The paint all went on smooth, this time. We were getting fully rigged when we got the news that the race start was postponed until Wednesday. This was not terrible because it have us a bit more time to get everything organized.
Why postponed? The river was up already due to rains in the upper plains and a water release from the reservoir in South Dakota. We were going to be right on the edge of going. Scott Mansker, the race director, and the team made the tough decision to postpone 24 hours to get onto the backside of the flood crest that was hitting. There was a storm coming Monday night through Tuesday morning that was going to expand the river in its banks. A high Missouri River or at flood stage is dangerous because there is nowhere to go if you need to get off of the water. Not as many safe landings, no wing dikes to take shelter behind, and debris in the river to avoid.
As the weather forecast progressed, so did the National Hydrolical prediction for river levels. By 11am yesterday, it was clear that the race would not be starting. What a tough and brilliant decision by Scott and the staff. It is of course disappointing to not be able to take Third Wheel out for the race, but lives may have been save with that decision. Everyone has a story of how much time, money, traveling, and effort they put into the MR340 this year. It is the right decision. The storm did come as predicted. The river is swelling in its banks. The race is rescheduled for August.
It is tough, but not foreign to Tim and I. We went through this our first and second year of attempts. 2010 was a situation close to this week. Rain put it over the top. We could not do the August reschedule. 2011 was a flood year and was clearly going to be backed up. It was rescheduled to August, then September, then finally ran in October (still with high water). We did not want to test hypothermia and again work found itself in the way.
Tim and I finished in 2012 with low water. I finished well as a solo in 2013 with lower water.
I'm not fully counting August 12 out of the question for me in the race. We have intentionally not discussed it yet. I do know a few things though:
1a. Liz and I will not be doing the race together this year. The race falls on the first week of school. Meetings MTW, then students on ThF. Liz is starting at a new school this year and I could not ask her to not have the opportunities to build those relationships.
1b. Laura will be returning to her school and prepping and starting the year off right is huge for student success (especially in elementary).
1c. I return to the same SPED program with only one new student. If is plays able that I could get away with missing the first two days. I have some personal days saved up. It will be up to me to determine if I want to attempt for that time off of start of the year meetings, XC practice, and teaching. IF I made that decision, I would have to then see of it is something my Head Principal and administration team would support. Who knows?
2. Teammates: Rob and Tim have their own work situations that may or may not allow time off of work to try to go again. They are both back at work today knowing that we would already be through KC if we started today as originally scheduled. They both missed yesterday.
3. We would be in need of aground crew we can trust.
I would not rule it out just yet, but I mark it as unlikely.
After hearing of the postponement, a Rob traveled back down from KC. Tim and I got a two hour pedal in at Fellows Lake to find the Third Wheel running smooth. We had an easy go of it averaging near 5mph while figuring out the boat and how we can manage our selfs. We got a few sprints in to se whet we could do. One GPS read our max speed at 10.3. My watch had us topping out at 9.8. This is flat water I remind you. This rig flies.
Anyway, back to processing the turn of events. Today marks 4 months since I made the first cuts.
