3:40 p.m.: Wally Werderich and Nick Josefik finished the MR 340 the same way they started, in their wrestling outfits. Werderich said they did not wear the masks and cape the whole race, but they made sure to pick them up at the last checkpoint before the finish.
They said they both slept an hour each and they hallucinated near the end of the race.
Werderich said he was so full of caffene it made it hard for him to sleep, and said that the fact they were near the front of the pack the whole race was motivation as well. Twenty miles before the finish line Werderich caught up to West Hansen and Katie Pfefferkorn and passed them for third place. According to Werderich, that Pfefferkorn and Hansen were on the side repairing something on the boat. Once they saw that they paddled as fast as they could.
“We saw their spotlight on a few minutes after that,” Werderich said. “Then we looked back after paddling a few miles and saw their light was off. We thought they turned it off to try and sneak up and pass us.
Sleep deprivation caused the duo to have many halucinations, but there was one in particular that brought a smile to Werderich’s face.
“At one point I thought I saw a car driving at us in the river,” Werderich said. “I told Nick (Josefik) to turn the boat around because I thought we were going to get hit.”
Josefik said his body was very wobbly after the race. He said his shoulders hurt so bad he couldn’t lift a 20 ounce bottle of water to his mouth. So he had to lean back like he was doing the limbo to drink the water.
“I couldn’t even tie my shoes or take off my shirt, because I was hurting so bad,” Josefik said. “But we got energized because our Humungomaniacs were there to see us finish.”
By: Michael Smith
