the first and last practice we would have with the team before racing.

Next time — I meet the crew and make them all anxious, and have my first sighting of the Mighty M0′!

Race Report – 2010 MR340

I am a member of an email group for dragon boat paddlers and got this email in October 2009:

From: dan_grubbs
Subject: Long Races

I’m wondering what your challenges were in races. Here’s why I ask…

I belong to a group of paddlers in the Midwest of the USA who are going to assemble a team to paddle a DB in the Missouri River 340 — that’s a 340-mile race from Kansas City to St. Louis on the Missouri River. We’ve all been in this race in various craft, including in small team boats (4-person canoe). We are using this effort as a fund raiser for a Shriner’s Hospital in St. Louis.

Now, other than creating a bit of personal seat padding, what would you anticipate would be the challenges of paddling a DB for 340 miles. We have checkpoints at which we have to stop and sign in that equates to about every 40-50 miles. I’m thinking that we simply pair two people up and let them switch sides when they personally need to while underway. We don’t want to do a mass switch as I’m sure we’d tip over. We’ll be supported by a ground crew that will meet us at each checkpoint to resupply us with hydration and nutrition.

What are your thoughts about doing this?

The race is July 27-30.

Cheers all,
Dan

Dan’s name was somewhat familiar, as he is the editor of Canoe and Kayak Magazine, which I get electronically.  I wrote him with a few ideas, and didn’t think much more about it.  But in February 2009 I got curious so I wrote to Dan:

Dan,
Just curious how this project is coming.
Will

And he wrote back:

Will:

Thanks for asking. We have our team built except for needing one more woman. We’ve decided that the cost of rental and transports was going to be too much so we’re buying dragonboat plans and will have a carpentry school build our boat and it will stay in Missouri to be used by others to introduce the sport of dragonboating to this state. The carpentry school made the perogues that were used in the recreation of the Lewis & Clark expedition for the 100th anniversary, so we know they can build boats.
We’re working on trying to gain sponsorships and raise funds for our charity, the Shriner’s Hospital in St. Louis, Mo. We’re coordinating our ground support, which is actually the biggest job of this whole adventure. One crew member is researching world records to see if we can apply since this will be a 340-mile journey.
Let me know if you have any questions.
Best,
Dan

I was plenty busy here in South Florida with trying to survive a recession as a small business owner, get into shape for adventure racing and coach my own dragon boat team, Blazing Paddles.  But about two months later I saw an ad and wrote to Dan again:

Dan,

You and I have corresponded a bit about this adventure of yours. I just saw the ad in DBI, indicating you might need a few paddlers for the race.

Before I ever saw a dragon boat I was (and am) an adventure racer. I have completed races of over 2 days duration. The longest paddling-specific race I have completed was the [Rum Runner] — a three-day stage race from Key Largo to Key West (100 miles). I weigh about 147 and am comfortable paddling on either side (as I assume you plan for everyone to do anyway). I can also steer.

If you think I can be of service, let me know the details. I am copying a teammate of mine who has a similar background and skills.

Will

It seemed like a perfect fit – dragon boating is by and large a sprinting sport.  Few dragon boaters would have experience with really long races, and few would want to have any.  Adventure racing and marathon paddling don’t involve dragon boats.  So not many people would have both skill sets – paddling and steering dragon boats, and competing in ultramarathon distance events.  I had a foot in each of those worlds.

Dan wrote back:

Will:
I’m sending this message to our boat captain who will want to visit with you. An experienced helmsman would be very welcome, but I don’t know if our boat is full. Please connect with Christina Glauner for further details.
Cheers,
Dan

Next thing I knew I was corresponding with the team captain aka Imperial Commandress Christina Glauner.  It took a few weeks for me to decide that I had to find a way to make it happen.  The timing was not great for me, but the special nature of the challenge, and the chance to set a world record – well, the stars were unlikely to align like this for me again.  The chance to set a world record and to experience the dynamics of a big team in a long race were too unusual to pass up.

I suggested they bring in Ryan Mason, too.  I would probably need to sleep sometime and they would need another steersperson, plus Ryan, who is my teammate on Blazing Paddles, as well as on Team Are We There Yet, my adventure racing team, is a strong paddler and also has long course experience.  They didn’t have an open seat at the time, but I knew one would appear and it was maybe three weeks later that it did, and Ryan was in, too.