It takes a kernel of crazy to paddle across the state of Missouri on a river known as dangerous and dirty in the blazing summer heat.
It takes almost as much determination to try to capture the blood, sweat and tears with a single video camera.
In 2007, filmmaker Jodi Pffeferkorn took her first stab at the Missouri River 340, an ultra-marathon kayak race from Kansas City to St. Charles, but quickly found that covering scores of paddlers over hundreds of miles was no easy feat. "It was a good first attempt, but I knew I could improve on it," she says.
So last year, with the annual race having grown from 15 friends with a crazy-ass idea to 255 boats from all over the country, Pfefferkorn decided to give the documentary a second try.
"I did the best I could to get a broad view of the entire race," Pfefferkorn says. "I was in a motor boat so I could get down the river pretty quickly, but I spent hours at checkpoints filming paddlers when they stopped."
The biggest challenge, she says, was portraying the different brands of paddlers that attempt the MR340. There's the hardcore athletes, who train all year and sprint from start to finish with little or no sleep. Then there's the weekend warriors who push themselves to get it done in 60 hours, but spend a little more time catching their breath along the way. And then there's the adventurers with little experience, who just hope like hell that they make it to St. Charles in one piece.
Pfefferkorn made it, and the result was an 80-minute piece called "The Next 340 Miles of Your Life." Her hope is that the movie is both education and inspiration, making race veterans swell with pride as they relive the watery siege and also inspire rookie paddlers to get their butts in a kayak to brave the 2010 excursion. "I wanted it to answer their questions and psych them up for the race," she says.
The film makes it Kansas City premiere tonight at the Screenland theater. Tickets cost $5 and, for aspiring competitors, a forum of paddlers and race organizers will follow both the 6:30 and 8:30 p.m. screenings.
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Thanks for posting this Carolyn. Your story a couple of years ago was the best I've seen for capturing the human phenomena that is the race.
Part of that article was about Richard Lovell, the guy that finished the race even though he just completed chemotherapy. Richard died last week, and at his funeral, they read part of your article to explain to people just what he had accomplished.
Thank you.
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