1145. Swammie Shuffle 200 AAR / Riff

A great run for a great cause: veteran awareness and PTSD.

Low budget, low thrill type of event with limited spots available. This isn’t a high profile race and that is what makes this race so cool. 

The locals donated houses for the runners to stay at before, during, and after the race. Who knows if this will keep up (I hope so) but it was a really nice touch being able to hang with the other runners and use some houses along the way. Made some great connections. 

After action report: 

What went well? 

• Food, fluid, and salt intake 
• Crew / support was flawless 
• Houses along the route 

What didn’t?

• Forgot puffer jacket when I went solo on the final day. Even if one doesn’t “usually” wear a puffer jacket during runs – most of the time we aren’t running that fast during the 200’s. It might be a good idea to carry one of these no matter what.  
• Shin splints around mile 108 

Differently? 

• Carry some more cash on me 
• Pack all my gear on me (rain jacket, puffer, base layer, pants, windbreaker, poncho) 
• Do some single leg exercises 
• Maybe change form to run more flatfooted 
• Slowing down to speed up, resting after the beach would have been a smart move. 

This was a gritty ass race from the start. It’s really 220 miles with 45 miles of beach (in the beginning and end) 

Right off the beach, I could feel my legs were pretty wrecked and had some right knee pain (tight IT band?) and eventually led to a shin splint

By mile 100, that turned into left knee pain/ shin splints

And by mile 108 I had to call Corie to come save me. I sold myself on dropping, expressed this to Corie. “I don’t want to go through shin splints again”. We ended up sleeping on the side of the road for 4 hours total. My legs were so pumped up, Corie started to rub them out. I fell asleep and 45 minutes later woke up with my legs in throbbing pain. The pain almost caused me to pass out and throw up, shit started to get real – who’s idea was this? 

I wiggled an Advil and within 20 minutes the pain subsided*. I was back asleep for another 3 hours. 

Day broke and I hobbled out of the car. Let me get to the halfway point to save whatever dignity I had left, then I can drop. 

*My last two hundred mile race I ate advil like candy and that caused me to run through shin splints and left some serious damage (I couldn’t flex my foot for the next three months). For this race, if i took any advil, i’d sleep/ walk it off until I could feel pain again – THEN i’d try to run) 

Pete had poles in the car that I could use, except I didn’t know how to set them up. 

Ah fuck em, and off I went to the turn around. 

Each step hurt, I couldn’t run if I had to. Not a good sign 108 miles into a 220 mile race. 

While walking to the lighthouse (turnaround point) I looked up how to work the leki poles, found a good resource and set the poles up once I got to that turnaround. 

Ever believe in signs? 

Well remember how I was supposed to drop at the lighthouse? 

I saw a fellow runner about to leave, making his way back to salvo. We shot the shit and off he went. 

Little did Dave know that he just breathed a little oxygen into my dwindling fire. 

And That’s all I needed. 

Poles in hand, each step hurt like hell, and I finally made it back to the salvo house – 23 miles from the turnaround point. 

I laid up there for a few hours to reset. Pete and I got separated when I broke down on the side of the road. He made it back to salvo before I was even on my way to the lighthouse. I had some work to do…

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This was the most intense part of the race. 

Let’s take it back to the night before the race even started. Here are some notes I captured: 

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Night before the race: mind dump. 

It’s 8 o’clock pm. 12 hours until the race starts. I’m laying in bed with my whole body pulsing. It feels like that anyway. Ecstatic. Like a caged animal ready to be set free. 

We rolled into a beautiful mansion that the gracious people of sandbridge donated to the runners for the week. 

Toeing the line takes courage and it was amazing to see people from all walks of life. Damn, I hope all these people can achieve their goal this week. How many of these runners won’t make it? For what reason? No way I can’t finish this race. (BTW, 3 runners didn’t make it, 20 did) 

It’s been about a year and a half since my last 200, can I make this one number two? I went through 130 miles of unbearable pain last time, but was it unbearable? I got through it. 

I’m in the best shape of my life right now – physically and mentally. 

Learning to deal with pain differently. 

Last time, I started out too fast, hitting 50 miles well before the 12 hour mark. 

This time, I only want to get to 60 miles in 24 hours. Barely to the turn around point on day 1. (3 miles an hour for 20 hours) 

Day two, hopefully I find a rhythm. I’ll be off the beach too. 75 miles that day (a little more than 3.5 miles for 20 hours) 

Day 3, keep that mojo going. 85 miles on the last day. Four miles an hour for 22 hours. Notice there’s not as much sleep time on day 3 (because we got work to do) 

3 days has me 72 hours. 

That’s my first goal. 

My second goal would be to go under 99 hours. That was my time at Buckeye 200 a year and a half ago. That race was 200 miles though and this is more like 220. 

My last goal is to just finish. That’s 144 hours (6 days) 

Now it’s time to get some sleep.

Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face, that’s why I set my last goal to “just finish”. These 200 mile races are no joke and just finishing them is an accomplishment, one day I want to be able to crush them. 

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Race day notes: 

Start of the race I linked up with an old buddy Aaron, (the course record holder x2). He told me to keep a pocket freed up to put the pain in. Even though it was just a saying, I immediately started shifting my pack to free up a pocket – something about being able to put the pain somewhere eased my mind. 

Right into the beach, and it was treacherous. Started off at a perfect speed, 4 mph average for twenty miles. Damn near last place. I feel like everyone was going too fast. (even myself) 

We got off the beach and found a dusty old boat that was abandoned on the side of the road – more of a relic than anything. Pete and I cleaned our feet off and dumped a pound of sand out of my shoe. 

A blister started to form between my pinky toe, other than that we are good. Need to stay on top of my feet. It took us 5.5 hours to get through the beach section and the people of Corolla are showing some love, that is nice. 

Rolled up to Corie 7 hours in. Wanted to post up for an hour or so, but we got kicked out lol within a half hour by “10 angry Karen’s” (security guards words). 

With life you just roll with the punches. During that half hour – we ate, fixed our feet, got Champy love, got our feet up, I gave Corie a kiss and we were on our way.

Good quick rest. Back on the road. Next time we’d stop would be at a parking lot or something like that, not really a side street to an HOA. Note taken. (Reflecting back it’s kind of bizarre that people called in on us? We were there less than 30 minutes – it’s not like we were staying the night – to each their own.) 

We eventually stopped at Pete’s buddies to get some rest and then went until 3 in the morning.

We ended up sleeping in a public restroom, hopefully that doesn’t happen again. lol it was weird, especially when that random guy walked in at 3 am and saw three of us sprawled out. 

Who was the weirdo here lol us or him? Probably him, more likely us.  

Right leg has been giving issues throughout the day. Runners knee and shin splints. Managing this with mad attention as I still have 180? Miles to go. This could put me out if I let it get out of control. 

Corie has been coming in clutch with some A1 aid station support, love, smiles. Really brings our spirit up and I’ve told her so many times how much I (and the other runners mentioned this too) we appreciate her. Such an amazing spirit of a human. I love you damn it. We met with her some time after Duck and before the jawbone junction. 

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Day 2 notes: 

Woke up from the bathroom around 5 am to get back on the road. We ended up doing 68 miles for the first 24 hours. Corie slept at a circle K about 10 miles up the road. It’s been slow rolling but the mojo comes and goes. Face is getting burnt. Bathroom is going normal too. 

This is the day I blew up on the side of the road. How or why? I’m not sure. I think I need to change my running form and land on more of a flat foot vs forefoot. 

It’s frustrating because I’ve spent so much time on lower limb strength and mobility and for the shin splints to come back and haunt me? It feels like a curse at times, so it’s back to the drawing board. We’ll see how the next race goes. 

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Day 3 – 4 notes (back where we left off in the beginning of the article)

This is going off of memory

I started working – as best I could anyway – and left the salvo house – with the plan to go through most of the night. 

A storm was coming in. Winds hit 40 mph and almost blew me off the bridge. It was kind of scary. I should have had a puffer jacket with me. The wind was unforgiving. 

Corie was posted up at the refuge – almost the middle of nowhere. 

My mental space was being occupied with thoughts of her and Champy being okay. It was pretty remote and anyone could have just pulled right on in (thankfully everything was okay) 

I got off the bridge , and tried to hunker down to get out the wind, with no luck. I called Corie for the pick up and called it a night at the coquina beach parking lot. I got within 6 miles to Pete, and I think one of the reasons I gave in and called Corie was because of how mentally uneasy I was with her being in that random, desolate parking lot. I mean, even if something did happen, I had no ability to do anything about it besides go into total ballistic mode – my legs and body were wrecked. 

After a few hours of rest (with a few alarm snoozes) I was up and on my way. 

Pete hung around for an hour to wait for me to catch up. We met at that jawbone junction bathroom and started the trek back to the finish. “Old skool” (we still had 60 some miles to go)

He could’ve left me, and I tried to get him too. But he’s not out there to get the best time, he’s out there for the experience to finish along with friends and I forever am grateful for that man.

We rolled back into Pete’s buddies bike shop (Duck cycles) later that evening. My shins were unforgiving. I needed to rest my legs. Corie fixed me up, got my gear squared, food in me, and some laughs. We came up with a plan, stay and Mike and Pams shop till three am, hit the road by four (the storm would have passed us by then) and then get to the beach by 7. There was a convenient store right there so we’d fuel up and be on our way. We brought the idea up to Corie to just head back to the Swammie house, at the start. We’d have no aid, but she’d have a safe night sleep and most of the day to just chill out, she was on the clock for a while and we wanted to give her rest. Plus, we were leaving at three am and then not getting to the beach till 7 – we had everything we needed (so I thought). And Boom, just like that Corie was on her way to Swammie house (3 hours drive) 

Thankfully, Mike and Pam let us stay the night, cooked us some food, and off to sleep we were. 

Right on the floor of this bike shop, legs up, I was out. 

A storm was coming in too, and that was part of our plan, to hunker down and wait for the storm to pass. 

About three AM, the coast was clear – we got out the door by 4. 

After getting our gear on, I realized I forgot a puffer jacket. Really? Oh well, we started our 35 mile trek to the finish. 

An hour in I needed to use petes emergency poncho. 

And an hour after that I needed to use Bob’s rain jacket, that zipped over my pack and everything else I had on. 

These guys saved me from a cold and miserable time. 

I don’t really know what I would have done without these extra layers, maybe freeze? Who knows. Nothing was open and there was nowhere to hunker down. 

We tried to get to the beach entrance no earlier than 7am so that we could refuel and get what we needed for the last 23 miles of the beach. We rolled into this convenient store around 7:30 am. Stayed there for about an hour and started to trek the beach. 

And finally, we made it, with no spectacular finish, I couldn’t run if I had too. (even trying to throw strides in, it wasn’t working – my shins were MIA) 

It was an “assault to the summit” on this Thursday, and a good amount of people finished. 

We immediately got some beers, food, showers, and rest. 

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Since the Swammie house was so close to the finish, we got to clap all the other runners in too.

Such a cool experience. 

We stayed until saturday morning, and then started to make our way back home. 

When’s the next one????