The Gasconade60 Race Report and Video

All day Friday I was excited about getting off work and hitting the road, then Beth called and told me that her car wouldn't start and it was in the Wal-mart parking lot.  I left work early to see if I could get it to start (I couldn't).  This was the last thing I needed since I still had to load everything for the race and drive over 2hours to get to the hotel.  We ended up leaving a note saying that we were having car trouble and left it there until Sunday morning when it magically started, and we drove it home (still need to figure out what was wrong though).
I was stressed out because I had so much to do.  Certain that I was going to forget something I over packed and brought way too much stuff.  At the hotel everything was pared down to what I needed, and surprisingly I didn't forget anything.  On the way down we stopped at Sports Authority and bought a Sportbrella XL for Beth.  She didn't use it but it will be good for her to have in the future.  The Garmin was giving us directions, and I missed a turn so when it recalculated it had us going in an infinite loop in Clayton, I was afraid we would get pulled over for DWP,  "Driving While Poor".  I saw what it was doing and turned somewhere else then everything was fine.  We made it the rest of the way without incident.  Michael and Terra had a bit of excitement when one of the straps holding his kayak down broke and it went flying of to crash land on the interstate.  Shockingly there was very little damage.
At the motel I got everything ready for the race including my new favorite race food, Bean and Rice Burritos. Those things really hit the spot out on the river.  They taste good and they travel well, what could be better?  I also brought plenty of Honey Stinger Waffles and Ginsting Gels to get me through to the finish.  Ginsting is like jet fuel, I haven't found a gel that works better.
Race morning we headed out early and got to the race start with enough time to unload at a relaxed pace, and had everything ready before the pre-race meeting.  There were a wide variety of boats in the race.  Some that looked super fast, and they were.
After the meeting the race started.  We decided not to start in the water, so after every one took off we got in and started our trip down the river.  The weather was cool, and misty for most of the day, with a drizzle of rain every now and then.  There was also a crazy headwind for most of the race.  We had some snags in the first leg and ended up separating.

I had a lot of fun using the new Adventure Camera that Beth bought for me.  It is waterproof and shoots video as well as stills.  I kept it attached to my PFD with a lanyard so it was always handy.  Not having to worry about it getting wet is great.  I look forward to using it quite a bit during future adventures.

Now I will leave you to watch the video, but before I do I want to mention a few things that really surprised me about the race.
My Stohlquist aSEA PFD was awesome.  I had some concerns about using it for the 340 because it is a little thick, but after 9+ hours of paddling I hardly even noticed that I was wearing it.

I was also very impressed with my Garmin 305.  It lasted the entire race!   One time at around 6.5hours it gave the low battery warning, and I kept expecting it to die, but it stayed on for the whole race.  When I used it for Double Chubb I thought I was lucky to get 6.5hours out of it, little did I know it had plenty of life left.

So here is that video I was telling you about.  It won't win any awards, but I promise I will get better at editing .

  

I would like to thank the Aquaholics and all the volunteers for putting on such a great race.  It was a long day in some lousy weather to be standing around waiting, and waiting for some boats to paddle by.  It was a great experience, the farthest I have ever paddled by 40 or so miles.  I felt like I could have kept going and now I have a little more perspective for the upcoming MR340.