While devils and supermen got into the spirit of Red Day, the 'super boat' set a cracking pace of around 17 km an hour. The 'super boat' came in just four minutes shy of the day-four record, which was set in the fast moving water of a flood year.

"It was a very tough leg of the race. We knew we had to keep above 17 km an hour to beat the record," said Nev Hargreaves, whose four-man crew paddled 62 km from Echuca to Torrumbarry in three hours, 43 minutes and 34 seconds, and still looks set to smash the fastest outright record when they cross the finish line in Swan Hill tomorrow.

In the hotly contested double touring kayak relay, Mount Isa's Outback Scrubbers are ahead of their nearest rival by almost 30 minutes, proving that training in croc-infested waters is a good motivator for the human spirit.

"You can call us keen or eccentric, but everyone who does this is a masochist. Over five days, though, you get to spread the pain around," said Ken Glasco, president of the North West Canoe Club, who travelled 2600 km along the Birdsville Track to join his six-person crew.

In the race for the Red Cross Cup, the Olympic class single kayak relay, the Geelong canoe club is two hours ahead of the competition.

"The Murray is a puddle compared to some of the other rivers I've paddled for world championships, but I keep coming back," said team member Ben Poole, who first competed in the Red Cross Murray Marathon in 1996, in the schools relay.

In this year's rowdy schools category, the Woodleigh Water Ratz from Frankston put in a big effort but dropped back a place to 6th place in today's line honours, with Trinity Grammar and the under 18s from Camberwell Grammar hot on their tail, but the team - which boasts an oarsman from each year level - is still 20 minutes ahead of the nearest rival in the schools relay competition.

The Red Cross Murray Marathon began in the summer of '69 when ten friends raised $250 for the Australian Red Cross. Last year's event generated more than $350,000 for vital Red Cross services, including the work recently undertaken by Red Cross Emergency Services volunteers in areas affected by bushfires.
 
Tomorrow is the final day of the race, taking competitors 76 km from Murrabit to Swan Hill, where 700 exhausted paddlers, 3000 support crew and 400 volunteers will bring in the New Year. The K4 super boat team is still on track to break the record for outright fastest time and crack the 25-hour barrier, but with climbing temperatures and the threat of isolated thunderstorms they'll have to give it everything they've got.