Coast to Coast 2002

Florida Coast to Coast – Are We There Yet

Any longer adventure race always begins long before the actual race. Besides the training, the team preparation, lining up the crew – there is also the pre-race briefing and the maps that are done the night before. That is the real start of the race. This is a race perspective from the middle of the pack, following the adventure of team “Are We There Yet” through the race. Here is the team;

Wil Murphy – 38 year old lawyer from Hollywood Florida, team leader. Strengths – paddling, Weaknesses – running and sleep deprivation.
Sean Butler – 34 year old engineer from North Carolina, No real weaknesses – strong on all events
Paul Bulter – 60 year old retired father, First time adventure racer. Strengths and weaknesses unknown.
Ron Eaglin – 39 year old professor – Team Navigator. Strengths – trekking and biking, weaknesses – heat and no appreciable kayaking experience except a few lessons with Wil.

The night before the race is very chaotic for many teams as they come together, consolidate gear, get the support crews ready for the event ahead, receive race instructions, get blank maps, and mark maps. Also pre-race tension makes it very difficult to sleep – excitement and anticipation are in the air. After receiving our map and passport around 9 PM at the briefing, we finished preparing our gear and then spent a few hours marking the maps and planning our race strategy. Most of our team made it to bed (if not to sleep) by 1 AM. The next morning (Friday) we were all up by 4:30 AM and to the race start by 5:30 AM.

Pre-race confusion – support crews and team sorting through gear
The first leg of the race was a start at Florida 19 and the cross Florida Barge Canal, West into the Gulf to CP1 and then up the mouth of the Withlacoochee River to CP2 (roughly 18 miles). The start was also a special event. The race started on the south side of the road, 2 team members had to portage and launch the boats – while the other 2 members ran across the bridge to the side of the road and the canal and then be picked up by their team mates. It seemed like a ploy by Jim Molaschi to make sure that half the team had wet running shoes for the first leg of the race as the runners would have to do a wet entry on the rocks on the north side of the canal. The confusion of watching over 100 boats looking for their team-mates in the dark was quite humorous, somehow everyone managed to get in and off we were.

The first rowing leg was straight and a great chance to work out those butterflies and enjoy the water and the cool morning. As we entered the gulf, the great team question was when to cut north to the CP1. Cutting too early risked getting stuck on oyster beds, too late added extra distance to the paddle. Teams came at the CP from all sides, and all that needed to be done was to port at a narrow boat ramp and get the passport stamped, of course while 15 to twenty other teams are also trying to get in and back out. Then up the Withlacoochee, a beautiful, scenic river with plenty of wildlife. Once to CP2 we were required to swamp our boats, do a deep water re-entry, have one team member snorkel to find a flag, and then portage the boats across the dam at CP2. This was both Ron and Paul’s first deep water re-entry into a kayak, but with a little coaching from Wil and Sean – we both successfully got back into the boats (now quite flooded and unstable). Here we also learned that the hatch on Sean and Ron’s boat had cracked at the seal and flooded the entire hatch and all our gear. It also made the boat quite heavy as we tried to pull it up the steep bank for the portage – but we soon discovered the problem and pumped the hatch out. After re-stowing the gear we portaged the boats over a dam and into a canal (through weeds and rocks) and paddled another couple of easy miles to transition #1 (CP3).



At CP3 we first had to get the boats out of the water, which was difficult with the very rocky shoreline. We had all four team members work on getting each boat out and that worked well. Our team was in action and working smoothly. At the transition Paul inexperience with racing began to show as we spent much more time than necessary to get onto the bikes and on the road. The bike from CP3 to CP4 was a short one (11 miles) and it would be a real hustle for our crew to get the boats there before the teams arrived. The morning air was still cool and the bike was exhilarating. The scene at CP4 was mass confusion. Limited parking at the Dunnelon boat ramp and over-aggressive city police officers threatening to ticket any vehicle that ventured too close to the boat ramp, or on the grass, or in any of the surrounding businesses were making life miserable for the crews. The team was oblivious to this as we were simply concentrating on the next paddle leg of the race. We spent almost 45 minutes in this confusion as we were having “gear” problems – which simply means one team mate could not find the gear they wanted for the next leg.

We did finally make it back into the water and were now in a windy and much narrower part of the Withlacoochee. It was beautiful with clear water, alligators, water birds, jumping fish and plenty of other paddlers jockeying for good turning positions around the river bends. About 15 miles later we came out of the water at CP #5 (intersection of the Withlacoochee with CR 200), at this point happy to NOT be paddling for a while, and prepared for trek #1. This would be a 5 mile trek up the road, and then about 10 miles due east across a section of the Withlacoochee forest. The pace was very fast on the road and many teams trekked together, chatted about other races, and the mood was very pleasant. At 5 miles we headed east and onto a sandy road (the true route was supposed to be a foot trail about ½ mile further). The road we took was a good direction, but the soft sand was proving to be difficult traveling for Paul who had very little experience with soft sand walking. It was also hot and energy draining. We dropped to a 3 mph pace in the sand and after coming to a cross road, we navigated to the foot trail that was much better. For those who have never hiked the Withlacoochee Forest, west of the I-75 Land Bridge – do it! This is incredible open forest, with contours reminiscent of North Carolina. Open rocky cairns dot the landscape, and the remains of the unfinished barge canal give views that are quite scenic. We came to CP6 which was a trail tunnel, where we had a gear check and the race even supplied us with 2 soft drinks that were waiting in a cooler. We were getting close to CP7 and the bikes and we had nice landmarks to break up the hike along the way. At the I-75 land bridge we stopped to take pictures, and then headed west once again to CP7.



For our team CP7 was going to be a long one. Paul was hurting from the sand trek, we were going to have to get on bikes and knew that we were going to be doing a trail bike section in the dark. We stopped, had a warm dinner of Pasta, thoroughly checked our gear and lights, got short massages from our crew, used the restroom, and basically spent an hour mentally preparing for the overnight leg of the race. The leg started out very rough, Paul had no experience with single track riding at night and for the first few miles it appeared that 3-4 mph was going to be the pace. We kept tight so that we could use each others lights and I called out features from in front to prepare the back riders for what was coming. Gradually our pace got better and we gained more confidence. Our pace picked up and we were able to make it to the well-hidden Rock Quarry (it is probably obvious in the day) by 11 PM. The line to do the required rock tasks (ascent, and a very long tyrolean traverse) was not long and we had no problems and quite a bit of fun on the ascent. On the traverse, the ropes got tangled and Wil and Ron were left dangling for a while. Wil had a very tough time with the up leg of the tyrolean as he also had to fight a rope tangle. Once we all got through the traverse, Wil was nauseous from the exertion and we needed to rest 15 minutes before proceeding. The remaining bike leg was uneventful (if not dark), We found CP8 (which gave many teams problems) without trouble and made it to CP 9 (and the boats again) by 2 AM. The crossing of the Marshall Swamp trail to CP9 was even pleasant (and would have been a fun bike under any other circumstances).



CP 9 was the most dreaded (by most teams) of the events. It included a 1.2 mile portage to the Upper Ocklawaha River. We were tired, sleepy, and demoralized at this point. Since our boats were not rented – the option of dragging them did not exist. The prospect of carrying our 80 pound boats to the portage was dreaded. While we were dreading this, our crew had been in Wal-Mart devising a way to make the portage less of a nightmare, and had cleverly fashioned a set of boat wheels from luggage racks. With all the gratitude that you can muster after 20 hours of racing we thanked our crew, and started porting the boats. The water entry was at Stokes landing, and the path to the water was narrow and treacherous carrying a large boat. We made it into the water and started down the upper Oklawaha River. We had decided that Paul and Wil would both sleep in the backs of the boats on this section, while Sean and Ron paddled. This would be slow – but would allow us to continue moving. The upper Oklawaha is quite windy and is full of snags and deadfalls. The 2 boats used headlamps to scan the trees, bank, and shore continuously to avoid snags and in the end it paid off, we only snagged 3 times and passed many other teams caught on snags. As the pre-dawn started, the fog on the river brought visibility to about 10 feet, but the surreal feeling of paddling on a primitive river in the pre-dawn was energizing (to me at least). About the same time we were thinking that we were really, really tired of paddling – we saw our crew and the take-out. This time it was not a hallucination (which we were keeping each other entertained with the hallucinations we were having).

We spent an hour at CP 10 (Gores Landing). It had a real bathroom and luxuries like brushing our teeth, changing clothes, and eating a hot breakfast which were taking precedence over race speed. At this point we felt that we were out of any chance of placing. We knew were half-way through the race at this point which was both good (only half to go!) and bad (we still have another half?). The next leg was a bike leg, and that usually does a good job of waking the teams – so I at least was looking forward to the next leg. We moved rapidly through the bike leg and even were able to form a decent draft line, and made it to CP 11 by 9 AM.

CP 11 to CP 12 will be forever known by our team as the Ocala death march. 30 miles of trekking through the Ocala National Forest in the heat of the day. We relieved the monotony by singing to each other, telling stories. Every 15 minutes we would have a mandatory drink, and every 30 minutes we would eat (without stopping of course). The trek was one of those that felt like it would never end. The forest did have some interesting things going on – such as the dozens of monster trucks climbing in and out of mud holes in a line. At the end though we were elated to see the site of the Rodman dam and CP 12. We were also quite pleased to find out that we had trekked it in “elite” time, roughly 5 ½ hours – and had picked up almost 20 places in the standings.

With only 3 segments to go we eagerly entered the water after a 40 minute transition (we did need some rest after that trek), and started down the Lower Oklawaha. This leg was going to prove to be the most challenging. I developed a muscle problem in my left hand and was completely unable to grip the paddle. (Later Kip Koelsch was able to diagnose this problem that had plagued many racers at this point in the race, and offer prevention – if not a cure). I continued by using webbing to tie my hand to the paddle and wrapped a cinch cord around my neck to keep the knot tight. We also tied the boats together at this point as Wil and Paul (in the other boat) were fading in and out. After an eternity we got to the mouth of the St. Johns (around 6 PM) and soon got to deal with high waves and speedboats sending huge wakes (and also completely oblivious of 2 small kayaks). Even with the bad hand – this was the most invigorating leg of the race for me. The spray was coming over the boat – but the skirt kept the water out of the boat and the water was nice and cool. Another 5 miles of open water and we would be out the boats for the rest of the race. Once again – it felt very good to see the crew on the shore waving us in! We exited the water before 9 PM and I was at least real ready to get back on the bikes for our final 40 mile bike leg. We were on the road leaving Georgetown and heading for Tomoka North of Flagler beach – not much to go.

The bike leg went well except for a small navigation error (which cost us 30 minutes). We had a 7 mile sandy leg through the Lake George wildlife management area which was scary at times as we had visions of pushing our bikes though soft sand for 7 miles – but in the end it was mostly rideable. Our pace was slow (12 mph) as with the instability of 2 days sleep deprivation on Paul and Wil, drafting was very difficult. The cattle (startled by bikes) and the hallucinations were keeping me entertained. We kept moving and made the last CP at 2:30 AM.

The final leg was a 7 mile (Molaschi miles) beach run to the finish. For those who have never completed an adventure race and don’t understand team dynamics – it is not 4 individuals who happen to compete together, it is truly a team. We argue, we assist, we get frustrated, we help each other. At this point the team was arguing about whether to run of walk this last leg. In the end we ran most and walked some. We finally crossed the finish line at 4:40 AM with a total elapsed time of 46 hours and 40 minutes.

After that we slept.


Fact: Paul Butler was the oldest competitor to finish the Florida Coast to Coast at 60, and it was his first adventure race ever.

Best Hallucination (from team Nature Calls): The team leader turns around during the Ocala Hike (they did it in the first evening) and saw his team-mates towing their gear in pull-along luggage.

Funniest Moment (for me): My team-mate Sean takes his foot out of the Kayak and puts it in the water to wash the sand off – startling an alligator about 8 feet away, which splashes and sends Sean out of his skin. I nearly tipped the boat laughing.

Best Thanks: All teams are made up of the racers and the crew, and all teams need both. It is impossible to thank the crews enough, they do much of the work; loading and towing bikes and boats and driving across the state. They give back-rubs, prepare food, offer comfort and alleviate misery.

Best Timing: Team Sun-tek which finished the race right at the end of the awards ceremonies to a cheering crowd of all crews and racers for the last quarter mile. David, did you time this on purpose?

A special thanks to all racers – some race against each other, but we all race to extend our own personal limitations, and for the adventure part of the race. And we all know the camaraderie that goes with doing something that most people will never be able to even contemplate or understand.


Team Are We There Yet, left to right: Paul, Sean, Wil, and Ron
Winning four person coed team with crew – Nature Calls (also voted best looking support crew)

Last 4 person coed team crossing the line, Sunday about 10 PM
Very last team across the line – Sunday around 11 PM – a very long day.