The MR3, Part Two

If you missed it, start with The MR3, Part One.

If you have no idea what is going on, start at the beginning.

Previously, on Paddlephiles:

Still stricken with amnesia, Mickey stumbles upon a farmhouse in the country owned by a beautiful red head named Maggie who convinces him to seek medical treatment. Meanwhile, Lucky accuses Nikolas of only kissing Elizabeth in an immature effort to try to pay him back for going out with Rebecca.

Now, Part 2 of The MR3

Sunday, 9:30 am: Aren't You Guys Supposed to be Training?

Sweet hose dude.

4 hours of paddling followed by a 10 hour break. Sounds like the Paddlephiles alright. After a hearty eggs and sausage breakfast the boys shove off. We plan to meet in Lexington for lunch. From the looks of this campsite they'll beat me there. I've been trying to get the eggs off of the bottom of this pan for 20 minutes. I've decided the pan is disposable.

Sunday, 1:30 pm: Lexington
Disappointment strikes again. We were planning to grab lunch from Riley's. We should have realized an Irish Pub would be closed on Sunday in a town like this. I have McDonald's for Jeff, Mike and Patrick opt to eat sandwiches they brought. I don't blame them. When we checked in around Napolean they were running 6.6 mph so I expected them earlier. Their 1:30 arrival gives them an average of 6 mph again today. Jeff pulls his boat out to join me in the truck, Mike and Patrick shove off for Waverly.

I still haven't had lunch so Jeff and I head up to Richmond for margaritas in a rather half-hearted mexican restaurant some squatters had set up in an abandoned Hardee's. The wall is covered with pictures of locals in sombreros having birthday parties. Well, technically 'a' sombrero. I'm pretty sure they just have the one. I'm stunned at how many people celebrate their birthdays here. The saddest thing I have ever seen is now a teenage girl in a sombrero holding a cake that says "Sweet Sixteen". Stay strong kiddo, we're all rooting for you.

Sunday, 3:00 pm: Waverly

We make Waverly with a couple of hours to kill. May as well take in the sights. Or rather, the sight.

General Joseph 0. Shelby, it's not as Irish as it sounds.

Turns out Waverly is a confederate town. Now we're generally content to poke fun at ourselves instead of others so I'll spare you my vision of the committee that wrote, approved and engraved this gibberish on a sign. For a small number of words it sure does take a long time to parse. Go ahead, try it. We'll wait.

Wait. What?

Sunday, 3:02pm: Well, we've done all the touristy stuff.
Might as well head on down to Port of Waverly to wait for our ship to come in.

Your tax dollars at work.

Well looky what we got here. The United States Coast Guard, protecting the Port of Waverly from... umm... probably cigarette boats running drugs up from cuba I guess. Though I sure wouldn't want to float by here in an iron-clad full o' yanks neither. It's too bad they aren't guarding this overflowing trash can since it's stinking up the entire parking lot. I wish I could have been there to see these guys faces when they got their station assignments. Still, living on a 5 million dollar boat with a deck and a grill can't be all bad. I bet these guys have a girl in every port. Take a note ladies, if you want to drink margaritas and wear a sombrero on your birthday, this is probably the place to do it.

Now that I think about it, I'd like to see their wall of pictures.

Sunday, 5:30 pm: It's About Damn Time
The Gasconade was blocking my view from the ramp and I didn't see the guys until they were almost on me. It was a tricky landing as the ramp points down river so they had pass it and turn around and go upriver at it. They executed the landing flawlessly the first time, it was a work of art.

This is what delirium looks like.

So Lexington to Waverly was 23 miles in 4 hours, dropping the guys a bit below the 6mph pace they had been keeping. The longer day had a definite impact. I'm amazed at how every leg of this training run hit pretty much exactly 4 hours. We didn't really plan that but it sure makes the math easy. In the final tally, not counting the 10 hour nap, the guys paddled 73 miles in 12 hours, for an overall average of 6.08 mph. This will get them through the Lexington and Waverly checkpoints roughly 1 hour before the cutoff times. That makes me a little nervous considering the 10 hour break. I don't think they can hold that pace for 12 solid hours and an hour isn't much breathing room.

We'll have a better idea what pace to expect after this weekend's MR4. This time there will be a 6am wake up call and a 77 mile single day paddle. Still a little shy of the 90 mile days I want them doing in the race, but we're getting there. Stay tuned!

Canoes need naps too.

Coming Soon: The Maps 2, The MR4, The Montage 2