Huracan Lite 300 Race Report

 

Hey friends! Thanks for stopping back by to read about my Huracan Lite 300 race. It was a doozie I tell ya. 

The Huracan Lite is a 322 mile mixed surface loop out of Shangri-La campground situated on the Santos Trail System in Ocala, FL. There's also the OG route, now nearly 400 miles with a lot of the same dirt roads but also with nearly 100 miles of singletrack and some awesome water crossings that is more suitable for mountain bikes. 

I raced it last year, finishing in about 30 hours straight through, with a little too much stopped time. My goal this year was a slightly easier pace with less stopped time. In my prep, I planned to tackle the race on a titanium hardtail instead of my gravel bike, as I felt pretty beat up on the gravel bike last year. But, true to form, I decided to change to my gravel bike the week of the race. I kept it super light with only a top tube bag and two feed bags. I carried a Nathan trail running pack with no bladder but instead, warmer gloves, arm warmers, knee warmers, a light rain jacket, emergency bivy, rape whistle, two band-aids, a water filter, and a lighter.

Due to working the Friday before the race, I rolled into the campground at 10:00pm. I readied my things and tried to get to sleep. I woke at 5:45am, made some coffee, screwed up some pancakes again and trashed them (must have non-stick pan), ate some cinnamon raisin bread/almond butter/honey, and stuffed things where they needed to go. Then I stepped out of the toasty van to a frosty 38 degree fog. Shit!

After a visit with Luke Swab and some other friends, I headed over to the start line. There was a 7:30 wave of OG route riders that I was hoping to catch but just missed them. I was lined up at the front with Rasch, Andy, Luke, and a few others for our 7:45 start. I heard Karlos on the bullhorn say something about a time bonus for the hole shot. I'm sure he wasn't serious but you know I went for that...why not?! 

We made our way through a short 1 mile singletrack connector out to the Santos pedestrian path, which was paved. I waited for Luke, Andy, and Rasch to catch up but saw no Luke. Andy said he had dropped something so we kept rolling. After several miles of pavement and then several miles of choppy service road, a small group caught up to us, including Kristin Apotsos, Eric D'Arcy, and Kevin Greten. If I'm forgetting someone, I'm sorry. Anyways, that made a group of 6 of us who would stick together for the next 30-40 miles. I kept hoping Luke might catch up to us but unfortunately I never saw him.

The morning was extremely nice, slowly warming as we pierced intermittent patches of fog mixed with rays of sunshine peeking through. We had many miles of the Withlacoochee Bike Trail which eventually led us to the rolling dirt hills of the Citrus Wildlife Management area. 

Once in the Citrus WMA, riding my own pace, I looked back and the group was no longer with me but I could see them in the distance. I just continued on as I told myself I'd ride my own race regardless of others, focusing on keeping the HR around 125-135. 

After Citrus WMA, I was back on the pavement and making my way towards the first checkpoint at Lake Lindsay Mall which, ironically, is just a tiny old country store with incredible sandwiches. I rolled through the parking lot at mile 58 but opted not to stop there. I snapped my selfie and kept moving, planning to make my first stop at a gas station in Ridge Manor at mile 83, which was our second checkpoint.

Just past LLM, the route turned from south to east and there it was, the head wind that would pelt me for the remainder of the day and part of the night. The next 20 miles were pretty uneventful, making my way through Croom on some limestone roads and then a mixture of gravel and pavement after that, arriving at the Ridge Manor Circle K at mile 83 in about 5.5 hours of ride time and 0 minutes of stopped time. Here, I met Joy Murphy and a friend of hers, who were also doing the Lite route, but had left out a couple of hours before the grand depart. I hurried in and out, refilled bottles, squirrelled food away, and got going again, headed into the green swamp for about 70 miles of dirt/gravel/sand.

Once into the green swamp, I popped the helmet off and attached it to my aero bars. It's nice to just let it hang out. And don't let the name fool you, there was really no swampiness this time; that only tends to happen after lots of rain. It was mainly beautiful limestone roads, service roads, some tilled up, sandy, trashed, fire-break-looking road. I saw Joy and her friend (maybe Alfredo? sorry, not sure) a couple of more times as we'd go back and forth. Somewhere around mile 100, a guy named Chris Thorpe caught up to me at a lightning pace. He said he'd started a bit late and had been chasing all day and was thrilled to hear he'd caught me when I told him I was the leader. He asked about riding together but it was obvious he was much faster and I was sticking to my plan of riding my own race and encouraged him to roll on up the road. And he did, quickly. 

I can't really think of much more to say about the swamp. I listened to a book and watched for wild life and got sun burnt and rode with Joy and co. for a few miles and made it to the Van Fleet trailhead on the other side at mile 150 around 6:00pm, before dark, which was my exact goal. I had about 10 hours of ride time with only 20 minutes of stopped time, which was pretty much what I had envisioned. But, that was about to change. 

After a restroom break, a refill of water, and a short chat with the awesome film crew I was constantly seeing around the route, I started the 17 miles of pavement and short sand section between me and the Taco Bell. 

I arrived at the Taco Bell at maybe 7:30pm, at mile 167, almost 12 hours in. Unfortunately, they took about 20 minutes to get me the 2 burrito supremes and 6 cheesy been n' rices that I ordered (the 6 CBRs were for the next stretch before the next resupply). Another mistake that I made was sitting outside, thinking it would be better to stay "acclimated" to the cooling temps. However, it was windy and I started to shiver and put on my arm/knee warmers, neck buff, and wind jacket. I think I should have sat inside. Rasch caught up as I was almost finished so I waited on him, adding about 45 minutes to my 20 minutes of stopped time. Also, I'd been riding with one glove on for 50 miles or so because I'd dropped one somewhere; Rasch brought it back to me. 

Leaving Taco Bell, we had quite a bit of pavement ahead, riding into Clermont and circumnavigating about half of Lake Minneola. We had to grab a selfie at the third checkpoint at Sun Creek Brewing. After that, it was on to the "Florida Pyrenees" for a section of large paved rollers, including Sugarloaf Mountain, 312' above sea level, and the highest point on the geographical Florida peninsula. Upon completion of this section, we were at the entrance to the Lake Apopka Restoration Area at mile 198 and the time was around 10:45pm. For whatever reason, from Taco Bell to here was my lowest point of the race. I felt depleted and everything hurt and I couldn't fathom another 120 miles feeling the way I did. I decided I just needed sugar, not all those CBRs, so after eating half of one, I just threw them all in the garbage.

I had about 15 honey stinger honey gels as backup for late in the race when I didn't feel like eating anything so I slammed three of them and we headed into Apopka to circumnavigate the lake on the levy while catching glimpses of all the orange glowing alligator eyes along the water's edge. We were also constantly having to dodge sketchy possums that were, well, playing possum. We stopped because I had decided I wanted a hotel; I called two that were near the route in the upcoming town of Apopka but no one would answer at either. Luckily, I started to perk up once we finished this section. 

We made our way through some paved city roads to our next resupply, a Circle K just barely off route at mile 227, probably around 2:00am. Rasch was feeling pretty bad and wanted to lay in the grass for a bit. I just wanted to crush some sugar so I sat inside in the floor and ate donuts and drank milk. As we were about to leave, Kristin, Ben Meyer, and Jeremy Cook caught up to us. We chatted briefly then hit the road. 

We skirted the western edges of Wekiwa Springs and Rock Springs Run State Parks, navigating some tricky sandy double track that was a struggle on my 45c/40c tires, heading north, eventually entering the Seminole State Forest, which is one of my favorite sections in the daylight. Along the way, we caught up to KG who had been in our initial group of 6 early in the race. The three of us rode together, often silent from fatigue. Well, except Rasch...of course he was usually talking, ha!

We exited Seminole State Forest and then found ourselves on some really rough I-don't-know-what-you-call-it road, making our way to Maggie Jones Road, which can be infamously sandy. It was definitely a struggle but I think I rode the whole thing. I arrived at Shockley Heights Country Store, our forth selfie checkpoint, around 6:15am. I had ridden ahead of Rasch and KG so I laid down on the concrete and set an alarm for 5 minutes and closed my eyes, listening to the penetrating sound of all the loud dog barking surrounding me. 

Leaving Shockley, I could smell the barn. Is that the saying? Anyways, we immediately turned onto a sandy ass road that required some more walking but that led us to the 10 mile section of perfectly straight, rolling, dirt/sand road that would take us across Ocala National Forest. The sun started to rise giving us a great view of the storm clouds in front of us and we had maybe the first tailwind of the entire race. I was absolutely loving it. I had checked the radar at Shockley and saw that rain was pushed back to 10:00am, so I made the decision to just step on the gas and go until I reached the finish. 

The headlight of Rasch and KG in the distance

Once across ONF, I entered some new terrain for this years route. I found myself on a large, somewhat soft/soggy grass levy with no beaten path, pedaling along the Ocklawaha River, into a headwind for as far as I could see in front of me. It was incredible and brutal at the same time!

Once through this torturous section, I was back on familiar, pot hole laden roads, headed for another favorite section of mine, Marshall Swamp. It's a 3'ish mile pedestrian path through a low-lying swampy area, leading over to baseline trailhead, which is really close to the finish. Luckily, it was rather dry this year with only the usual soggy spots, so I ripped through as fast as I could, drifting into the berms, having a blast. 

After emerging from Marshall Swamp, there was some paved pedestrian path leading to a 5 mile choppy singletrack connector which leads into the final 10 miles or so on the Santos paved pedestrian path. By this time, the sprinkles were more than noticeable. I pedaled those final 10 miles in a steady rain, ate, drank, and brushed my teeth. I rolled into the finish around 11:15am for a total of around 27h:30m in 2nd place and, to my surprise, heard a few cheers from the pavilion. Kim Ranallo, Jen Colestock, and the bigger Irmantas were there, hanging out, and happy to welcome me back. Thank you all! And thank you, Irmantas, for the beer!  I hung out for a few hours, welcomed Luke, Rasch, and some others in when they arrived, ate some Wendy's, and then passed out in my van from 3pm to 5am. 

Congrats to Chris Thorpe and Kristin Apotsos on their wins, excellent riding!

PC: Kim Ranallo

Thanks to Karlos for all of his diligence with creation of so many amazing routes in Florida, showcasing everything it has to offer. Check out his page and events at singletracksamurai.com

Most importantly, thanks to my wife, Melissa, for putting up with me and allowing these bike adventures. Love you!

Want to rent the adventure van and go on a rad trip?? VistaAdventureVans.com

Want that drip with some awesome bike or golf gloves and apparel for on and off the bike? HandupGloves.com