Rusty Coons first solo run 2018 MR340

We left the house at 4:30 to get to Kaw point early enough for me to put in for the solo start. We started putting together both Amber's boat and mine. We got light and seats set up. We got it all together and there was a huge line to the ramp. Aaron came down to see us off with one of his coworkers. He said we put in on the point last year and it was easy. There was a couple boats putting in there but only on the exact point. We carried my boat down to the right of the point and I got in the water up to about my waist. I hopped in and then sponged out the water I carried into the boat with me. I paddled up stream a bit and talked to a few paddlers. Backpaddling upstream was weird with the rudder. When they announced 5 minutes there was a bunch of paddlers downstream of the ramp sideways, a couple were still there when they started counting down from 10 seconds. I didn't really make a hard plan for my start I just wanted to get paddling. When I hit the confluence I was just right of middle. I got in the pack with around 75ish boats ahead of me. I moving along pretty good but the leaders were simply walking away from me. I was paddling somewhere around 8.8 through KC. I wasn't really paddling around anyone I knew which I was kind of surprised by. 15 minutes into the race I was just cruising and all of a sudden my Ama came out of the water like I was flipping over. I drove it back down and was like "man I hope that doesn't keep happening". I kept on the paddle still trying to figure out to use it halfway correct. I only paddled about 20 miles with the double blade before we started the race. I had watched tons of videos and one of the things they all had in common was do not use a wing paddle for any marathon type race if you are not experienced. Well I was using Gina Bradly's RPC3 small mid wing. I would get good catches and then not leg drive properly or get a bad catch but leg drive would be good. I finally got it all working but it wasn't early on day one. There was a couple boats through the first hour that I was paddling around that were kind crowding me a lot of times. I finally pulled ahead of them a bit where I had my own space. I was doing the same as the last year drinking every 15 minutes and eating on the hour. I was trying a new drink too called tailwind. It has a mellow flavor, electrolytes and calories so I was drinking it from time to time. I felt like I was holding back so I didn't crash or come apart. I had no idea what I could or couldn't do with the wing so I was being conservative. I was curious of what time I would be passed by the five man boat with Dylan, Brad, Michael, Wendell and Phil Bowden. It didn't take long into the race to get my answer. I heard a hut behind me and looked over my shoulder and laughed. I didn't dream it would be so early in the race. The time was 11:14. They were running single blades and it was a thing of beauty. They motored by me and I hollered go get the record fellas and Phil said we're on pace for it. I asked if they were singling the whole way and they told me they were gonna do 30 on singles and 30 on doubles. Somebody said I like your boat but I don't know who. They hit the Napoleon ramp in front of me and I passed them while they were getting changed out. I heard somebody yelling out their bank time as I went by they yelling 2 minutes back in the boat! I got on passed the ramp then they promptly got in the boat and passed me right back. I knew there was no way I would see those guys again until St Charles. I kept paddling at what I assumed was a medium pace. It was honestly fewer strokes per minute than what amber and I do on single blades. As I was closing in on Lexington it was obvious it was about to get more eventful. There was a big fully loaded barge going full screws coming upstream. As I passed the checkpoint I heard mom Randy and the boys yelling for me. It was 12:55. A few boats were pulling over to avoid the barge. A lot of them went on by the ramp but went way river right where some wing dikes usually are but are underwater this year. I would have made the ramp if I wanted but I just swung out of channel and kept motoring. When the barge came by the dikes started showing themselves. It was obvious I didn't want anything to do with them. There was only a couple hundred feet between the barge and the dike so I held toward the dike side and as he passed I turned square into the rollers. The waves were big but pretty even for the first couple hundred feet then I started getting the reverberations off the dikes and sides there was a few huge rogues that were breaking in front of me. Some of them easily 4-5 feet. Luckily I didn't hit any of them directly. The outrigger worked beautifully. I I had been talking with a guy off and on name chris. I figured out his last name later it was Chris Mullee. He said man I was really surprised when you just headed right out into it. He had done the race a few times and he was quick paddler. We jockeyed back and forth shooting the breeze to waverly talking about how fast the five man was since we hadn't seen another boat that started at 8. Right as we said it we heard another team coming up. It was Mike Dey and his team and just a couple hundred years behind that was the three person team Tandemonium Diane was in the front putting up a great pace and stroke rate on the single. We held back a bit so they could get into the ramp and get going. Their race was tighter than ours. I pulled into the actual ramp this year. The time of day was 3:54. The boys got my lights on Randy held the boat and handed me stuff and we got my water topped off. I pushed off and looked at my GPS. Total stop time 3:31. That's what I'm talking about! I didn't see Chris Morris again I think. The wind was picking up from time to time. I had been plannin to switch to the single at waverly so I could paddle into the dark with it but I was afraid the wind was gonna continue. I told mom I was planning to stop at Miami to switch paddles. I was still sitting at an overall speed around 8.3mph. I was hoping to be over 8.0 when I moved into Glasgow. I kept on the double and the speed was moving along well still. I was going to see Miami in the daylight. I thought it was because I started an hour early but an hour past Miami it was still daylight. When I came near Miami I had changed my mind again. The Double was just too fast to give up yet. I yelled to my crew on the bank that I would stop at Dalton's bottoms instead of stopping at Miami. There weren't a ton of paddlers around at this point. There was a guy in a big canoe that he'd converted into a pedal drive. It was crazy watching him because it looked like he was just drifting because he made no wake but he was consistent and fast. There was another paddler in front of my that I passed eventually. It was Ellen in Jerico's boat. I passed her while she was taking a break. I paddled on for a while and stopped to get some food in me. Two guys came up on me that must have been stopped at Miami because they were easily faster than me. It was Johnny Ortiz and Robert Bradford. Johnny said come join the party when you get done. So I finished eating and picked up the pace to catch them. They were obviously holding back so I could catch up because once I caught them they jumped right on pace with me. I was paddling at 9+mph and was using a lot of output. These two guys looked like they could go on forever at this rate. We paddled and talked off and on for an hour or more and I finally said I had to visit the Gatorade bottle and wished them a good race. They went forward a ways and separated. I assume to do the same thing. I paddled to the left of them to catch up and kept paddling assuming they would catch up to me again shortly. I stayed somewhere around 8.5 for a while. I plugged my phone in and started charging it. After and hour I decided I would plug my speaker in and charge it as well. This is the point when I realized that my charger had failed. I had been expecting this thing to easily charge all my needs for the entire race. I texted my crew saying I needed Ryder's phone and would give them mine to charge.then my GPS died. I swapped batteries and it didn't come back. When I pulled into Daltons bottom mom handed me her charging brick and I started my phone on the charge. I switched paddles and the first tandem I had seen came rolling in. A boat I knew on sight. I said is that the Milbys and they said it was. They said they had pushed really hard to avoid the upstream barge. I heard another boat was coming in and I needed to clear the ramp. I was just pushin out when I heard Jerico say "it's Ellen!" I was paddling downstream and some more boats caught me that hadn't stopped at Daltons bottoms. I was mostly just saying hello to the paddlers that were passing me and that I was passing. Then after a while the Milbys caught me. Lauren saw me on the single and was talking about how jealous she was and about how much better it feels than the double. Even though I have thousands of miles on the single the double is a bunch faster. It's not far from Daltons to Glasgow. There were buoys everywhere coming into Glasgow bridge. There was a boat ahead of me so I was keeping an eye on them. I there were boats up the ramp when I got there. It was 12:51 am. There was a barge coming upstream but he was a ways out yet. While we were getting my food and drink topped off a safety boat pulled up and said "the barge is changing from river right to river left. To be on the safe side don't release any boats at this time." I told Randy I'm not staying and pushed off. There was a boat ahead of me and one behind me. I Caught up to the boat ahead of me and knew who it was by posture and stroke. I said hello Mr Frederichson. And we talked a few minutes and then spread out before we hit the barge wake. I hit the wake and it was easier than the Lexington barge. He wasn't going full screws so there weren't a ton of huge waves. I can never remember where the chutes are at Lisbon other than on the left. I finally saw it and was making my way through Lisbon without incident. I know I was reaching some pretty good speeds trough here even on the single. It was cool seeing the house on the bluff that usually calls out your name but it was late. I was also getting pretty sleepy. I pulled one of my Starbucks double shots and had a couple drinks of it. I had results pretty quick. I poured the rest of it out because I didn't wanna overdo it. I only had a couple hours to make franklin island. I was feeling much better after the espresso. Paddled on into Franklin at 4:16. I was feeling good but had decided to take a 30 minute sleep. I told mom when I got there that I feel really good and should just keep going. They had the back seat ready for me and I asked for exactly 30 minutes in the car. I said I wanted to be gone by 5am and she said we can do that. When I laid down my brain would not shut off. I was wondering where Amber was and thinking about how I am exactly 1/2 way through the race at around 21 hours. I was thinking if I get up and go I can can finish the race in the next 23 hours. I may have dozed off when someone's car alarm started going off. I dozed off again and mom opened the door saying 30 minutes were up. I got on the water and felt way worse and more tired than when I got off. There was some light fog but nothing to really hamper visibility. I wasn't addling great at this point. I was taking lots of small breaks to adjust something. Or get drinks or snack. Mostly just wasting time because I was worn down. I realized this was what was going on and started saying I don't take any paddle strokes off until I hit that corner and then I don't take any strokes off until I hit the end of that island etc. until I got back in a rhythm. I planned to pass coopers and stop at Hartsburg. I swung in near Coopers and made sure they saw me. When I pulled into Hartsburg I was asking for my watch. But they said they couldn't find it. I made a trip up to the car and couldn't even find my overnight bag for after the race. I told mom that I must have left it at home.I did grab the Tums out of my medical kit because I was having some real heartburn issues after eating some turkey sticks. I got my Thai food and my food bags and headed out to chamois. I ate some of the Thai food and it tasted great but it put my chest on fire. I didn't eat a lot of it but it was really good. It seemed to take a while to get past Jeff City. I was really happy to pass it before noon. I thought that was a really cool accomplishment. I texted to make sure they knew I was going by but I could see a barge coming up with a single load. I had to put the power into it to make sure I was past the bridge before he got there. I didn't realize he was pulling over to stop at the sand operation to the left of the bridge. As he crossed over the channel I went right into the wash. It was a weird one since he angled across the channel the waves reverberated back quick and made no sense. I powered on through them and continued on. I looked over my shoulder shortly and saw he was already on his way back down with an empty. I got over out of the channel and went far left as he passed. He got in front of me and turned sideways. Then he got on the power again and tried to make a mess so I just went after it and it was mostly rollers. I was realizing I was gonna be seeing Chamois in the daylight. If I didn't mess around I would be seeing Hermann in the daylight to. From here on out it was going to be the opposite of all the other races I had run. I saw a small ramp on river left with a boat pushing off. I recognized the paddler immediately as JW Lile. We paddled together and shot the breeze for awhile. We talked about our goals and that we were on track to finish pretty well. I told him I was looking for Chamois. All I knew was it is RM117 and it was on the right. I stopped for a quick break and JW moved on. I asked him when he was planning on stopping and he said he might take a standing break at Hermann and Klondike. I hoped I could pass him in there somewhere. I really like JW but he'd given me a real butt whoopin at the freedom race and I would have liked to pass him. I saw Chamois and the ramp was clear. I pulled in hopped out to go to the restroom. My ground crew cleaned out the food bags and got everything topped off. I paddled out and headed to pass Hermann. The time to Hermann really ticked by. I was staying on the paddle good at this point with the only missed strokes when I got my drink every 15 minutes and eating on the hour. I motored on past Hermann at 5:57. It looked cool from the river. The bridge was still kind of a mess even in the daylight. I went on by and told mom I would see her at Klondike and they said they would be at Washington anyway. Somewhere in here was another barge but for the life of me I don't have any idea where. I was beginning to think my outrigger was pulling the front stud out. I was staring at it obsessively. It turned out it was fine. I poured a double espresso into my tailwind. It wasn't great flavor but a sip of it would pick me up for a bit again. my core was really smoked at this point. I was still keeping what I believed was good form and using good rotation. Somewhere between Hermann and Washington I sneezed. When I did I collapsed my abs and my right side seized up hard. I started paddling on the right side only like my double was a single. I slowly eased my way upright and planned to stay upright the rest of the night. I came up on Washington and there was a lot of light. There was a boat ahead of me and they were heading into the ramp. There was somebody there yelling and banging a cow bell. Mom was trying to ask if I was doing well but we couldn't hear each other over the cowbell. She ended up holding off and I was able to say I was headed to Klondike and feeling good. Not long after this I was starting to see some minor things. Normal for this time of race. I would see things in the shadows rectangular buildings and that slowly morphed into upside down trailers floating in the shadows close by. I was aware that I was getting into bad shape on the mental side of the game but still felt like I was paddling strong. I kept thinking Klondike would be coming up soon but it wasn't happening fast enough. I had sipped on a five hour energy a couple times and it would clear up a bit but I would slide back into hallucinations shortly after. At one point I saw a giant bookcase with 30' books in the river I thought I was going to hit it. Then I saw a steam locomotive going downstream on the river. I decided to hit the rest of the 5 hour energy after Klondike. I saw the power plant and knew it was only a few miles out. Not having a gps I had no idea how far out I was until I saw things I recognized. At the straight away I paddled right toward the ramp. There were quite a few lights and lots of noise. I got near and yelled hello. They said what's your boat number. I yelled 3737 and heard my crew say it's Rusty! I said I'm good and I would see them at the finish line. At this point I didn't know what time it was. My propaddler app said st Charles in 3hrs 32 minutes. I looked at the time and it was 11:14. I did the math and thought of I picked it up a couple minutes I could finish in 44:44. I thought that would be a really cool time and I would be stoked to be under 45 hours. Seeing Klondike cleared up my brain for a bit and I was paddling hard. I was staying near the channel but would stay out of the really dark shadows. There was fairly heavy cloud cover. I was worried about buoys and was also seeing more debris. I downed the other half of the 5 hour energy. My brain was fairly clear from here on out. I was seeing multiple helicopters fly back and forth on the river but I was really sure they were real. I could see the glow of St. Charles from here. The only time I was off the paddle was to listen. At this point I was thanking every buoy for letting me see/hear it. I usually move really good through this part of the river but there were some tough spots to read. I stayed really close to or in the channel. I never used the app where I could watch the channel I just listened to it like the whole race. When I came around the corner and saw the water treatment plant near the straight away. I rounded the bend and could see all the way to the edge of the bridge. There were lots of buoys through this stretch but they were all fairly spotable. I was staying on the paddle good and only ate something sweet on purpose to flair up the heartburn to make staying awake even easier. The bridge of false hope was a welcome sight. I knew it was close. I kept hammering and had decided to stay on the channel side of the I-70 bridge then cut across. I knew there was a dock at the finish line but had no idea what it looked like. I could see the flashing blue light and headlamp to he right of that. I started across the channel and it was a long way across there. I was burning a bit across here. As I got close I could hear mom Randy and the boys cheering. I was trying to see how to get into the dock or whatever then I got my picture taken. My night vision was completely gone. I said where's the dock and and they talked me in. I pulled in and heard a time of something. 43. I figured it was 44hrs 43minutes. I rolled myself into the dock and laid there a minute and then got upright. I walked up and got some finish line pics. I heard Amber and the girls should be at Hermann any minute. I the next boat in was 18 minutes behind me. It was JW Lile. At this point they were saying I was 9th and JW was tenth in men's solo. I was happy for us both he had told me his big goals were sub 50 and wanted top 10 men's solo. We wandered up to the shower and JW went first. I was talking to mom and Randy and said I was really happy to go sub 45. It was at this point that Randy told me my time of 43:43. I was blown away. I had missed my math by an hour. At least it was the good direction. JW got out of the shower and I decided to get cleaned up. Mom had bought me clothes since I was sure my overnight bag was at home. We talked about going up to New Haven but I thought there was no way the girls would stop there. We decided to go to Klondike and sleep a bit. We hung out a while and then saw the girls go by. We yelled for them and I saw Amber was running a single on the left side the whole time. I couldn't wait to see her in St Charles. We drove back to St Charles. The girls came rolling in at 1:13PM for a total time of 53:13.