For the past 20 years, hundreds of paddlers have taken to the Missouri River to attempt a grueling, three-day journey across the state. Starting in Kansas City and ending in St. Charles, the MR340 race is billed as the longest nonstop paddling race in the world.
Before reaching the finish line, paddlers must traverse fog, sleepless nights and the prospect of hallucinations.
“You're looking at the trees, and they're just moving, they're shifting,” recalled Nick Phillips, a senior editor with St. Louis Magazine who completed the 2025 race in July. “You've been up almost 24 hours at that point. ... You see boats that aren't really there, your brain is just playing tricks on you, and it gets weird.”
Phillips chronicled his journey in the magazine’s September issue in a feature titled, “Why a grueling, nonstop 340-mile race on the Missouri River has paddlers hooked.” He described the race as a "sweaty, maddening hell.”
“You get kind of in this loopy, sleep-deprived state,” Phillips said on Monday’s St. Louis on the Air. “You forget to sip water, you forget to eat food.”
Phillips wasn’t alone on the water. His paddle-partner was Jason Deem, who spent just under 74 hours alongside him in a tandem kayak they nicknamed “The Green Machine.”
“It was both, at the same time, far more miserable and far more enjoyable than I expected it,” Deem said. “The nice thing about having a partner is that, at least for us, the low points came at different times. … If you're just by yourself, 100% of the boat is in pretty bad shape.”
Although competing in a team provides strategic benefits, MR340 race director Steve Schnarr said the majority of the 542 paddlers in 2025 entered the race solo.
“To finish this race is a huge physical accomplishment, that you can get all the parts of your body to cooperate enough to get you 340 miles down the Missouri River and across the state of Missouri,” he said. “But what everyone talks about [to] get to that finish line — usually, it's a mental and a spiritual challenge that they have to go through several times in the days that it takes them to cross the state.”
Over those three days, the body and mind find an equilibrium.
“Your body does its thing, and then your mind kind of follows as well,” he said. “You somehow have to move past those difficult times. ... And it happens, you can move through it. You just keep paddling, or you take the break that you need to take, and you've got the voices in your head telling you, ‘OK, let's go. We're going to do this. We're going to finish this thing.’”
To hear the full conversation with Nick Phillips and Steve Schnarr, including insight from Schnarr on organizing the massive race and details from Phillips’ prerace training regimen, listen to “St. Louis on the Air” on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or YouTube, or click the play button below.
“St. Louis on the Air” brings you the stories of St. Louis and the people who live, work and create in our region. The show is produced by Miya Norfleet, Emily Woodbury, Danny Wicentowski, Elaine Cha and Alex Heuer. The production intern is Darrious Varner. The audio engineer is Aaron Doerr.
