24:20

Alright.

I've been analyzing the official time for the race and I think that an explanation is fairly clear in the first two check points.
Manhattan to Wamego: 19 miles in 3 hours, 45 min. = 5.5 mph

Wamego to Maple Hill: 21 miles in 5 hours, 30 min. = 3.8 mph

From here on, the times just hovered around 4 mph.  So slow compared to our training and the first 20 miles.  The reason for this is pretty simple: no water.

Let me explain.

The Kansas river is a fairly wide, sandy river.  It drains the eastern side of Kansas eventually emptying into the Missouri River at Kansas City.  Like most of the central part of the U.S. there have been extremely high temperatures and little rain in that part of the country.  As a result, the Kansas has become very shallow.  There is current, but in many places it is ankle deep across almost all of the bed.  The Learning Curve needs a bit more water than that.
Now this is not to say that there isn't a channel.  I was able to find and follow the channel through the first part of the race pretty well.  Unfortunately, after Wamego it was dark.  I can read large features in the dark, but the subtleties of the Kansas were beyond me.  I can't read what I can't see.  What it boiled down to is that I couldn't make the crossovers.  Let me explain.
The channel of a river flows in a meander within the banks of the river.  Water may be all the way across, and it might even be deep, but the majority current has it's own path.  For example, in a curve, the flow goes to the outside.  This is why the outside of a curve has a steep bank while the inside is typically shallow.  However, you can't just stay to the outside and be good.  The channel will cross the river at points and you have to follow along.  As long as you hold the channel, you can get good speed and you will gain from the river... a sort of teamwork where you paddle and ride the current.
Now, when the crossover is hard to find, you end up grounding out on the bottom and looking for the channel.  How?  Well, I got out of the boat and walked around until I got to water about knee deep.  Mid -calf would float us, but knee meant there was good flow.  A few times I slipped down through the sand or off the edge and went up to my hip, but mostly it worked out.  It is, however, no way to be fast.
The problem with this system is that you stop and get out of the boat.  This is not only slower but it breaks your momentum.  It's disheartening.
Now here is some good news.  I learned to see it in the day.  Not always, but enough that I could tell where it was.  It turns out there is a very subtle riffle on the surface where the deeper water is going by the shallows, and I learned to see that.  It wasn't as pronounced as I'm used to, but if the wind was down and the sun was not in my eyes, I could make it out at least three fifths of the time.

With all of that, it was about overcoming the difficulty.

In the end, all races are about pushing yourself across the line.  It always comes down to how hard you can go.  Everything else- the speed, the time, the strategy, and where you place- is a product of how hard you work.  For Meers and I, I can say we were all in.  I don't think we ever stopped working.  There were obstacles in the river, and the hull was never meant for this, but we pushed it as hard as we could.  I won't offer that as an excuse for a poor showing or make excuses to justify a long trip.  The fact is, we took it across the line, and at the end of the day, that's all you can do.
We didn't win, but we will be back.  I don't know if the Kawnivore will be a go or not.  But, as I said, the target remains.  I am determined to design and build a boat that I will use to win the MR340.  As for other races, well,  we will have to see.
The Learning Curve is now retired from racing and I will need to spend a lot of time with her to get her back in shape for even a gentle float.  I like that I was able to build a boat, use it for trips, camping, training, and racing.  She's tough, but I'm learning a lot.  I will post as I get those parts done.  From here on, I will go back to the design of the Velocidillo and try to keep the pace up.

Here we go.