What can you do in 48 hours? Well, Rogersville’s Daryl Simon can canoe across the entire state of Missouri in that time, all while defying the limitations of age.
For Daryl Simon, getting a canoe as a kid meant freedom.
“I thought as a little kid I was stranded at the shoreline,” he said.
A canoe soon solved that problem, and a half century later he still loves being on the water.
“I really enjoy being on a small boat on the water,” Simon added.
He enjoys that feeling so much that he entered the Missouri River 340 at age 60.
A canoe race from Kansas City to St. Charles, and 14 years later, he’s still competing and winning.
“He’s won first place team division twice, he’s won mixed tandem twice, I think overall seven podium finishes,” said Daryl’s son Jacob.
This year, 74-year-old Simon and partner Emily McNeill paddled 340 miles in 45 hours and 35 minutes, taking first place in mixed tandem.
“Very inspiring, kind of helps you make goals and set them,” Simon’s land crew member Bryan Crawford said.
“It’s fabulous, it’s priceless,” Simon added.
No dollar amount can buy the feeling of winning, nor can it buy time spent together between father and son.
Jacob Simon has been on his dad’s land crew ever since he began this race 14 years ago.
“There are times where you wish you could push him down in the water, where it’s like ‘dad you have to listen to me, you have to drink more I’m here to help you.’ Then there are times when, if I wasn’t here and something happened to him I would feel really, really, bad. It means a lot to me to be here, and he trusts me to be here and take care of him,” said Daryl’s son.
“I’m sure it keeps us closer; he’s been a very valuable guy,” Daryl added.
For as long as he paddles, Jacob will be there, continuing to be impressed by his dad.
“To be able to do something that is such a high level is amazing,” said Jacob Simon.
Daryl Simon added that this year could be his last time competing in the MR 340, however, he hopes to race smaller distances for the next ten years.
