We are getting down to the final planning stages for this years MR340. We need to check over our gear, supplies and equipment to be sure we have everything we need but not more than we need. I seem to always take more than I will need so I am attempting to downsize this year. I'm going to leave my tool box at home and instead take a pair of pliers and duct tape. We will have to see what other necessities I can leave behind to make ourselves and our canoe more efficient.
We will need to get "My Dianna" out of the barn and wash her off real good and then give her a good coat of wax to make sure her bottom is smooth and slick. The Missouri River is running high and fast right now and it appears the water levels may remain high for the race so with the swift current and smooth slick canoe bottom we should be able to cut some hours off of last years time.
We have done all we can do to prepare our bodies for the exertion it will require to get downstream. All of the workouts and bike rides will get us headed the right direction but its the mind that one must overcome to complete this ultra marathon canoe race. Its when we begin to wonder why is it that we are out here on the dark river with sore hands, back and bottom fighting misquotes, leg cramps and drinking warm water that the race is won or lost. Everyone that glides their canoe onto the beach at the Lewis and Clark boat house in St. Charles knows the triumph of high achievement and even if they place in the second hundred they are a winner because they have accomplished what few have even attempted.
Teddy Roosevelt said it best:
In the battle of life, it is not the critic who counts; nor the one who points out how the strong person stumbled, or where the doer of a deed could have done better.
The credit belongs to the person who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; who does actually strive to do deeds; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotion, spends oneself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement; and who at worst, if he or she fails, at least fails while daring greatly.
Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs even though checkered by failure, than to rank with those timid spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat.
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