Day 48: 103 Miles!

Today is July, 19th.  My 25th birthday!  Better make it memorable, right?


We woke up at 4:30 as planned.  What wasn't planned was that it would be too dark to get on the water until 5:45.  While we waited I made coffee.  It was delicious. 


I wasn't totally sold on the idea of making 100 miles.  I was up for giving it a shot and I thought it would be a memorable way to spend my 25th birthday, but the current hadn't been very favorable lately and our previous high mile day was 79.  How were we going to squeak in an extra 21 miles?  That was the equivalent of about three extra hours on the water.  The first mile marker we saw was about 20 minutes downriver and was 495.8 so we knew we started around 497.  Our goal was set at mile marker 397.


It wasn't until lunch that I really thought it was possible.  We had kicked out 42 miles and the day was not yet half way over.  Close, but not quite.  We ate a large meal in anticipation of being in the boat the rest of the day and set back out.


After lunch every single paddle stroke I took I consciously put everything I had behind it.  It was tough, but I knew the feeling of 100 miles completed would be worth it. 


Being that it was my birthday, we stopped in Vicksburg briefly to get beer.  Anders went and came back with Miller Light.  For real, Ders?  That's the best you could do?  Despite not being excited for my victory/birthday beer I continued to push hard with each paddle stroke. 


The sun went down and we had yet to hit the century mark.  We knew we were close, having seen a mile marker indicating 96 or so miles awhile back.  We set our course for a blinking red light, a mile marker on the Eastern shore of the river.  Paddling by flashlight and headlamp we landed at the mile marker, hopped out, and read the mileage: 393.8!  Although the area under the mile marker was not ideal to pitch a tent, we did so anyways.  We were exhausted and didn't want to paddle blindly in hopes of finding a better spot.


Physically, it was obviously a very trying day.  But what was even harder was just how mentally strong we had to be to accomplish this feat.  We could have easily called it quits many times.  Each paddle stroke past about 6:00 was difficult to make myself perform. 


We wanted nothing to do with the beer.  We were too tired and were more interested in eating a large dinner to replace all the calories we burnt.  Still, we toasted to a successful day and slowly struggled through a warm Miller Light.


A quarter century old and a century paddled.  It felt good.