Today I awakened in somewhat of a numeric mood, though realizing at the same time The Democrat has numeric constraints where Top of the Mornings are concerned, so I have done my best to exercise brevity.

We’ve had horrendously warm weather of late, seeing the heat index spike into triple digits. It has been so warm, the only time of day we can comfortably train for the upcoming 10th annual Phatwater Kayak Challenge, Oct. 8, is either just after daylight, or late in the evening. Evening works best for me because all my body wants to do at 5 a.m. is object.

Fewer than 90 days remain until the race. Training for the Phatwater, for co-founder Melissa Morrison and me, generally involves launching on the Natchez ramp, Under-The-Hill. To gain the comfort of the shade in these murderously hot summer evenings, it is our habit to paddle directly across the Phatwater to the headquarters of one of our sponsors, Vidalia Dock & Storage. Paddling the tandem kayak to which we’ve grown accustomed, this will generally take about eight minutes, depending on the water level. Just this past week, we managed to paddle from the Natchez ramp to the slack waters where the “Carla J” was docked, a distance of 7/10 of a mile, in 6 minutes and 47 seconds; approximately one minute for every 528 feet. It took us 47, 16 count strokes to make this passage; a total of 752 individual swipes at the river, per swiper; 1,504 combined. I know, because I count them.

From here we paddle 3-plus miles upstream, past the lower “chute” to the upper “chute,” where Old River develops, spilling from the main of the Mississippi into the channel that forms Giles Island at Rifle Point.

On this day, we made Rifle Point in 43 minutes and 47 seconds, for a total of 222 16-count strokes, or, in total swipes, 3,552 for me, a few more for Melissa. Again, I count strokes, and Melissa matches my stroke one for one, although on a few occasions I had to set aside my paddle and splash water onto my simmering brain locker while Melissa continued to spar with abandon.

It works out to a little more than 80 strokes per minute. While it is true we are paddling upstream, there is a positive current for much of this journey. At times, and in places on the west bank, we can register upward of 8 miles per hour upstream speed, due to the “returning” current from the upstream eddy, though at times and in other places we will fall to a crawl of 2.5 mph.

In the one-hour-plus this 8-mile round trip takes, we will each burn more than 1,000 calories, or, roughly, a third of a pound of body weight. Thirty days of paddling at this level of intensity would allow a person desiring to lose 10 pounds to do so, provided they draw the line at that second slice of carrot cake before bed.

By comparison, the Pro Level paddlers who will attend this year’s Phatwater will be paddling at a rate of 95-98 strokes per minute, for the duration of the race.

The current record for the Phatwater, held by husband and wife, and former Olympians Patrick and DeAnne Hemmens, of Costa Mesa, Calif., is 3 hours, 41 minutes and 52 seconds. We’ll call it 3:42 for the purposes of today’s nod to numerics.

At 95 strokes per minute, more than 3 hours and 42 minutes, the Hemmenses will each pull a single blade through the water 21,090 times, as compared to the 19,280 strokes Melissa and I each pulled in 2009, over 4 hours and 1 minute, nine minutes behind the record-setting Hemmenses.

It is expected that we will have record high water this year on Phatwater, Oct. 8, although at this time no one can say for sure. Record high water, which we experienced for Phatwater VIII, in October 2009, was at 30 feet on the Natchez gauge. Anything at or above this level, this year, should make for record-breaking conditions, and as with last year, the person, or tandem team, who breaks the existing record will earn a $1,000 prize for doing so.

There are a few other numbers for Phatwater X. This will be the seventh year we will raffle off the Phatwater Bowie Knife. Tickets are on sale now for $50 apiece, with a total of only 120 to be sold.

All proceeds from the sale of these tickets go to the Natchez Adams County Humane Society. Over the life of the Phatwater Bowie Knife, we’ve been able to contribute more than $30,000 to NACHS.

For examples of the knife, visit our web site: www.kayakmississippi.com and click on Phatwater Challenge. If you’d like to learn more by phone just give us a call at: 601-431-1731 or 601-807-1216.

Keith Benoist is the organizer and co-founder of the Phatwater Kayak Challenge.