Participants: Glen Lewis, Kit Vreeland, Cliff White
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As the 2019 race season wrapped up, my eyes (and I imagine those of the rest of the new Strong Machine team) were focused entirely on 2020. While 2019 had some good results for me personally (overall wins at sprint races and a miraculous near-victory at the Stockville), the lure of racing with a competitive team focused on an overall goal had me as excited as I’d been for an AR season in a long while. That excitement led me to spend all of my remaining personal days from work on ARGeorgia’s Florida Sea to Sea. From my vantage point, the race has a reputation as catering to fast and experienced teams. Further, it seems like a race won by big name teams. Our group consisting of Cliff, Kit and myself had a chance to do well on paper, but I was tempering my expectations, knowing that a new team and longer race meant that everything would have to break correctly for us to pull off a win. A top-4 finish looked to be very reasonable if we kept to our strategy of racing-our-own-race while pushing hard, and the outside shot of an overall win would be within reach if our strategic decisions were all the correct ones.
The trip down to Florida was easy enough, with Cliff and I getting picked up by Kit and her wonderful family, who were excellent chauffeurs for all of our needs throughout the pre- and post-race. We stopped for a delicious lunch en route to St. Augustine from Jacksonville before a Walmart stop to gather last minute supplies in addition to 100+ hours of food for Cliff. Arrival at the hotel also meant gathering bike boxes for myself and Cliff. I was greeted with a mangled box, and a bike that seemed to match. My hanger needed to be replaced, and some last minute scrambling to find the onsite bike mechanic got my larger front chainring bent back into respectable shape. The shifting was a bit off in the back, and I later learned that my front suspension was nearly destroyed. Cliff’s bike was in much better shape, and after check-in the 3 of us set out to organize and sort through gear to get our bins ready for dropoff. An intermission for a pre-race dinner and not-really-informational meeting (the only thing that we learned was that the leg 1 paddle had been cancelled and replaced with a trek around Cedar Key. The rest of the evening was filled with dropping off bikes and bins as well as defining roles. I was planning on taking the nav lead with Kit assisting and taking over when needed, while Cliff was carrying the extra gear and punching the passport. We got all of this dine before settling in to sleep with nearly 8 hours (!) before the alarms were set.
Sleep for me is always sketchy pre-race, but I managed to get some decent rest. Cliff seemed to be very well rested, but Kit was struggling with cold symptoms. Fortunately, some Dayquil arrived to help her get over the hump. We packed up all of our final supplies and headed to the buses to receive maps just before the 7AM departure to the west coast. The bus ride was filled with face-stuffing (breakfast) and mind-stuffing (maps). The race presented itself in a straightforward manner, essentially as a big bike ride across the state. We would visit 6 TAs via bike, bike/trek from them, and then remount bikes. Kit and I worked diligently to highlight CPs and measure out long road sections with the mapwheel (this proved very handy as the race progressed). The arrival at Cedar Key meant some last-minute backpack tinkering and bathroom visiting before a group hug (yes) preluded the start.
Cliff filled our obligatory sand jar halfway (we discovered his previously untapped talent for this as his jar was the first filled!) before we took off at a moderate run at the front of the pack of racers, on our way to CPs 1-5 in order. The weather was excellent, with arm sleeves serving as the perfect accent to our jerseys and shorts. The only downside to this nice warmup was me falling off of the road and rolling my ankle. I quickly got to my feet and began to run it off, but this wouldn’t be the last that I thought of that foot. We arrived at the TA in just under an hour after the 10km-ish run, switched to bikes efficiently, and got out the TA first, on what was advertised as a 40-60 mile bike leg. We hit 6, 7, 8 and 9 closely with the leaders. Our pace on the road sections was strong and we were working well together. There had been very little route choice in this section, but we stuck to roads when possible and made good time heading up towards 10 (a large Off Limits section forced us on a long road ride around). The flag was easy to find, but the trail that was marked on the map heading west from the CP petered out quickly into a swamp. We attacked and reattacked, considered two different swampwhacks, and spent so much time doing so that a mob of teams had arrived. Solo Joshua Forester had been there before us and didn’t come back out, so we knew that there had to be a way. Regardless, it was too early in the race to take a huge risk with an unknown swampy section. We came to a group decision that a ridearound was best, and we backtracked to the road, working effectively up to 11, where we dropped bikes and made our way on foot for the better part of 1km. We arrived in the area at the same time as Untamed New England and TanZ Navigation, both of whom had swampwhacked, meaning that our choice was a wash, albeit we were at least dry. An uneventful ride took us to 12 and then 13, which was located at Treasure Camp along the Suwannee River. We took advantage of a spigot to fill up bladders with water that was just brown enough that we were afraid to drink it (Kit panicked about all sorts of GI wiggly things), and climatized slightly for the afternoon weather.
Our next CP was at a gas station, and we were happy to exchange brown water for a clearer version. There were a number of teams here, and a local gentleman took the opportunity to tell us at length all how much he loved biking, and how dangerous the roads were for us to be biking on. His speech became a source of humor for the rest of the race for us (man, he really loved biking!). We pushed on for a long ride towards 15, at a cemetery. This ride was a low point of the race for me, as I had pushed a bit too hard with not enough food or water. Additionally, the leg was already well over the projected length, and our pace had been based on the provided information. Thankfully Cliff and Kit took all of the brunt work at the head of the paceline, and we made our way to CP 16 as darkness began to fall. This had potential as a very tough CP, but fortunately we had some teams exiting it as we approached, which confirmed our attackpoint. Some swampstomping was necessary, but we found it simple and made our way out and back down the trail, passing another team who had attacked nearly one kilometer early - they looked to be in a for a long night. CP 17 was rather frustrating, as the nice trails on the map were all gated behind some serious-looking no-trespassing signs. When we finally hit the flag, we were relieved to be heading towards the TA, only 20 kilometers through a waypoint. We arrived around 9:50 after 95 miles of riding, and were greeted with a warm, welcoming TA (the first of many) and all of the leading teams still milling about. We grabbed some ramen from the TA staff, converted ourselves to trekking gear, and got out as quickly as we could, about 10 minutes behind the lead group, consisting of an Untamed/TanZ superteam, ARGeorgia, and Joshua Forester.
The map for this trek showed two loops, one to the southeast and another to the northwest. In warmer temps, they could have been connected with a<100m swim, but overnight in near-freezing temps erased that idea completely from our minds. We began to the southeast, running whenever possible, grabbing 20, 19, then 18 while passing all of the teams ahead of us before looping back near the TA on the way to the other section. The first section took just over an hour, the trails matched the map perfectly, and we were confident heading north. My confidence took a big hit over the next 45 minutes, as we waded into thigh deep swamps and located a maze of unmapped trails that did not exist in the previous section. CP 21 should have been simple, but we ended up way off-base, and were only re-oriented when ARGeorgia swept us up with them on their way to 22. I would love to see what the tracker showed here, but our seems to have fallen asleep for a bit, with a 35 minute gap hiding my embarrassing navigation. We parted ways with ARGeorgia to follow the park border around to CP 23. We had more thigh-deep swampy trails to wade through, but were rewarded with a road run that led us to 23. Fortunately, 21 was on the way back, and took only the slightest detour off of our track back to the TA. In a typical move for AR, the trails and map decided to line up perfectly the second time back through the area. We got back to TA a little after 2AM, less than 15 minutes behind ARGeorgia and only a few minutes ahead of the “Magnificent 7” (naming rights belong to Kit). Four hours on the trek was too much, but nothing we could do about it at that point. More hot food awaited, with ramen and a sausage sandwich going down wonderfully in the cool night.
We put on lots of layers for the 32 degree nighttime weather (I had on all of my mandatory gear) and set out on the sandy trails of the park towards 24, which was conveniently located at 23. Kit and I had briefly considered a road ride to avoid the sandy trails, but we definitely made the correct choice, as the trip back wasn’t too bad. My errors on the trek had reshuffled the pack. ARGeorgia and Joshua Forester were a short bit ahead, and we passed Dave Ashley shortly after leaving 24. The Untamed/TanZ superteam caught up to us and flew past shortly thereafter as we slowly made our way to 25. They were out of sight by the time that we got there, but we did a great job of keeping our own strong pace through a waypoint and then north towards 26 and TA3. There were two remarkable things about this ride. First, I recall wiping layers of ice off of my mapboard; it was that cold in Florida. Second, with a little more than 10km to go to the TA, we saw a bizarre sight coming towards us on the road. I thought it was a large lawnmower, but Kit and Cliff correctly identified it as the superteam, flying backwards past us. The sight of them going in the wrong direction sent us into a panic, as we consulted maps for what felt like 5 minutes before agreeing that we were going in the correct direction. Our last CP on this leg was 26, and by the time we found it hiding in the guardrail, Dave Ashley had caught up to us. We rode into the TA together just before 6 a.m. ARGeorgia and Joshua Forester had just left on the trek, so we knew that we were not far behind. We refueled from our bins, as the pancakes and bacon(!) at the TA wouldn’t be ready until we returned. We took some time to get adjusted into trekking gear before setting out on the trek with the sun just beginning to crest the horizon in the distance.
As we traveled cleanly from CP to CP, the weather improved greatly. The sun began melting the frozen grass, and we all took off some of the layers that were beginning to be a bit excessive. The San Felasco trail system was beautiful, and the woods were gorgeous. The trek got us rather excited for the MTB-O leg that was coming next. We made it back to TA a little over two hours after we set out, with the sun shining and a good bit of excitement for this leg. The pancakes and bacon from the volunteers were perfect, and after we filled up we quickly set out on bikes. We had seen ARGeorgia and Joshua Forester in TA, and we ended up crossing paths with them a few times early on in this section.
The leg was set up as a matching section, where we received a map with points labeled 33A-38A. At each point, we would receive a map showing the location of the “B” point, which had to be punched in order to receive credit for either. The original plan also had CP39 to lead us out towards TA4, but there was a section of trail closed due to a controlled burn. That meant that the leg would be a loop back to TA3. The trails were fast and flowy, and we made good work of most of this section. Kit did a tremendous job on the trails here, and Cliff was enjoying them as much as possible. We got into a little rhythm with Kit leading and me riding third, but it was tough to navigate quickly from the back. We ran into Joshua Forester a number of times out here, but knew that we would be ahead as he was still working his way out as we were circling back to the TA. The only bobble came on a bushwhack away from 37B, where I misremembered a distinct tree and got us turned around for 20 minutes. We were efficient from there, getting back without much difficulty. We rolled into TA, greeted by cheers and encouragement from Kit’s family, expecting to be a little bit behind ARGeorgia - we heard that they had left 1:15 prior!! Still resolved to race our own race and knowing that sleep and a big section awaited at TA4, we moved quickly through TA but didn’t panic. We felt strong and were ready to make a big push from the next TA.
After the closure of CP39, we were told that there would be new information given about travelling to TA4. I was hoping to get my mind off of the maps for a bit and have Kit nav us from here, but the route was mostly a repeat of some road riding that we had done earlier; we agreed that it made sense for me to continue on the maps here. The leg was unremarkable, and we arrived at TA4 before 3:30. We were happy to see ARGeorgia here. From this TA, there were many options based on Newnan’s Lake: a paddle to a northern trek, a paddle to a southern trek, and two legs of a o-relay, each containing a paddleboard section. Through that morning, we had discussed strategy for this section. At Cliff’s suggestion, we chose to tackle the paddle/treks with as much daylight as possible, and leave the o-relays for the night when we would be ready to trade sleep. ARGeorgia had chosen to do the o-relays first, which meant that we were arriving at what felt like a make-or-break point in the race where strategies were diverging. The comforts of TA slowed our transitioning, but we headed north in the canoe just after 4:00 for what appeared to be the tougher of the two treks.
Kit and Cliff had dressed much better for the paddle, and I was rather cold without rain pants on despite the sunshine. The wind and spray from the paddles was not at all comfortable. As we traveled north, I worked hard to identify the cove in the northwest corner of the lake, where CP46 waited at a bridge/canoe takeout. We eventually found the cove, and paddled into a small creek, but it dried up without a bridge. We chose to dock the boat here and search for the CP. The swamp was really tough to move in, with cypress trees tripping us up and starting to bother my ankle much more. After a number of fits and starts, Kit and I found the CP and called Cliff over to punch. The picture that he captured of us shows how joyful we were to have found it. We all remarked how challenging it would have been to find it at night. We were also fortunate that Cliff had taken some time to distinctly mark our boat with PFDs placed high in trees to increase visibility. The map lacked any defining feature to otherwise locate the boat (save for the “masculine” shaped trails perched to our north that we never actually found). From here, we shot a bearing to CP47, at a supposed sand beach. The moving was rather slow, and we ended up finding an old road well after we expected. We shot another bearing from the road...and missed the CP entirely. Fortunately there were plenty of backstops, which, combined with an out and back trek, eased our concerns. When we found ourselves on a trail, we had somehow missed the flag to the south. No bother, we resolved to hit 48-50 and then get 47 on the way back. We realized that daylight was going to die soon, so Cliff and Kit encouraged us to push hard and get an advantage where no other teams would. We took off on the trails at a run, only bobbling our route to 50 when I somehow missed an obvious turn (looking at the track, it may have been an unmapped trail). Kit took over from there, nailing the maps and taking us back to an area near 47, where I thumbed the map as best as I could in the now dark woods and mangroves. I spotted the flag, and we muted our celebrations as we worked our way back to the boats. We spotted ARGeorgia coming down the old road, so we knew that we had some good time on them on this section. The trip back to the boats was filled with crossing small creeks and tripping over cypress roots. When we got close to the area, Cliff assured us that he was very familiar with the area, and confidently led us to a large pile of boats! We weren’t the only team to use our inlet, and the other resourceful teams had placed glow sticks and reflective paddles out to be seen. A quick bundle up and we turned the boat south to the opposite edge of the lake.
This paddle was cold, and we did plenty of talking and singing to keep ourselves awake (Cliff impressed us with his vocals, serenading the full “Rocky Racoon” by the Beatles, among others. In full disclosure, Kit thought he was outright making it up as he sang it). Finding the small inlet was tough, but it was obvious as we got closer. CP51 proved to be near a boat ramp, so we chose that as a takeout. We were greeted by the Magnificent 7 here, and I was greeted by the most pain that I can recall feeling in my feet. Both feet and ankles were throbbing (one from the fall on day 1, the other from favoring it while running), and my running pace was slower than a walk. Our 10:30 arrival had been later than anticipated, but we were buoyed by seeing our competition here, and knowing that they still needed to make it through the northern trek at night. They also let us know that sea kayaking had replaced paddle boarding due to high winds. We split with them shortly after beginning our “run”, and we made our way to 54. From there, our journey to 53 was horrible. We spent nearly an hour looking in the wrong creek for a tree. Thankfully Kit realized that we had not gone far enough from a junction. As I returned to reattack, I was rather frustrated with myself as I counted off 400m (as opposed to 150m…) and found the CP right where it should have been. In this frustrating time, we had been passed by the superteam going in the opposite direction - we had bled loads of time to them. We got ourselves moving quickly from there, running when possible to grab 52 and make our way back to the boat. I was the slow link on this whole leg, but thankfully my ankles loosened up just in time.
The paddle back to the TA was tense, as we worked hard to not miss our inlet. We also spent some time discussing our strategies for the relay. It was apparent that Kit needed sleep the most, so when we finally arrived at the bustling TA, we sent her right to sleep. We had plenty of options from here, and Cliff was strongly considering doing both legs himself and sacrificing sleep for the good of the team. There was some confusion about who could do what on each leg, and how the boats worked. We were able to convince the volunteers that it wasn’t safe to paddle board, and they agreed to let us kayak when the time came. All of our planning was shot when we saw the map for the easy leg - it was anything but. Cliff was (thankfully) honest, admitting that it was too hard for him. In our sleep deprived state, we thought that it would be best if I taught him how to nav and then sent him on his own. After a few minutes of flubbing, we realized that our goal was to win the race, and we should go out on this together. We made our way through it in more than 90 minutes, finding the nav tough and the CP placement tougher. 42A was memorable, as it was buried in a thicket out of view from nearly every angle. Also memorable was a “wonderful bushwhack” that assured Cliff would open up “just up here”. It was a miserable 10 minutes of pushing through 10ft high brush that was unyielding. It didn’t cost us too much time, but gave a ridiculous memory. When we got back to TA, it was about 4:30. I was going to sleep (I found some room in a tent with Pete and Shari - thanks!!) and Cliff was going to do both paddle legs, leaving only the last trek for after we woke up. My sleep was intermittent but wonderfully welcome, and I was woken by a screaming Kit after about 90 minutes at 6:47 - “It’s ours to win - they’re not back yet!!” I had a short fight with my sleeping pad, and a much longer one with my super-swollen right ankle as I joked with Pete about the “easy” relay section. We quickly set out on foot for the last relay section (it was sad to break the news to Kit that we still had to do it).
Daylight was a big plus for this, but the bigger plus was having Kit be so well-rested that she was nearly bionic. She was yanking Cliff and myself all over the place, punching the passport and motivating us to move as best as our sleep-deprived and swollen bodies could, though bacon cheeseburgers supplied by RD Jeff at the TA also helped. The intel from the earlier trek was crucial, as the loops were very similar. But more helpful was having our emotional leader back, as Kit would keep us going for the morning and much of the day. After a slight bobble on 44B, we arrived back in TA to learn that ARGeorgia had left not that much before us. We TA’d with the knowledge that a smart race could have us at the finish line before the predicted fastest time at 3AM the following morning. Our 8:45 departure had us only 30 minutes behind the leaders, and we pushed as much as possible on the roads to get the gap down. It became clear again that this 40 mile leg would be much longer, and we found ourselves fighting the morning heat rather early. CP55 was an out and back, and we timed ourselves only 30 minutes behind ARGeorgia here, including some time for a fading Cliff to acclimate his attire to the beating sun (i.e. take a layer off - a miracle cure after which he recovered quickly). After hitting 56, and getting a greeting from Kit’s parents, we began a long ride on a dirt road into a brutal headwind. The headwind wouldn’t let up for nearly 40km. This painful leg proved to be the crux of the race.
Kit hollered “Hey, there’s a team over there!”, pointing towards the woods. “No Kit, there is no reason for anyone to ever be over there” I replied. “No, they were sleeping!” You could almost feel the blood jump back into our legs, as we hoped that it was ARGeorgia, but knew that it could be the other short-course team who had been ahead of us. Our joy was confirmed at a gas station soon thereafter, where we saw that short-course team, who confirmed that our suspicions were correct. We filled with water (we had been low for quite some time, though Cliff accidentally filled up with a disgustingly sugary Sobe Lifewater), and pushed on hard, realizing that an overall victory was truly in front of us for the taking. We saw ARGeorgia again on a short out and back to CP57, only 5 minutes or so behind. Our pace again quickened, shooting to 58 and then taking a hilariously orchestrated pee-break before continuing our rather-effective paceline into TA5. The 40 mile bike ride had been 76 miles, and our bodies were struggling in the heat, despite plenty of sunscreen, food, and hydration. Arriving at 2:30 left us with plenty of daylight for this trek. Another quick TA in order to get out of TA before ARGeorgia showed up, we quickly grabbed more food and water, and set out on a large section at Rice Creek. Kit’s wife surprised her all the way from Vermont here, and she was greeted with a grateful but super-quick hug for her efforts— we had a race to win!
The nav seemed simple enough, and we set off towards 59, 61, and 62 at a brisk pace. We suspected that no one else would be running - our chance to win was now. The first 3 CPs were easy to find. I used Kit’s perfect help to nail 63 and then get back to the trail. Cliff and Kit did a great job keeping the pace up - Cliff was super helpful taking on Kit’s bag in addition to his own, so she could run a little more consistently. I was struggling big time with dehydration and foot pain. A swollen ankle and an achy achilles were no fun to deal with. Still, we pushed on with a 2minutes-run-2minutes-walk strategy to deal with our collective pains, and began making our way back north after getting 64. We made a 2km mistake here, as I misread a boundary line for a trail which caused us some backtracking. I also overshot CP 60 by less than 100m, but cost us 20 minutes trying to find it on the return. The sun had begun to set on us, and I was feeling cold and dejected as we worked back towards the TA. We had passed the superteam towards the end of our trek, and knew that we had at least 2 hours on them, but we hadn’t seen ARGeorgia at all. Looking at the tracks afterwards showed just how close they were to us. The TA was again welcoming, and even more welcoming was hearing that we were the first team back. It’s amazing how much this helped to motivate and lift spirits. We shot out of there as quickly as possible, loaded up on food and water for the rest of the race. I had long since run out of water, and my teammates did a great job to encourage me to drink and eat on the way to the paddle, heading there in the newly fallen darkness.
With only CP65 between us and the boats, we expected a fast and simple ride. Our approach to 65 even revealed a number of short course teams on the trail where the CP was...but none of them had found it yet. We worked together to fight through palms, thorns, and vines, finding the flag in a place that I felt did not line up with the map. Frustrated, we hurried both ourselves and the other teams out of there, not knowing how far ahead we were. We discussed plans for the paddle and transition, vowing to be fast but safe. The ride to TA should have been simple, but Cliff picked up an unwanted friend just before the TA - a 3 inch nail! We remained surprisingly calm in TA, realizing quickly that his tire was not salvageable - the nail had gone through the tread and sidewall, bent the wire bead, dented the rim, and ripped the rim tape. No bother - we planned to have Cliff and I paddle while Kit would install a tube in the middle seat.
The early parts of the paddle involved dodging downed trees and grass patches to find 3 simple CPS, while listening to Kit’s growing frustration with the destroyed wheel and the tubes that wouldn’t hold air. Somewhere before we turned around, we all came to the conclusion that we needed to find a replacement for Cliff’s bike. Due to the stringent rules of AR, our only real hope was to plan to beg someone to borrow a bike. But before that could happen, we had to navigate to the last two CPs and then back. It was tough to stay oriented in the river, and we actually missed CP69, only to realize it at 70, which was thankfully our turnaround. In retrospect, it would have been much faster to motor out to 70, which was located at a large backstop, and then grab 69 before hustling back. At 70 we took note of the time, which came in handy when we spotted ARGeorgia trying to sneak by us about 15 minutes later. Knowing that an overall win was only a bike ride away, we paddled home as fast as we could. An observer would have found our paddle comical, as Cliff and I developed a communication system that involved me shouting as loud as I could repeatedly, using code words to determine the speed at which I needed him to turn the boat. It sounded smart at the time, less so after some sleep. Kit remained quiet the whole time, and insists she witnessed the most efficient and effective communication strategy she’s ever experienced on an incredibly stressful and difficult paddle labyrinth.
When we finally saw the TA, we sprang into action to find a new bike. As a failsafe, Kit began trying a new tube and new tire on Cliff’s back wheel. Plenty of grovelling produced no bicycle for us, and we were starting to believe that we would need to rely on the busted wheel. Graciously, salvation rolled into the TA soon thereafter in the form of 4050 AARP, some of the nicest people who could ever be found on an AR course. After explaining our predicament, they all immediately offered their bikes without hesitation. Shari Hymes insisted they give Cliff “the good bike” and ended up selecting the Jim Mernin special, with the promise to have it returned before they got off the water, and we sped out of TA, with our friends even volunteering to make sure that our bins got packed up in the chaos.
The ride home was a complete blur. I resolved to burn myself to the ground if it meant winning the race, and pulled my two teammates as best I could through the cold night. Cliff, riding a too-small bike with flat shoes on clipless pedals, and Kit, whose voice had been lost somewhere east of Gainesville, helped push me forward with their positivity and focus. After we grabbed 71 at a small store, our last stop was 72, located at the St. Augustine Pier and the location to top off our sand jar. The ride out to the beach was surreal, with a 1km out and back confirming that we had enough of a lead to make it to the finish line. The inevitable finally sank in with me as we approached the pier to some cheers of “Go Strong Machine!” from a car in a hotel parking lot. Randy Ericksen captured some shots of Cliff finding the flag as I filled the sand jar. From there, it was a 10km ride filled with happiness back to the Southern Oaks Inn. The middle-of-the-night ride through downtown St. Augustine will stick with me forever, as we cheered ourselves into the hotel parking lot and through the finish line at 1:48AM, as the overall winners on the 2020 Sea to Sea.
Hugs, exhausted interviews, and beaming smiles abounded for the next hour as we understood what we had just accomplished. I was excited to be able to greet ARGeorgia as they arrived shortly after 2:00. They had pushed us harder than we would have imagined, and their presence was one of the reasons that the win was so meaningful. As we settled into our hotel room (and Kit’s family graciously returned Jim’s bike!), I found sleep tough to come by. Part of it was the pain that my feet were in (they were so swollen that they nearly ripped my socks on the airplane later then afternoon), part of it was the thermostat that Cliff set to 80 degrees, but most of it was the joy of accomplishing a goal that was so challenging.
The post-race food truck and awards were wonderful, just like the rest of the race experience. The team at ARGeorgia cared for their racers in a way that is unmatched in adventure racing. If my work schedule ever allows it again, I will be sure to come back to this race.
My teammates were fantastic. We were all similarly focused, and we pushed each other to the end with positivity and encouragement. When I wanted to focus on my nav bobbles, they reminded me of the non-errors, and pointed out that we were still winning. The rest of the race season holds lots of promise and exciting memories, but it will be tough to top this amazing experience.
The trip down to Florida was easy enough, with Cliff and I getting picked up by Kit and her wonderful family, who were excellent chauffeurs for all of our needs throughout the pre- and post-race. We stopped for a delicious lunch en route to St. Augustine from Jacksonville before a Walmart stop to gather last minute supplies in addition to 100+ hours of food for Cliff. Arrival at the hotel also meant gathering bike boxes for myself and Cliff. I was greeted with a mangled box, and a bike that seemed to match. My hanger needed to be replaced, and some last minute scrambling to find the onsite bike mechanic got my larger front chainring bent back into respectable shape. The shifting was a bit off in the back, and I later learned that my front suspension was nearly destroyed. Cliff’s bike was in much better shape, and after check-in the 3 of us set out to organize and sort through gear to get our bins ready for dropoff. An intermission for a pre-race dinner and not-really-informational meeting (the only thing that we learned was that the leg 1 paddle had been cancelled and replaced with a trek around Cedar Key. The rest of the evening was filled with dropping off bikes and bins as well as defining roles. I was planning on taking the nav lead with Kit assisting and taking over when needed, while Cliff was carrying the extra gear and punching the passport. We got all of this dine before settling in to sleep with nearly 8 hours (!) before the alarms were set.
Sleep for me is always sketchy pre-race, but I managed to get some decent rest. Cliff seemed to be very well rested, but Kit was struggling with cold symptoms. Fortunately, some Dayquil arrived to help her get over the hump. We packed up all of our final supplies and headed to the buses to receive maps just before the 7AM departure to the west coast. The bus ride was filled with face-stuffing (breakfast) and mind-stuffing (maps). The race presented itself in a straightforward manner, essentially as a big bike ride across the state. We would visit 6 TAs via bike, bike/trek from them, and then remount bikes. Kit and I worked diligently to highlight CPs and measure out long road sections with the mapwheel (this proved very handy as the race progressed). The arrival at Cedar Key meant some last-minute backpack tinkering and bathroom visiting before a group hug (yes) preluded the start.
Cliff filled our obligatory sand jar halfway (we discovered his previously untapped talent for this as his jar was the first filled!) before we took off at a moderate run at the front of the pack of racers, on our way to CPs 1-5 in order. The weather was excellent, with arm sleeves serving as the perfect accent to our jerseys and shorts. The only downside to this nice warmup was me falling off of the road and rolling my ankle. I quickly got to my feet and began to run it off, but this wouldn’t be the last that I thought of that foot. We arrived at the TA in just under an hour after the 10km-ish run, switched to bikes efficiently, and got out the TA first, on what was advertised as a 40-60 mile bike leg. We hit 6, 7, 8 and 9 closely with the leaders. Our pace on the road sections was strong and we were working well together. There had been very little route choice in this section, but we stuck to roads when possible and made good time heading up towards 10 (a large Off Limits section forced us on a long road ride around). The flag was easy to find, but the trail that was marked on the map heading west from the CP petered out quickly into a swamp. We attacked and reattacked, considered two different swampwhacks, and spent so much time doing so that a mob of teams had arrived. Solo Joshua Forester had been there before us and didn’t come back out, so we knew that there had to be a way. Regardless, it was too early in the race to take a huge risk with an unknown swampy section. We came to a group decision that a ridearound was best, and we backtracked to the road, working effectively up to 11, where we dropped bikes and made our way on foot for the better part of 1km. We arrived in the area at the same time as Untamed New England and TanZ Navigation, both of whom had swampwhacked, meaning that our choice was a wash, albeit we were at least dry. An uneventful ride took us to 12 and then 13, which was located at Treasure Camp along the Suwannee River. We took advantage of a spigot to fill up bladders with water that was just brown enough that we were afraid to drink it (Kit panicked about all sorts of GI wiggly things), and climatized slightly for the afternoon weather.
Our next CP was at a gas station, and we were happy to exchange brown water for a clearer version. There were a number of teams here, and a local gentleman took the opportunity to tell us at length all how much he loved biking, and how dangerous the roads were for us to be biking on. His speech became a source of humor for the rest of the race for us (man, he really loved biking!). We pushed on for a long ride towards 15, at a cemetery. This ride was a low point of the race for me, as I had pushed a bit too hard with not enough food or water. Additionally, the leg was already well over the projected length, and our pace had been based on the provided information. Thankfully Cliff and Kit took all of the brunt work at the head of the paceline, and we made our way to CP 16 as darkness began to fall. This had potential as a very tough CP, but fortunately we had some teams exiting it as we approached, which confirmed our attackpoint. Some swampstomping was necessary, but we found it simple and made our way out and back down the trail, passing another team who had attacked nearly one kilometer early - they looked to be in a for a long night. CP 17 was rather frustrating, as the nice trails on the map were all gated behind some serious-looking no-trespassing signs. When we finally hit the flag, we were relieved to be heading towards the TA, only 20 kilometers through a waypoint. We arrived around 9:50 after 95 miles of riding, and were greeted with a warm, welcoming TA (the first of many) and all of the leading teams still milling about. We grabbed some ramen from the TA staff, converted ourselves to trekking gear, and got out as quickly as we could, about 10 minutes behind the lead group, consisting of an Untamed/TanZ superteam, ARGeorgia, and Joshua Forester.
The map for this trek showed two loops, one to the southeast and another to the northwest. In warmer temps, they could have been connected with a<100m swim, but overnight in near-freezing temps erased that idea completely from our minds. We began to the southeast, running whenever possible, grabbing 20, 19, then 18 while passing all of the teams ahead of us before looping back near the TA on the way to the other section. The first section took just over an hour, the trails matched the map perfectly, and we were confident heading north. My confidence took a big hit over the next 45 minutes, as we waded into thigh deep swamps and located a maze of unmapped trails that did not exist in the previous section. CP 21 should have been simple, but we ended up way off-base, and were only re-oriented when ARGeorgia swept us up with them on their way to 22. I would love to see what the tracker showed here, but our seems to have fallen asleep for a bit, with a 35 minute gap hiding my embarrassing navigation. We parted ways with ARGeorgia to follow the park border around to CP 23. We had more thigh-deep swampy trails to wade through, but were rewarded with a road run that led us to 23. Fortunately, 21 was on the way back, and took only the slightest detour off of our track back to the TA. In a typical move for AR, the trails and map decided to line up perfectly the second time back through the area. We got back to TA a little after 2AM, less than 15 minutes behind ARGeorgia and only a few minutes ahead of the “Magnificent 7” (naming rights belong to Kit). Four hours on the trek was too much, but nothing we could do about it at that point. More hot food awaited, with ramen and a sausage sandwich going down wonderfully in the cool night.
We put on lots of layers for the 32 degree nighttime weather (I had on all of my mandatory gear) and set out on the sandy trails of the park towards 24, which was conveniently located at 23. Kit and I had briefly considered a road ride to avoid the sandy trails, but we definitely made the correct choice, as the trip back wasn’t too bad. My errors on the trek had reshuffled the pack. ARGeorgia and Joshua Forester were a short bit ahead, and we passed Dave Ashley shortly after leaving 24. The Untamed/TanZ superteam caught up to us and flew past shortly thereafter as we slowly made our way to 25. They were out of sight by the time that we got there, but we did a great job of keeping our own strong pace through a waypoint and then north towards 26 and TA3. There were two remarkable things about this ride. First, I recall wiping layers of ice off of my mapboard; it was that cold in Florida. Second, with a little more than 10km to go to the TA, we saw a bizarre sight coming towards us on the road. I thought it was a large lawnmower, but Kit and Cliff correctly identified it as the superteam, flying backwards past us. The sight of them going in the wrong direction sent us into a panic, as we consulted maps for what felt like 5 minutes before agreeing that we were going in the correct direction. Our last CP on this leg was 26, and by the time we found it hiding in the guardrail, Dave Ashley had caught up to us. We rode into the TA together just before 6 a.m. ARGeorgia and Joshua Forester had just left on the trek, so we knew that we were not far behind. We refueled from our bins, as the pancakes and bacon(!) at the TA wouldn’t be ready until we returned. We took some time to get adjusted into trekking gear before setting out on the trek with the sun just beginning to crest the horizon in the distance.
As we traveled cleanly from CP to CP, the weather improved greatly. The sun began melting the frozen grass, and we all took off some of the layers that were beginning to be a bit excessive. The San Felasco trail system was beautiful, and the woods were gorgeous. The trek got us rather excited for the MTB-O leg that was coming next. We made it back to TA a little over two hours after we set out, with the sun shining and a good bit of excitement for this leg. The pancakes and bacon from the volunteers were perfect, and after we filled up we quickly set out on bikes. We had seen ARGeorgia and Joshua Forester in TA, and we ended up crossing paths with them a few times early on in this section.
The leg was set up as a matching section, where we received a map with points labeled 33A-38A. At each point, we would receive a map showing the location of the “B” point, which had to be punched in order to receive credit for either. The original plan also had CP39 to lead us out towards TA4, but there was a section of trail closed due to a controlled burn. That meant that the leg would be a loop back to TA3. The trails were fast and flowy, and we made good work of most of this section. Kit did a tremendous job on the trails here, and Cliff was enjoying them as much as possible. We got into a little rhythm with Kit leading and me riding third, but it was tough to navigate quickly from the back. We ran into Joshua Forester a number of times out here, but knew that we would be ahead as he was still working his way out as we were circling back to the TA. The only bobble came on a bushwhack away from 37B, where I misremembered a distinct tree and got us turned around for 20 minutes. We were efficient from there, getting back without much difficulty. We rolled into TA, greeted by cheers and encouragement from Kit’s family, expecting to be a little bit behind ARGeorgia - we heard that they had left 1:15 prior!! Still resolved to race our own race and knowing that sleep and a big section awaited at TA4, we moved quickly through TA but didn’t panic. We felt strong and were ready to make a big push from the next TA.
After the closure of CP39, we were told that there would be new information given about travelling to TA4. I was hoping to get my mind off of the maps for a bit and have Kit nav us from here, but the route was mostly a repeat of some road riding that we had done earlier; we agreed that it made sense for me to continue on the maps here. The leg was unremarkable, and we arrived at TA4 before 3:30. We were happy to see ARGeorgia here. From this TA, there were many options based on Newnan’s Lake: a paddle to a northern trek, a paddle to a southern trek, and two legs of a o-relay, each containing a paddleboard section. Through that morning, we had discussed strategy for this section. At Cliff’s suggestion, we chose to tackle the paddle/treks with as much daylight as possible, and leave the o-relays for the night when we would be ready to trade sleep. ARGeorgia had chosen to do the o-relays first, which meant that we were arriving at what felt like a make-or-break point in the race where strategies were diverging. The comforts of TA slowed our transitioning, but we headed north in the canoe just after 4:00 for what appeared to be the tougher of the two treks.
Kit and Cliff had dressed much better for the paddle, and I was rather cold without rain pants on despite the sunshine. The wind and spray from the paddles was not at all comfortable. As we traveled north, I worked hard to identify the cove in the northwest corner of the lake, where CP46 waited at a bridge/canoe takeout. We eventually found the cove, and paddled into a small creek, but it dried up without a bridge. We chose to dock the boat here and search for the CP. The swamp was really tough to move in, with cypress trees tripping us up and starting to bother my ankle much more. After a number of fits and starts, Kit and I found the CP and called Cliff over to punch. The picture that he captured of us shows how joyful we were to have found it. We all remarked how challenging it would have been to find it at night. We were also fortunate that Cliff had taken some time to distinctly mark our boat with PFDs placed high in trees to increase visibility. The map lacked any defining feature to otherwise locate the boat (save for the “masculine” shaped trails perched to our north that we never actually found). From here, we shot a bearing to CP47, at a supposed sand beach. The moving was rather slow, and we ended up finding an old road well after we expected. We shot another bearing from the road...and missed the CP entirely. Fortunately there were plenty of backstops, which, combined with an out and back trek, eased our concerns. When we found ourselves on a trail, we had somehow missed the flag to the south. No bother, we resolved to hit 48-50 and then get 47 on the way back. We realized that daylight was going to die soon, so Cliff and Kit encouraged us to push hard and get an advantage where no other teams would. We took off on the trails at a run, only bobbling our route to 50 when I somehow missed an obvious turn (looking at the track, it may have been an unmapped trail). Kit took over from there, nailing the maps and taking us back to an area near 47, where I thumbed the map as best as I could in the now dark woods and mangroves. I spotted the flag, and we muted our celebrations as we worked our way back to the boats. We spotted ARGeorgia coming down the old road, so we knew that we had some good time on them on this section. The trip back to the boats was filled with crossing small creeks and tripping over cypress roots. When we got close to the area, Cliff assured us that he was very familiar with the area, and confidently led us to a large pile of boats! We weren’t the only team to use our inlet, and the other resourceful teams had placed glow sticks and reflective paddles out to be seen. A quick bundle up and we turned the boat south to the opposite edge of the lake.
This paddle was cold, and we did plenty of talking and singing to keep ourselves awake (Cliff impressed us with his vocals, serenading the full “Rocky Racoon” by the Beatles, among others. In full disclosure, Kit thought he was outright making it up as he sang it). Finding the small inlet was tough, but it was obvious as we got closer. CP51 proved to be near a boat ramp, so we chose that as a takeout. We were greeted by the Magnificent 7 here, and I was greeted by the most pain that I can recall feeling in my feet. Both feet and ankles were throbbing (one from the fall on day 1, the other from favoring it while running), and my running pace was slower than a walk. Our 10:30 arrival had been later than anticipated, but we were buoyed by seeing our competition here, and knowing that they still needed to make it through the northern trek at night. They also let us know that sea kayaking had replaced paddle boarding due to high winds. We split with them shortly after beginning our “run”, and we made our way to 54. From there, our journey to 53 was horrible. We spent nearly an hour looking in the wrong creek for a tree. Thankfully Kit realized that we had not gone far enough from a junction. As I returned to reattack, I was rather frustrated with myself as I counted off 400m (as opposed to 150m…) and found the CP right where it should have been. In this frustrating time, we had been passed by the superteam going in the opposite direction - we had bled loads of time to them. We got ourselves moving quickly from there, running when possible to grab 52 and make our way back to the boat. I was the slow link on this whole leg, but thankfully my ankles loosened up just in time.
The paddle back to the TA was tense, as we worked hard to not miss our inlet. We also spent some time discussing our strategies for the relay. It was apparent that Kit needed sleep the most, so when we finally arrived at the bustling TA, we sent her right to sleep. We had plenty of options from here, and Cliff was strongly considering doing both legs himself and sacrificing sleep for the good of the team. There was some confusion about who could do what on each leg, and how the boats worked. We were able to convince the volunteers that it wasn’t safe to paddle board, and they agreed to let us kayak when the time came. All of our planning was shot when we saw the map for the easy leg - it was anything but. Cliff was (thankfully) honest, admitting that it was too hard for him. In our sleep deprived state, we thought that it would be best if I taught him how to nav and then sent him on his own. After a few minutes of flubbing, we realized that our goal was to win the race, and we should go out on this together. We made our way through it in more than 90 minutes, finding the nav tough and the CP placement tougher. 42A was memorable, as it was buried in a thicket out of view from nearly every angle. Also memorable was a “wonderful bushwhack” that assured Cliff would open up “just up here”. It was a miserable 10 minutes of pushing through 10ft high brush that was unyielding. It didn’t cost us too much time, but gave a ridiculous memory. When we got back to TA, it was about 4:30. I was going to sleep (I found some room in a tent with Pete and Shari - thanks!!) and Cliff was going to do both paddle legs, leaving only the last trek for after we woke up. My sleep was intermittent but wonderfully welcome, and I was woken by a screaming Kit after about 90 minutes at 6:47 - “It’s ours to win - they’re not back yet!!” I had a short fight with my sleeping pad, and a much longer one with my super-swollen right ankle as I joked with Pete about the “easy” relay section. We quickly set out on foot for the last relay section (it was sad to break the news to Kit that we still had to do it).
Daylight was a big plus for this, but the bigger plus was having Kit be so well-rested that she was nearly bionic. She was yanking Cliff and myself all over the place, punching the passport and motivating us to move as best as our sleep-deprived and swollen bodies could, though bacon cheeseburgers supplied by RD Jeff at the TA also helped. The intel from the earlier trek was crucial, as the loops were very similar. But more helpful was having our emotional leader back, as Kit would keep us going for the morning and much of the day. After a slight bobble on 44B, we arrived back in TA to learn that ARGeorgia had left not that much before us. We TA’d with the knowledge that a smart race could have us at the finish line before the predicted fastest time at 3AM the following morning. Our 8:45 departure had us only 30 minutes behind the leaders, and we pushed as much as possible on the roads to get the gap down. It became clear again that this 40 mile leg would be much longer, and we found ourselves fighting the morning heat rather early. CP55 was an out and back, and we timed ourselves only 30 minutes behind ARGeorgia here, including some time for a fading Cliff to acclimate his attire to the beating sun (i.e. take a layer off - a miracle cure after which he recovered quickly). After hitting 56, and getting a greeting from Kit’s parents, we began a long ride on a dirt road into a brutal headwind. The headwind wouldn’t let up for nearly 40km. This painful leg proved to be the crux of the race.
Kit hollered “Hey, there’s a team over there!”, pointing towards the woods. “No Kit, there is no reason for anyone to ever be over there” I replied. “No, they were sleeping!” You could almost feel the blood jump back into our legs, as we hoped that it was ARGeorgia, but knew that it could be the other short-course team who had been ahead of us. Our joy was confirmed at a gas station soon thereafter, where we saw that short-course team, who confirmed that our suspicions were correct. We filled with water (we had been low for quite some time, though Cliff accidentally filled up with a disgustingly sugary Sobe Lifewater), and pushed on hard, realizing that an overall victory was truly in front of us for the taking. We saw ARGeorgia again on a short out and back to CP57, only 5 minutes or so behind. Our pace again quickened, shooting to 58 and then taking a hilariously orchestrated pee-break before continuing our rather-effective paceline into TA5. The 40 mile bike ride had been 76 miles, and our bodies were struggling in the heat, despite plenty of sunscreen, food, and hydration. Arriving at 2:30 left us with plenty of daylight for this trek. Another quick TA in order to get out of TA before ARGeorgia showed up, we quickly grabbed more food and water, and set out on a large section at Rice Creek. Kit’s wife surprised her all the way from Vermont here, and she was greeted with a grateful but super-quick hug for her efforts— we had a race to win!
The nav seemed simple enough, and we set off towards 59, 61, and 62 at a brisk pace. We suspected that no one else would be running - our chance to win was now. The first 3 CPs were easy to find. I used Kit’s perfect help to nail 63 and then get back to the trail. Cliff and Kit did a great job keeping the pace up - Cliff was super helpful taking on Kit’s bag in addition to his own, so she could run a little more consistently. I was struggling big time with dehydration and foot pain. A swollen ankle and an achy achilles were no fun to deal with. Still, we pushed on with a 2minutes-run-2minutes-walk strategy to deal with our collective pains, and began making our way back north after getting 64. We made a 2km mistake here, as I misread a boundary line for a trail which caused us some backtracking. I also overshot CP 60 by less than 100m, but cost us 20 minutes trying to find it on the return. The sun had begun to set on us, and I was feeling cold and dejected as we worked back towards the TA. We had passed the superteam towards the end of our trek, and knew that we had at least 2 hours on them, but we hadn’t seen ARGeorgia at all. Looking at the tracks afterwards showed just how close they were to us. The TA was again welcoming, and even more welcoming was hearing that we were the first team back. It’s amazing how much this helped to motivate and lift spirits. We shot out of there as quickly as possible, loaded up on food and water for the rest of the race. I had long since run out of water, and my teammates did a great job to encourage me to drink and eat on the way to the paddle, heading there in the newly fallen darkness.
With only CP65 between us and the boats, we expected a fast and simple ride. Our approach to 65 even revealed a number of short course teams on the trail where the CP was...but none of them had found it yet. We worked together to fight through palms, thorns, and vines, finding the flag in a place that I felt did not line up with the map. Frustrated, we hurried both ourselves and the other teams out of there, not knowing how far ahead we were. We discussed plans for the paddle and transition, vowing to be fast but safe. The ride to TA should have been simple, but Cliff picked up an unwanted friend just before the TA - a 3 inch nail! We remained surprisingly calm in TA, realizing quickly that his tire was not salvageable - the nail had gone through the tread and sidewall, bent the wire bead, dented the rim, and ripped the rim tape. No bother - we planned to have Cliff and I paddle while Kit would install a tube in the middle seat.
The early parts of the paddle involved dodging downed trees and grass patches to find 3 simple CPS, while listening to Kit’s growing frustration with the destroyed wheel and the tubes that wouldn’t hold air. Somewhere before we turned around, we all came to the conclusion that we needed to find a replacement for Cliff’s bike. Due to the stringent rules of AR, our only real hope was to plan to beg someone to borrow a bike. But before that could happen, we had to navigate to the last two CPs and then back. It was tough to stay oriented in the river, and we actually missed CP69, only to realize it at 70, which was thankfully our turnaround. In retrospect, it would have been much faster to motor out to 70, which was located at a large backstop, and then grab 69 before hustling back. At 70 we took note of the time, which came in handy when we spotted ARGeorgia trying to sneak by us about 15 minutes later. Knowing that an overall win was only a bike ride away, we paddled home as fast as we could. An observer would have found our paddle comical, as Cliff and I developed a communication system that involved me shouting as loud as I could repeatedly, using code words to determine the speed at which I needed him to turn the boat. It sounded smart at the time, less so after some sleep. Kit remained quiet the whole time, and insists she witnessed the most efficient and effective communication strategy she’s ever experienced on an incredibly stressful and difficult paddle labyrinth.
When we finally saw the TA, we sprang into action to find a new bike. As a failsafe, Kit began trying a new tube and new tire on Cliff’s back wheel. Plenty of grovelling produced no bicycle for us, and we were starting to believe that we would need to rely on the busted wheel. Graciously, salvation rolled into the TA soon thereafter in the form of 4050 AARP, some of the nicest people who could ever be found on an AR course. After explaining our predicament, they all immediately offered their bikes without hesitation. Shari Hymes insisted they give Cliff “the good bike” and ended up selecting the Jim Mernin special, with the promise to have it returned before they got off the water, and we sped out of TA, with our friends even volunteering to make sure that our bins got packed up in the chaos.
The ride home was a complete blur. I resolved to burn myself to the ground if it meant winning the race, and pulled my two teammates as best I could through the cold night. Cliff, riding a too-small bike with flat shoes on clipless pedals, and Kit, whose voice had been lost somewhere east of Gainesville, helped push me forward with their positivity and focus. After we grabbed 71 at a small store, our last stop was 72, located at the St. Augustine Pier and the location to top off our sand jar. The ride out to the beach was surreal, with a 1km out and back confirming that we had enough of a lead to make it to the finish line. The inevitable finally sank in with me as we approached the pier to some cheers of “Go Strong Machine!” from a car in a hotel parking lot. Randy Ericksen captured some shots of Cliff finding the flag as I filled the sand jar. From there, it was a 10km ride filled with happiness back to the Southern Oaks Inn. The middle-of-the-night ride through downtown St. Augustine will stick with me forever, as we cheered ourselves into the hotel parking lot and through the finish line at 1:48AM, as the overall winners on the 2020 Sea to Sea.
Hugs, exhausted interviews, and beaming smiles abounded for the next hour as we understood what we had just accomplished. I was excited to be able to greet ARGeorgia as they arrived shortly after 2:00. They had pushed us harder than we would have imagined, and their presence was one of the reasons that the win was so meaningful. As we settled into our hotel room (and Kit’s family graciously returned Jim’s bike!), I found sleep tough to come by. Part of it was the pain that my feet were in (they were so swollen that they nearly ripped my socks on the airplane later then afternoon), part of it was the thermostat that Cliff set to 80 degrees, but most of it was the joy of accomplishing a goal that was so challenging.
The post-race food truck and awards were wonderful, just like the rest of the race experience. The team at ARGeorgia cared for their racers in a way that is unmatched in adventure racing. If my work schedule ever allows it again, I will be sure to come back to this race.
My teammates were fantastic. We were all similarly focused, and we pushed each other to the end with positivity and encouragement. When I wanted to focus on my nav bobbles, they reminded me of the non-errors, and pointed out that we were still winning. The rest of the race season holds lots of promise and exciting memories, but it will be tough to top this amazing experience.
