Across Florida 200
First of all, I need to say that I would not have been able to complete this without the amazing and incredible help of Joe and Kevin. There is no doubt in my mind that I would have had a DNF or I would still be out there if it wasn’t for their crewing and pacing support. I had supply drops and some planned stops, but having a crew turned out to be essential for me. I rarely ask for help and seldom accept it, but without it I would have been totally screwed.
The Across Florida 200 is an unsupported run that starts on the west coast of the state at the Withlacoochie Bay Trail in Inglis and follows clay, dirt, and asphalt roads, paved paths, and trails until the finish in on the east coast in St. Augustine on the St. John’s Pier. One of the main reasons I wanted to do the event is because it goes right through my home trails that I run on all the time.
Planning
I took Wednesday and Thursday off of work so I could start on the 20th and finish on the 24th, which would leave the 25th as a rest day before I returned to work on the 26th. That would mean that I needed to aim for 40-45 miles per day in order to finish. I knew day one I would have more mileage and then it would average out after.
I loaded up my supply drops the Sunday before the run and dropped them at specific points. The Ocala National Forest section is huge and services are basically nonexistent until just outside of Palatka (approx. mile 160-170). The planned supply drops and stops are in blue and the places where I was hoping friends could meet me are in pink.
By the way - all mileage in this race report is “ish.” Between my memory and GPS inconsistencies, nothing is exact. My Coros said something different from the cal topo map which also said something different from my inreach mini.
Day 1 – Start to Mile 62(ish)
My brother picked me up at my house and we loaded up my supplies for day one into his Jeep. He would be crewing me for the first day and I would be sleeping in his motorhome at Marshall Swamp. We went out for breakfast in Dunnellon at The Front Porch where I had a very good breakfast of biscuits and gravy as well as a slice of coconut chocolate meringue pie (they are known for their pies).
The plan was to start around 9am, but breakfast ran long and by the time I got to the start, got all of my technology in order (including the garmin inreach mini I had purchased for people to be able to track me), it was nearly 10am. After a quick picture at the start I was off and running. And then I wasn’t because the inreach wasn’t tracking correctly. I backtracked, restarted everything, and then started for real. The temperatures were nice for running, so I did what felt good and effortless along the Withlacoochie Bay Trail and the rural roads the route followed.
Mile 15 brought what other runners had dubbed Sandspur Hell; many had stated that they found sandspurs in places they didn’t even know existed on their bodies. Rather than deal with that and spending several painful minutes trying to remove them from my clothing, I had purchased a coverall suit so I wouldn’t have to deal with that nonsense. It was insanely effective and when I exited sandspur hell, I just took the suit off and threw it away in someone’s trash can.
By 2:30pm I reached mile 20, which was my first planned stop. At the Sonoco I got some water, chapstick, since I had forgotten mine, and some really tasty cinnamon toast crunch flavored cookies! I continued along the Withlacoochie State Trail, then onto the Florida Trail for the first time, before taking it to the nonexistent shoulder off of Hwy 484 which was busy as hell.
I rolled into the Pruitt Trailhead much earlier than anyone anticipated. Kevin was there and ran me in the last half mile, Stephanie was also waiting for me there. Both of them told me my brother was on the way as well as everyone else. I had accidentally done a 6.5hr 50k and no one was expecting that, especially me. I had estimated I would complete that first 50k in 8-10 hours. Kyle showed up with McDonalds and then Susan, Joe, and Chris pulled up soon after. Susan would be pacing me from Pruitt to just before the 49th Ave Trailhead.
Look at these amazing humans!!!
I have zero memory of what prompted me to make this face
After a few miles we crossed over SR-200. Some runners choose to get on the 16-mile paved trail to Santos, but these are my home trails and there was no way I was going to go paved when I could be on trail. I’d run hundreds of miles on them over the last 6 years and knew them like the back of my hand. Susan and I chitchatted away in the dark, just like any run we’ve ever done together. She told me about the soup she had made and I was looking forward to having some later.
Before we knew it, we were at the 484 underpass and I would be trading Susan for Chris. Chris is much faster than me and pushed me hard; which is funny to say because I looked at my splits for this section and they are not fast at all. But I FELT like I was going fast, lol. This was the only section where I tripped and fell. No damage whatsoever, just hurt my pride a little.
Coming into the Landbridge Trailhead, I saw the gang again, this time Laura was there as well to collect Chris (her husband). He recounted my epic fall to the group and said I was the kind of person he wanted to drink with because I didn’t spill a single drop of the hot chocolate he’d brought me. I ate some delicious soup that Susan made and Kyle offered some rice porridge he had made. I let him know I would gladly eat that for breakfast the next morning and said I would see him at the Marshall Swamp Trailhead, which was about 17 miles from Landbridge.
Kevin was up next for pacing. He would be taking me from Landbridge to Baseline. I had been on my feet for about 12 hours at that point and was getting tired. This meant that I was walking rather than being able to run like I had been most of the day. I had insane guilt because I knew that Kevin had to work the next day, but I did what I could. When we finally rolled into Baseline it was after 12am. This meant that he was going to make me do my daily challenge. Every day for the last 100+ days I have been participating in the TJM Daily Challenge. I have the choice of four different exercises in four categories: cardio, isometric exercise, core/upper body, and core/lower body. I had already done my requisite 2 miles, so I then did a 2 min wall sit, 50 mountain climbers, and 50 russian twists. As I was finishing up, a bright light appeared and a police car rolled up.
If you know, you know
This has happened almost every time someone has met a runner at Baseline, so Kevin went over to talk to him. He told him it was someone doing the Across Florida 200, which the officer was aware of now. He mentioned that we needed to be careful because the park was used for doing heroin at night and was really sketchy (for the record - the most sketchy thing I’ve seen at this park is teenagers smoking weed in the woods, lol).
Before going off on my own, Kevin mentioned me changing into my throwaway shoes that I had dropped in his truck. The 2.5 miles of trails in Marshall Swamp were completely underwater from last week’s rains so I had planned to slog through the water and then change back into good, dry shoes and dump the ones that I’d kept for too long for no reason. However, I was a sleepy mess at that point and refused to change into my throwaway shoes or listen to the rational person and rational me of the past. I texted Kyle that I was going to be arriving to Marshall Swamp sometime around 2:30am
I headed out and kept thinking about how I was less than two miles from my house, my bed, and my cats. Luckily, it was early enough into the adventure that I wasn’t tempted to stop and go home. As I got into the swamp section, I was weaving back and forth and completely exhausted. I knew I would be coming up on a picnic table and it would do me some good to snooze for 5 or 10 minutes to ward off the sleepies for the next 2ish miles. Wearing my entire pack, my glasses, and my shoes, I climbed onto the table and quickly fell asleep – FOR AN HOUR!!! I woke up, checked the time, and freaked out!! It was cold, the table was uncomfortable, but I had slept way too long!! I was already 30 minutes past the time that I was supposed to reach my brother at the motorhome. I took my phone out of airplane mode and called my brother. He had texted me, worried that I had been eaten by a Bearigator and that he was currently on the trail going towards my tracker. I reassured him I was on the way, so he turned around and I tried to make quick work of getting to the motorhome to sleep in an actual bed and not on a damn picnic table.
It was then that I realized how much tired me had screwed current me over. The water was shin deep through most of the swamp. My shoes and socks were totally soaked and experience at HOTS in June told me that there is no way they would dry. Stupid, stupid, stupid. I got to the motorhome and took off the wet shoes and socks as well as my pack and instantly fell asleep.
Day 2 – Mile 62 to Mile 111
I woke up with an insane urge to pee, but didn’t want to put on my soaking shoes or walk out onto the gravel parking lot barefoot. I spied some New Balances sitting on the counter that belonged to my brother’s fiancé and threw those on.
I got back into the motorhome and was hatching an idea – maybe I could wear these shoes and ask my brother to go to my house and grab a pair of shoes and socks. I had extra shoes and socks, but they were in Kevin’s truck. Kyle agreed to do this, but first made me coffee and heated up the rice porridge – so freaking delicious. I put on a regular pair of socks he had and the stylish, non-running type New Balances and headed out onto the road. I was so grateful to be in dry shoes and socks, it didn’t matter that they weren’t toe socks or running shoes. A few miles went by and I went off the main road and onto many side roads – day 2 would be mostly roads and little trail.
Having to go to the bathroom, I scoped out some trees to go behind. Even though it was a country road, there were plenty of cars that I didn’t want to expose myself to. As I was walking behind the trees, my feet, which had only been dry for about 30 minutes, got completely submerged in standing water in the grass. I couldn’t help but laugh and realize I was blundering my way through the Across Florida 200 in an epic way.
Kyle pulled up behind me with shoes and socks which I happily put on! At this point I was walking quite a bit and seemed to be unable or maybe unwilling to run. I knew day 2 would be tough and my body would figure out what I was doing by day 3, so I just had to bide my time.
I got to the Dollar General (mile 78ish) at 11am and had been thinking about Chef Boyardee Raviolis for the past 2 hours. I went in and got them as well as some gorgeous looking blueberries. As I went to the side of the building to take off my shoes and eat, I spied Carla and Carri in a car looking at their phones. I waved to them and they came out. They were going to pace me for a couple hours and had been looking at my tracker trying to figure out where I had gone even though it showed me in that location. I sat down and we chatted while I ate.
I still wasn’t up to running, so they walked along with me through the berm through Moss Bluff and the Sunnyhill Conservation Area for a few hours. At the end of the berm road, I got to my first supply drop. I filled up my bladder and grabbed a few snacks. Chris would be picking up both of them and returning them to their car at the Dollar General, but he was still a ways away, so they came with me onto the clay road.
According to the course map the road is only 12 miles long, but it feels so much longer. It goes on and on. Carla and Carri stayed with me for about a mile of it, I believe, before they needed to turn around to get picked up. During that time, I found a heads up penny embedded into the road. I pried it out and put it in my vest. Along that road stretch I would find two heads up quarters and a heads up dime. I carried my 61 cents for the remaining miles.
So funny story – I was supposed to have an appointment with my psychiatrist on the 29th, but they had to reschedule me and Thursday the 21st would be the only thing they had available. When I agreed to it, I hoped that I would be somewhere with cell signal because I knew there would be none once I got into the forest. First the intake nurse logged into the video appointment and asked the general questions, then asked what I was up to. I told her and blew her mind; she said she was feeling motivated to go to the gym after work. My psych came on after that and as he’s always interested in hearing about my ultra adventures, he asked and I told him what I was up to. I think the whole appointment took about 30 minutes and I couldn’t move from where I was because I lost signal every time I started walking. This meant I didn’t make it out to FL-19 until it started to get dark.
I had gotten a message from Joe that he, Kevin, and Audri would be meeting me at the 97ish mile mark at the FL-19 Trailhead. I had a supply drop there, so I pulled that out before I walked up to Joe’s truck. He had chairs set out and a heater going. Kevin was on the phone with Audri; she had gone to the wrong trailhead, so had to make her way over to us. I devoured a pub sub and changed back into my trail shoes, which had been picked up from Kyle after they took a trip through the dryer. I was getting cold despite being in my longsleeve shirt, but the only other jacket I had brought was my thicker arcteryx one (again, me blundering my way through this dang event!). Joe had a lighter weight one that he let me borrow. It was the best and I wore it every single day after.
I didn’t realize it until the next morning, but I had officially made “the turn.” Watching runners take on this event, we were always excited when they made the turn and got into the Ocala National Forest because it is the halfway point of the run. Rather than continuing to wait for Audri, Kevin and I took off and Joe reassured us he would get her going in the right direction. She caught up with us about a mile and a half later. Sadly, this section of trail was absolutely gorgeous and amazing to run on, but I didn’t have it in me. I was able to run here and there, but my body was still in a state of revolt. It was then that I said to them, “If you can’t handle me at my 19:20, you don’t deserve me at my 14:30.”
Joe met us a few miles down at Farles Prairie with some hot coffee and advice. After the rain the previous week it had flooded, but another runner had gone through a couple days prior and reported that it was pretty easy to go around the flooded spots. We made our way through there, not getting our feet wet a single time! Thank goodness!
It was decided that the stop for the night would be after I reached Juniper Springs at 111mi. Due to the storms, there were a lot of blowdowns. I was actually happy when we reached them, because it meant that I wouldn’t be pushed to run as we navigated around and through them.
We got into Juniper around midnight then went to Joe’s camper, aka The Taj Mahal. I crashed the hell out. I’ve learned that for multiday efforts, I need a lot of sleep. In general, I just need a lot of sleep. I can struggle my way through a 100 miler, though I usually do take at least a couple 20 min naps during them.
Day 3 – Mile 111 to Mile 155
In the morning, I took the time to do some foot care. I had developed a blister under my second toe on my left foot, so I popped and taped that one as well as redid the tape on my heels, balls of my feet, and little toes. That ended up being the only blister I got for the whole event. I swear by tincture of benzoin, leukotape, and desitin. It may not work for everyone, but they are lifesavers for me.
It was either the good night of sleep or the fact that my body had finally figured out what I was doing, so I was able to run a lot on day 3. Again, I thought I was going sooooo fast, but strava says otherwise, lol. I did ten and then came out onto a forest road where Joe was waiting for me with a breakfast sandwich from Burger King and a chair to sit on. It was at this point that he joined me through Hopkins Prairie and after 10 miles he was picked up by Kevin and I went another few miles by my lonesome.
This burned out tree with a blaze on it was so cool!
As I went through the forest, I came across several hunters with their dogs that bounded through the growth like it was nothing. I was scolded by one hunter for not wearing orange. I had planned to bring a vest, but totally spaced it. This spot stressed me out a bit because I was sure I was going to be shot by a hunter, but I knew the 88 Store would be coming up.
I also got extremely sick of eating during this section. I knew I had to eat, but I just hated it. I didn’t want to eat or shove anything into my mouth. I avoided it for as long as I possibly could, but knew I had to or things would get worse.
Unbeknownst to me, Joe and Kevin were already at the 88 Store, but didn’t see me climb the hill up to it and go inside. They told me to wait there for them if I beat them there, so I ordered a cider to sip on. Except I didn’t have cash…or my debit card. I went through every pocket in my vest, but in my mind, I could see the ziplock bag with my cash sitting on the table of the Taj Mahal. Kevin came in and said that Joe had gone on down the trail to find me. I asked if he had cash and he was kind enough to bring in the $3.25 that the cider cost (in quarters, because that’s the only cash he had in his truck). I took my drink outside and settled into the bed of Kevin’s truck to put my feet up. Joe returned from the trail, seeing my tracker already at the 88 Store. I was then made aware that there was a toilet back behind the fence and I needed to get some pictures on it. Well, yeah! I definitely did!
The guys told me to get a move on. Kevin would be taking over pacing duties for the next 20 miles and he was actually going to get a chance to run in the daylight, even if it was only for an hour and a half. Every time I stopped running and went to go again I would get super cold, teeth chattering and sometimes my whole body shaking. I would get gloves and a jacket on, but within 15 minutes of moving, I’d be shedding the layers again. I even ended up rolling my sleeves up during this portion because Kevin started playing some great music that kept me moving.
Seven miles down the trail we saw Joe at the Lake Delancy Campground. We all shared a sub, ate chips, and reflected about what a gorgeous night it was. The moon was beautiful in the sky and the stars were sparkling. Again, this whole thing would have been 100% impossible without these two. I am so lucky to have them as friends and I cannot wait until I get to crew and pace them in the future! Or honestly, help them out with anything they need help with in their lives. They have my eternal gratitude!
Kevin and I went back out onto the trail again, Joe letting us know he would see us at Rodman Dam, another seven miles away. The fun part, and by fun I mean the opposite of that, was when we exited the trail onto a dirt/gravel road and were convinced we saw Joe’s light. We were walking and walking and walking, never getting closer to the lights in the distance. We realized a half mile later that no, it wasn’t Joe, it was just the lights of the dam. Then we thought we saw a vehicle, but it turned out the vehicle was someone fishing because there was no way Joe would be parked down close to the water. Then a quarter of a mile away, we thought we were seeing things because maybe Joe WAS on the close side of the dam and not the far side? Sure enough he was!
Even though it was only 8pm, I was getting major sleepies. I took off my shoes and snuggled into the sleeping bag that Joe had put on the chair. Kevin was dealing with some pain as he was reaching his highest mileage in a week ever, so I chilled while Joe worked the stiffness from his calves. I begged for ten more minutes, five more minutes, anything, but the guys were intent on pushing me out and back onto the course. Once we got to Buckman Lock, we were going to call it a night and get some good sleep in the camper.
After a short stretch of road, we turned left onto the hell that was Berm Rd. Honestly, I think that there would have been nothing really wrong with this section except that both of us were hating life. We wanted to be off our feet, in comfy beds, out of the darkness, and away from this dumb stretch of woods. We were trudging our way along. Alerting each other to hazards. “Hole.” “Branch.” “Leaf.” “Leaf.” “Leaf.” We were definitely punch drunk and kept pointing out holes, branches, limbs, and soooo many leaves. One cool part in this section was crossing under FL-19. I had envisioned an underpass much like we have along the trail in Ocala, but it was a huge road suspended over everything.
Berm Road seemed to just keep going and going and going. A mile from the lock, Kevin pulled out a pack of cookies he’d gotten from lunch at Little Caesars earlier that day. The cookies are a standard shortbread style cookies shaped like the mascot, crazy bread, and pizza. Trust me when I tell you this – these were some of the most life affirming, delicious cookies I’ve ever eaten. They somehow pulled us out of the awful mood we were in.
When we finally got to the locks, Joe was waiting for us. There are several gates that you have to get the codes for to get through, but Joe had our backs by opening them up and closing them behind us. My favorite bit when we stopped for the night was what Kevin said, “Joe, there were so many leaves.”
Getting in the camper, for what was likely going to be my last night before the final push, I took my first shower of the trip. It was glorious. I ate some popcorn and then crashed out.
Day 4 – Mile 155 to Finish
To start the day out, we had an amazing breakfast from a hole in the wall called Square Meal. I’m not sure if it was hunger or what, but those were some of the best pancakes and biscuits I have ever had in my entire life. I need to go back and verify if they were actually that good, because in that moment they were divine.
Joe had pacing duties for the first 12 miles. He’d be taking me from Buckman Lock to Palatka. It also should be noted that my final day would be all road. I was done with trail, so I switched to road shoes. Prior to taking off, I did my daily challenge exercises because I knew I wouldn’t want to do them later.
The weather was gorgeous, so we made pretty quick work of it with lots of power hiking. We went down some rural dirt roads with plenty of dogs barking at us. No aggressive ones, so that was nice! We came across Susan Lane, so I had to stop for a picture of that for her! We also saw the most amazing tree house. That thing was probably the coolest hangout for some lucky kids back in the day!
Once we got to the bridge I was on my own again. I had planned to stop for lunch at McDonalds, so I took my time resting my feet and enjoying the greasy fries (multi-day runner Shae likes high calorie junk!). Palatka is basically 50k from the finish, so I knew that even if I walked at a 3mph pace, I would be done in about 10 hours. The next section would be on the Palatka-to-St Augustine Trail until the last 5 miles.
After a few miles, I came up on Joe set up at an intersection. I was feeling great and was just going to grab a snack and move along, but a car pulled up with a 100k sticker on the side – so you know it was someone we may know! It was Tina W., who Joe had met before, but was a new face to me (or so I thought, I looked at her ultrasignup and we have definitely shared a race or two together and I’ve worked at aid stations while she’s been running). She had brought some snacks, so I ate a couple of peanut clusters (omg so good!!) and chatted with them until Joe kicked me out.
I was going along the emotional roller coaster in this section. I’d feel really good for a while and happy about the adventure, then really bad and desperately wanting to be done. Probably due to not taking in enough calories; I had to force myself to eat a bag of chips. My feet really started to hurt and then my stomach started to turn. I spent a couple miles in misery, dry heaving and feeling bad; though I knew Joe wasn’t too far away at the Vermont Heights Trailhead and my Zofran would be there (Zofran is a prescription anti-nausea medication that works miracles).
All of a sudden I hear a runner coming up behind me. Joe dropped off Kevin a mile early because they saw how slowly I was moving. I continued my gagging and dry heaving routine, desperate to get to the next stop to go to the bathroom, sit down, and get my stomach settled. Of course, Kevin snapped a picture because that’s what good friends do - capture amazing memories for each other. For real - I encourage people to take bad pictures of me during races, they’re the ones you end up treasuring the most!
I came in to Joe and he started to look through the tote that I thought would have my zofran. He looked and looked and didn’t find the bag with my zofran and aleve. Then I looked in my vest….yep. I had it the whole damn time. I could have been feeling better aaaaaages ago, but I didn’t look. Like a dumb dumb.
BUT at this point I have about 11ish miles left! It’s shortly after 5pm, so in all likelihood I’ll be done before 9pm!! Carri and her husband were staying at a campground outside of St Augustine for the holiday, so she was going to do the last 10 with us. A mile up the road, we see her getting out of a car and telling her husband she’ll see him in a few hours at the finish.
We had left the trail and were now on busy roads. Luckily, we had sidewalk for a while, but we weren’t really in the best part of town. We pass by a man and a woman sitting on a chunk of pavement just off the sidewalk. The woman is out of it holding a glass pipe and the man is hunched over some whiteish rocks. We pass by and I ask Carri and Kevin what we just saw. He informs me that was crack. Just…doing crack. Out in the open. Ummmmmm. Okay.
We pass underneath I-95 and the conditions start to look a little better, though the sidewalks have decided not to come with us on the rest of the trip. Joe texts and lets us know that he is at 7-Eleven with some cup noodle and the chairs set up. This would be our very last stop before the finish. I eat some noodles and we use the theragun on the bottoms of my feet. Kevin and Joe swore up and down how good it felt, but it was agonizing to me. Not much to be done for the pain, we are almost done.
Despite the traffic, lack of shoulder, and pain, all of us are in pretty good spirits. Kevin laments that if he knew how much grass we would be walking on he would have brought his trail shoes. He says it no less than 10 times within 2 miles to the point that Carri starts asking if he wishes he’d brought his trail shoes every time he has to step off of the non-existent shoulder – and then I believe she asked him again in our group chat, lol.
I found the most epic painting on the side of the road. Like many roadside finds, I sort of wish I had taken this one all the way to the end with me, but I hope someone else finds it and enjoys it! It was done by a 13-year-old and it is a thing of beauty!! A derpy dog with its tongue out wearing a dress. Glorious!
We make the final turn onto FL 312. All we have to do is follow that to the pier! We go up and over a big bridge that crosses the Matanzas River. Another mile down the road we start to hear the ocean. First we think we are imagining it or it is something else, but it is definitely the sound of crashing waves!
We follow the curve in the road and see civilization. Hotels and bars. I pull out my phone looking for the entrance to the pier. I don’t realize it, but I run right past it. We turn where it shows the finish is, but that just leads to a dead end with no way to get over to the boardwalk to the pier, lol. We backtrack, go around the visitor’s center, and then onto the actual boardwalk to the pier, but not before stopping at a slide. If there’s a slide on the course, I’m getting on that slide!
We SPRINT down that pier. I’m running as fast as I can, which turns out to be a 10:50 pace according to strava; definitely a sprint at the end of 200 miles! I slap my hand down on the pier, hugging Carri and Kevin. Joe comes down the pier with the champagne and plastic glasses that Kevin got. We pop the cork and celebrate. Before we go, we take some photos and I spread some of my parents ashes into the ocean. For LAVS, HOTS, and now ACFL200, I’ve carried their ashes and they’ve been on the journey with me. I’ve spread some of their ashes at the rock and now into the ocean in St. Augustine at the finish line. I know they would be so proud of me.
When we got off the pier, Carri gave me a beautiful vase of flowers that her amazing husband picked out and we got to love on her dog that was in the backseat. I felt so grateful that they would give up their Saturday night on their vacation to help me out. And eternally and completely grateful for all of the time that Joe and Kevin gave. I still cannot fathom doing this race solo and I cannot thank my friends enough for all of the support on this journey.
In all, it took me 82:57:00, though my moving time was 50:16:40, lol. I had planned to complete the event on Christmas Eve, but instead finished just before 9pm on the 23rd. Even though I’ve done this writeup, I still think I’ve got a lot of thinking to do about this event and what other events I will do in the future. At one point during the journey, I joked that I was going to stick with 5ks and 10ks from now on. But for now, all I know is that I’m likely going to take at least one year off multi-day adventures.
This event is unlike any I have done before. Road, trail, nonsense, bullshit, amazingness. I’m still having trouble processing it all. Did I really do that? Did my friends really give up all that time and show me so much kindness? It feels surreal. We did this thing!
I thought for sure they were going to throw me off the pier!
To Joe, Kevin, Kyle, Carri, Susan, Carla, Audri, Chris, Laura, Stephanie, and everyone watching my little blue dot online and encouraging me – thank you from the bottom of my heart. Getting this big ass buckle was truly a team effort.
