Swammie Shuffle 200 Recap: The Party Pack’s Outer Banks Ultra Adventure

I have been running ultras now since 2017 , and I've taken on and finished numerous ultra distances , all the way up through 220 miles , and I am unashamedly a member of the back of the pack , just like many of you listening out there Now .

A little over a week ago , you might have seen or heard that I had an incredible experience back running the Swami Shuffle 200 , a pretty cool

multi-day ultra that really tests the limits . But what made this race truly unforgettable for me wasn't just the miles . Forgettable for me wasn't just the miles , it was the people . And somewhere along the way , the five of us , me included , found each other stuck together and became somehow the self-proclaimed party pack .

And through the highs , lows , a little bit of sleep deprivation , some laughter , a bit of suffering , we tackled most of the second half of the course as a group . So today I am joined by my fellow Party Pack members as we relive some of the craziness , the triumphs and everything in between .

We're going to chat about the race itself , how we ended up coming together , what kept us moving and the benefits of traveling around as a group doing these kinds of events . So buckle up . This one is going to be kind of a fun ride . Let's jump right in . Discover raw , inspiring stories from runners who've been right where you are .

This is the Choose to Endure Ultra Running Podcast with your host he's English , not Australian , richard Gleave . All right , before we get into what went down out there , I think we should start with a quick roll call . So we've got the other four members of the party pack here on the call . Maybe we kick off with having each of you introduce yourself .

Maybe say your name quick , ultra running fact , if you've got one . Anyone want to go first ? Otherwise I'm picking like we do at work . I'm going left to right on my screen . Stephanie , I'm afraid you're first as the last into the group joining the fun here .

Mill 50 miler with him and I said I have no idea what you're talking about right now . And he said , well , it's this 50 miler , not too far from home , and it's at that time in 2012, . It was $47 to register and he said so it's really good value at less than a dollar a mile and you can drop out anytime .

So I said , ok , I'll do it , and that was my introduction to Ultra .

Stephanie , are you going to be there as well ?

I went across the beach with no sleep for the most part . We met him at the Hampton Inn and went across , but the initial plan was for us to sleep at the Hampton Inn and get up and Elizabeth would join me for the last 22 miles . So in all essence , she would have made a 200-mile run last year , minus 20 miles that I did by myself .

So everyone other than you , richard , I met Stephanie at Stone Mill in 2012 . We ran many miles . I remember her friend , dr Z , as we call him . Uh , dr Z loves females . He had a harem of females running with him and Stephanie happened to have one of them . Help me out , stephanie . You had . You had purple hair or green hair back then .

Four days , three days , five days , something like that , and then a couple yesterdays ago , two years ago , elizabeth reached out to me and wanted to know .

The local club that we belong to advertised that I had done in Swami Shuffle and Elizabeth wanted to know more about that and I met her at the coffee shop to show her that , yes , we run along the side of the road , but it's not . I'm very comfortable running on the shoulder . I know Lisa is because a lot of hots or vol states even smaller shoulders .

So , um , I understand this big fear of trucks going by blowing your hats off and blast you in the face and all that stuff .

Like , what , what , what drew you to Swami Shuffle 2025 as opposed to other races out there in the first place ?

And this is the first year that it did work , and so I was really excited that I was going to actually be able to do it , and I've wanted to do a journey run in a winter month as opposed to something in the summer months which I've normally done , so this was a little bit different for me this time .

It was an out and back , so you could kind of divide it up based on that . And so for my mind , as Mike has said over this whole journey was it's a beach vacation . So that just sort of gets stuck in your mind .

You're like oh yeah , I've got a hotel to stay in every night , I've got real food to eat and I know where they're at , going and coming back , and I don't have to sleep in a Dollar General parking lot . So , that was a bonus .

think , though , just mentally , it makes a big difference when you know where your end point is every day and you know you've got some time , I have some downtime there or I'm going to be able to put my feet up or whatever .

When you know that in advance , I think it makes the day more bearable than if you just set out and said I'm just going to run this whole thing and I'm not going to stop until I need to and I've have no idea where I'm going to stop . I think that's more of a challenge than kind of having a defined start finish every day .

How about the rest of you guys ? I think , elizabeth , you talked about not finishing last year and you wanted to definitely come back and make sure you righted that wrong , so to speak . Was that your main driver for signing up this go around ?

It was a really big unknown for me and I learned a lot of where I needed to change things , what I needed to do differently in my training and my preparation , and I'd seen the whole course . So , going into it this year I knew I could do it with the right training . There was really no unknown and I put the work in with the sole goal of completing it .

And Mike and I trained a lot . I did a lot of road miles this year , whereas coming into this last year it was mostly running trails , so the pounding on the pavement really beat me up .

So , I spent the last year doing a lot of walking on roads and running on roads , but yeah , I mean , we've been talking about this all year for the last two years because we talked about it the year before last , going into it , and then again this year just what do we need to do to be successful ? What do I need to do ? Mike is a machine .

He just keeps going , he doesn't stop . But I'm a moral , I needed more preparation .

So what was it that drew you to sign up for a Swami Shuffle ?

For me , the cause really meant a lot , or means a lot . I've been working in military health care and veterans health care for since 2003 . And so I wanted to I don't know just do something more for that community because it's so important to me .

And so the cause mattered a lot and because of that I was very moved by the story that underlies the whole event .

You know the reason for the event the suicide of this young veteran and you know I did cry many times during the event when we encountered veterans , like at a gas station , a veteran approached Lisa and shook her hand and I went to pieces seeing that . That really mattered a lot . It felt like what we were doing was .

You know , it was for us , we were having a beach vacation , but it was also meaningful for other people too . So that was a driver for me .

I really love that and I've got lots of friends and family who are veterans , and just being able to feel like I'm doing something on behalf of that to raise awareness , however I can , is really awesome . But let's not forget Mike , because you've done like what is this ? Was this your third one ?

Last year we were just becoming friends and we did not really communicate . We were very sensitive on each other's toes , if that makes sense . So this year we have a better understanding of what each other's needs are and I did tell her that I was going to stay with her to be successful for her . I know Lisa from past experience .

I see her at Umstead every year . I know what she's able to do . I know chatting with her while she was doing the third circle of hell . She was mentally struggling . The weather was not cooperating . I can only envision what she had to go through in order to complete that .

But I know she's one tough cookie and I've known Stephanie since forever , so I know what she's able to do . So it's a beach vacation .

It did not occur to me . Now there's statistics out there , there's blogs out there . It's written out there that it's more than 220 miles , but I remember running towards the lighthouse oh , dark hours watching that light working and that light was never this is what I was having .

By timing it , I was actually competitive and it was at 98 miles and that was nowhere close to two miles away . Right , yes , when at the finish line that day that year , I questioned it and they both laughed at me , so it's like okay , so I was the fool . So , but the cause per se , right before we got on here , if I can hit you , some statistics .

Statistics , yes , rollcarorg , a 20-year survey . They said 7,057 service people were killed in action Of the 20 years , 30,177 committed suicide of the same time frame . So we're talking a lot and in my personal life . My daughter has struggled with those thoughts so it resonates very heavily with me . So until I can't walk it , I'm going to be John Price .

378 miles in December , and I'm thinking like the Washington DC area . Everything is open 24 hours . For the most part I did not realize things closed down . Things didn't either open during wintertime or things closed down rarely till like four or five o'clock . So it took me two tries to get that race done .

Um , but from this doing swami shuffle , I did homework . I shared my homework with , with this , my little group here of what stores were open , what their hours were , what their phone numbers were , what hotels were there , what miles there were , just because I did not want to get stuck out in the middle of nowhere .

So , or similar to what your experience last year was , I have no desire to sleep in the bathroom or the post office .

My original goal was to try to finish by Thursday afternoon , because my boys had a basketball game on Friday night that I was hoping to get home for , but by Wednesday I'm like , no , it's going to be Friday morning and we're just going to take this easy and then break up the next two days or the last two days .

We're just going to take this easy and then break up the next two days or the last two days . So when I go into these things I think about it by days and number of miles per day that I want to get accomplished . I also had Mike's cheat sheet of mileage and what was open and what was available .

You run the first 22 miles on a beach , you pop out in corolla and then you run straight down . What is it ? Nc12 , the road basically straight down through a bunch of towns to the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse . You turn around and you go right the way back again .

So I do think the lack of places open to get food and water potentially can be a real challenge . Places open to get food and and water potentially can be a real challenge . And there are some big stretches , the beach being the first one right out , and then on your way back which is what was that ?

22 miles , I think , right out the gate where there's no , I mean , it's a beach , so there's nothing . And then you know the the whole p island , bode island stretch , where there's very little open down there . There's one visitor center in the middle of that , but you have to catch it at the right time for it to be open .

So there's a number of stretches that are fairly challenging to do . If you are going solo , if you don't have a crew , if you've got a crew that can move along with you , it's less of a challenge . But I think there are a number of people out there me included I like to do this solo .

I want that experience and that journey , but it is a challenge and you really do have to think about where am I going to stop and what do I need before I carry on . Am I prepped for the next , this 22 mile section where I potentially might not have access to anything ?

So I do think it's an interesting and slightly different race from that perspective , just given the time of year and the location as well . Stephanie , how about you ? What were your expectations coming into this ? How did you like from doing ? You've done a hundred , if I recall correctly , but this would be your first 200 and first journey race .

So when you were thinking about this like , like , how did you try to compute ?

I thought the first section was just fantastic . You know , from when we started to Kitty Hawk , I think we stayed . I stayed at the Holiday Inn Express , which was , I think , 47 miles from the start , and all of that was just very doable , very safe from my perspective . And then I was very surprised on that second day when I encountered all that highway .

I'm just not accustomed to that . I'm accustomed to trail and the shoulder was decent , but for a trail runner it was unsettling that first day . And the bridges were unsettling too . And I think I encountered you that day , richard and that helped me a lot yeah .

Another surprise for me was that I thought that from the KOA in Rodanthe I may be mispronouncing the name of that town , but Rodanthe , rodanthe or something I thought that the round trip to and from the KOA to get around the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse was actually 60 miles . So imagine my delight when I realized I was telling Elizabeth this .

It was like the first time I've ever had a gift like this when I got to the lighthouse and realized , oh , this day is going to be a lot shorter than I was expecting . So that that was pretty fantastic , because I think that was a 48 , 48 mile day . So my prep was , you know , I tried but it wasn't great .

I think it would be much better the next time around . But obviously I had made some , some mistakes if I didn't realize that , you know , there were these long stretches of highway and that I was going to be spared 12 miles on that day to and from the lighthouse , from the koa .

So not sure I'm a good person to ask about prep , but that's , that was my experience .

And I was running with Jeremy that day for , yeah , all of that day , for , yeah , all of that day , and I was really rattled by the roads that that I encountered the prior day . You know just not used to that and also was worried about that being a 60 mile day . So when he texted me at one 30 and said I can't sleep , do you want to go ?

I said sure I can , I'll be ready at two 30 . And that was actually a really cool time to run along that highway . It was at 2.30 in the morning because there were no cars and the stars were fantastic , and I think I would do that again if I just wanted to . Again , I would do a little bit more of the late night running than I had expected .

I hadn't planned for that of the late night running than I had expected . I hadn't planned for that , and it turned out to be really kind of a high point of the whole event . It was just those quiet hours in the middle of the night .

I will say , though , that the the only things that bombed past me on that stretch were these , uh , waste disposal trucks , so every time they whiz by , you get this waft of air , and then the waste disposal stench came with it , so that wasn't super great , but otherwise , yes , lots of quiet time out on the roads , which was cool , and that's quite a good

question actually . Let's go around the group . Everybody's best day and worst day .

But by the time I got I left Elizabeth left with me to go to the KOA from the restaurant and by the time I was in there 15 , 20 minutes , had a shower . I felt so much better and was able to eat and slept pretty good Fantastic much better and was able to eat and slept pretty good . Fantastic after that .

It was my body was just used to being out there and I knew it had , you know , 140 something miles to go yeah , I think sometimes it's just that it's just getting over that hump .

is a big deal in these multi-day races for sure , and just kind of getting into a groove . Elizabeth , how about you ?

First , those first 20 , 20 , 22 miles on the beach . And then I would say , because I had done this a year prior unsuccessfully , and I knew what to expect . I , you know , unlike Stephanie , where you know I can see where that those long stretches on the highway , when you're not expecting that , can really throw you for a loop .

I was mentally prepared for that , so I knew that was coming .

I mean we got up at three or so in the morning , we were out the door sometime around five , but we were getting in early enough that I could take a shower , could relax , could sleep , could eat , could make sure that I was feeling properly . My experience was completely different than last year .

I felt good the whole time and I was really amazed at how my body could recover overnight . My nutrition last year , taking care of my feet last year , was completely different . So I corrected a lot of my mistakes .

And so day three , coming back from the lighthouse , I think knowing that I was sort of surpassing where I had gone the year before , knowing that I was sort of surpassing where I had gone the year before and was going farther than I had ever gone , was a real boost to my mood . Was that on your ?

do ?

It was a completely different experience for me , and so I was amazed at what my body could do . I was amazed at how well my training was paying off and how good I felt .

I wasn't expecting to feel as good as I felt , and so going into day three , which Mike kept saying was the hardest Lisa I think mentioned it once or twice like you got to get through day three because , like mentally , like that was my ending point last year .

So yeah yeah , I think there was a build up for that to get through that and it wasn't nearly as difficult as I was making it out to be prior . So going there and leaving the lighthouse , I felt great . I felt really good and I was optimistic . I knew at that point that I was going to make it .

There was no doubt in my mind that this year was going to be different for me .

I don't know what day that was like one and a half , I don't know but our day three , when we're going out from the KOA back to the KOA , I think it's like I don't know 45 , 46 , I don't know something like that miles , it feels like such a long stretch out and back . I don't know how you guys feel .

That's always for me I had a really good time going out as well . That was my best section of the whole race , I would say . Going out to the lighthouse from the KOA I was able to run . I ran five miles straight on that section which I was absolutely baffled by .

I couldn't figure out how or why I could run that morning , but I did , and then it all fell off coming back . So it was one of my slowest sections coming back from the lighthouse . So it sort of evened out over the two legs .

But it does feel like such a long leg that , especially from Avon back to , for me anyway , from Avon back to where the KOA is in I think it's Waves , might be the town , I don't know , just up north of Salvo , rodanth , yeah , in that area . So yeah , just a good day going out , rubbish day coming back , but I think it evened itself out over time .

Mike , how about you ? You've done this a couple of times , so like you always seem kind of positive , lisa too . I think I told you that , lisa , like , do you have bad days ?

I did , though , stop in avon for an hour at the food lion because I hadn't eaten . I left at 12 45 that morning and obviously nothing open at all . So I went all the way out , 22 miles out , and then all the way back to avon before I could find anything that was remotely open for food .

So I had to stop there and uh , and and get some something to eat , and I looked fairly disheveled and cold and sort of homeless when I walked in there . Um , I had to explain myself to the cashier , yeah , and , and she helped me find some something , rather , but uh , how about . So , mike what , what did you have bad days ?

I think the discussion I had with we were walking out of the lighthouse and it took us six , six and a half hours to get to the lighthouse and I told Elizabeth it's going to take us about eight hours to get back and that that lit a fire in her ass as she went off to the woods because even walking out , Lisa and I watching her walk past us , like

walking out of the state park or the federal , whatever that park is and then she started running . It's like holy crap , she's gone . So I hadn't even gotten out of the state park . You know how that big left-hand turn coming out , coming back down towards Avon , she had already gone around the corner , it's like because Lisa and I couldn't find her .

It's like , did she stop into the bathroom ? Did she stop at the drugstore ? It wasn't until we came around . It's like , do I need to call her husband ? Because her husband wasn't even aware what she had asked him already . So on a mission .

She's probably grateful that she had Drew , but that's a risky thing . I think there's 7-Eleven and Kitty Hawk that's open 24 hours a day , and then there's one might be in Nags Head , but other than that everything closed down .

So if you're not crude , you're pretty well carrying everything that you need until the world starts opening up in the morning , and sometimes you expect them to be opening up regular business hours and they are opening up hours later because there's no traffic . So last year we were trying to get to the Liberty Gas Station .

I knew from calling them they were closing at 8 , and then that day they decided to close an hour early at 7 because there wasn't enough foot traffic , because there wasn't enough foot traffic , and so I did not have the heart to tell Elizabeth , as we're trying to make it to the KOA on day two , that our rest stop at , and then we were supposed to stop at

the restaurant , which was Goodwins , like a mile down the road . Both were closed for the season already . One was closing early and the other one hadn't opened up for the season yet . So I think that took a mental toll . And then I didn't have the heart to tell that .

We walked right past Kim Drake and she had dropped out and I didn't want to tell Elizabeth that hey , she's just taking a little break . You know she's going to get going any moment now and I had chatted with her that apparently her knees were really bothering me . This was last year that she didn't want to , uh , continue .

So yeah , I think , uh , I think , as long as you kind of stay positive and keep positive people around you , you have a better fighting chance . They , I've always been told day three and more people drop out starting day three .

So now I think the koa actually is a great segue into into the next segment . Like , when did we all start running together ? Because it sounds like you guys were already kind of running together on the way down . But I know stephanie and I had we shared some miles on day two over the over the p island bridge and coming in .

When I left the koa on , I'm not even sure what morning it was , was it must have been wednesday morning . I I think I left right behind Mike , you and Elizabeth . I had no idea . Lisa must have gone earlier .

the Wednesday morning ? Were you involved in that ?

And that that's when we coalesced as a group , and for me that was actually the best part of the run . It wasn't day three , it was when we it was starting at that meeting point at P Island and then all the way to the end Just as a side note , by the way I did .

I thought I found $700 lying on the side of the road on the way to that visitor center and I picked up all these hundred dollar bills . But when I scrutinized them later they said something like for motion picture use only . But I had a real rush of excitement in that moment .

Right after that first bridge , I came off that first bridge , saw this , what appeared to be money on the side of the road , picked it up , which delayed me a few minutes because I was walking through the grass picking up these fake hundred dollar bills and yeah and then I tried it to you guys , and so I think what's ?

I was envisioning a party at that hotel in corolla , you know , like let's do dinner , I don't know but we don't yeah but when I looked at them closely , that's when I saw the , the writing that said for motion picture use only . So I'd had the elation and then the deflation before I saw , you guys .

But I know Lisa , I'm going to walk and then her walking is running down the street so I knew we couldn't spend too much time dilly-dallying . We would never be able to catch up with Lisa .

And then when doing laundry the night before in the laundry room I met Stephanie's boyfriend , drew , and he said that told me again Stephanie was going to have challenges going over the bridge . So that was in the back of my head , saying hey , if she goes out with us , we have to make sure that she stays with us over the bridges .

So the first bridge is fine because it's dark hours and very few traffic I was more concerned about . The second bridge is where she caught up with us .

So I bought detergent from the Dollar General and I bought a three-pack of Hanes T-shirts and I took all my clothes off , put my Hanes T-shirt on and proceeded to go down to the laundry room , and that's where I figured at what dark hours no one's going to see me . So of course Drew's doing his laundry there too . So we did chat about it .

It wasn't until the next morning , when Stephanie spilt the beans , that he he told her hey , I saw your friend Mike down there .

But mike you , you did , and I think you know you talked about running , running minimally , I might even have said this to you at some point during the race , but like it seemed like your pack is magic because it never seemed to get any bigger or smaller and you were just like pulling out different outfits from that pack and then suddenly you would appear in a

whole different shirt and pants kind of combo and I'm like where the hell is this thing ? Where , like how do you fit that in your back , in your pack ? It never seems to get any bigger or smaller . Where was all this stuff ?

They're 1980s , they're like bell-bottom but they're super light . If they get wet , they dry immediately for the most part . If they get wet , they dry immediately for the most part . I can probably go 35 degrees before I have to put more insulation on there .

And then in my pack is really a puffy jacket and a rain suit and then , other than the electronics and the toiletries and the first couple of times , the electronics , each , each , each Kwame shuffle . I can't see journey one . I get . I bring less and less because it's like I carry this brick and I never even used it .

So next year I'm not going to carry the brick electric brick and it's like there's enough places that we stop along the way that we could . I could plug in even if I didn't need to , just to pop off my phone .

For the most part , as most of them know , I intentionally left my watch at home because I didn't want to be bothered by like , oh , this is going slower than I want it to , or you know , this section is too long . It's just okay , we know we need to get to this place in the morning . Or , you know , coming off the beach , it's Uncle Ike's Bar and Grill .

I'm going to have a , you know , crab cake sandwich and a pint of beer , and okay , how long is that going to get us there ? And then the year before , elizabeth and I and her husband found bonefish which had great chowder . So that was in South , south , south Southern Shores . So that was in South , South , south Southern Shores .

I made a point to say , ok , I want to stop and have that , even though on the way back we were surprised with Drew and the Duck Donuts .

And they make them fresh there and then , which , which I guess is the the thing about duck donuts .

we missed the timing . And yeah , so that was a huge topic of conversation . We're in Duck . Where are the donuts ?

oh , then now I feel , terrible because I did not pay . I just went and grabbed a refill , so I feel terrible . Sorry , we wings , if you're listening , yes , we , we just uh , we abused that that . Uh , I think when we rolled in there , it's in Duck , is it not ? Yes , I think it's in . Duck . Yes , Wee Wings . But , fantastic place to go visit .

I did last year though , didn't you ? I did mike and elizabeth I I had met last year , uh , along the way . So so I did at least know , know those folks . But yeah , I would agree it was .

It was a lot of fun and I think what was really cool was that you know we spend time with with a person and you talk to them for a while and then you know people kind of come back and forth and you'd end up kind of on your own , maybe for a little bit , or you'd switch out naturally , and you'd end up next to somebody else and so then you'd talk to

somebody else for a while . So I think just the group dynamic like that was great .

We were all always within you know , a short distance of each other , but there was a lot of sort of in my opinion anyway , there was a lot of sort of back and forth and the opportunity to chat with a whole bunch of different people along the way and and just kind of get to know folks , which for me and others at the back of the pack , I think that's

part of the journey , right , it's part of the appeal is just getting to know people and listening to other stories out there . True .

So I have been so impressed with that , With her walking pace , so I have been so impressed with that .

And so when I knew that Wamsi , my husband , was going to be up ahead at a certain point , sometimes I would run ahead or I would walk ahead so that I could do what I needed to do , but not hold up the group when they caught up with me . So sometimes I was doing that and other times I was just hungry . So I was food oriented .

Like when we were coming into I don't know where we were Nags Head , kitty Hawk , somewhere with the KFC .

But do you think like this would be a very different race if you were running this purely solo and I think we talked about mike . Mike talked about this earlier . Like you , you really got to sort of understand where you are and where you're going and what's open along the way . I think this would be a massively different race if you were pure solo .

It would be a completely different experience , I think so .

We expected places to be open that weren't open , or they weren't open for the season yet , or they closed early , and so I just was unprepared , mentally as well as just with what I was carrying and what I had access to , and I don't feel like I'm at the place in my journey to do this solo .

And so I told Mike from the beginning he's like we got to do it again , and I said yeah , absolutely , but I'm going to do it . I'm going to be spoiled . I kept saying that I'm spoiled . You know , I want , I want to know that I'm going to have proper food , I want to be able to change out my clothing if I need to .

I just didn't have the confidence that I could do it unsupported , because I didn't have a great experience last year trying to do it unsupported . I felt like getting the proper training and putting in the miles for me at this stage of the game was enough of an accomplishment .

Maybe down the road I could do something like what Mike does or Lisa does , but for this go-around I really felt like I needed the additional support .

me to put my stuff in their car and I never touched that stuff again . so that was a lesson I didn't need half the crap that I brought , but I packed my fears because you never know what you're going to need .

So I packed too many warm clothes and I needed well , I packed too many like pants and shirts and jackets and I really needed some more shorts because it was a lot warmer than I was expecting it to be on certain days .

So that in itself I think is really interesting to see how people handle that .

But yeah , I just think this , this race to me has always stood out because of those issues we talked about earlier , like there's not a lot of stuff open and there's a few sections that are really long for you not to have food and water , or at least the ability to get it if your timing is slightly off , I think this would be a really challenging race to

try to do completely solo , under your own steam , so to speak . Stephanie , what was your experience ? You had Drew and God bless Drew , he was trying to sell us hard . He went burger crazy on . Uh , was it the tuesday ? yeah coming off the big bridge yeah , monday there you go .

He was selling those burgers hard and they were some good burgers , I have to say , although I only had the fries , and I think I found out later lisa and I might have been eaten from the same fries , but but yeah like what was it so for ? For you um is this something you feel like you could have done without drew ?

So I was , you know , sitting was extremely painful . So I had this kind of strange ride down there , lying down in the back of the car . So I probably couldn't have gotten there if he hadn't , if he hadn't chauffeured me down there with me lying in the back of the car . Interestingly , I had no problems with my back at all during Swami .

So I think sitting is the culprit . That and dragging trees around , I think for the first time no , I don't know .

On the one hand , having someone there for you means that you can leave , you know , like you don't have to wait for the , the wagon to come pick you up when you decide that you've had enough , and so that that was kind of in the back of my mind . But well , I didn't take that route , obviously .

It would be okay , I have drew right here , I could just get in the car and and we could call it quits and we would drive back to wherever right , yeah , I could get to the lighthouse and , in some respects , that's probably more difficult because it because it would be very easy for you to tap out at that point where , if you're a solo and you're halfway to

avon , uh , you know , 90 miles into the race , like what am I going to do here ? Like there's no way for me to go anywhere from from where I'm at . So I mean I do think there's a . It does seem like a benefit to have somebody following you along , and I think you can set your own timeline with that , like you could say .

Right , I'm going to wake up at 1 am and I'm going to start even though there's nothing at all open .

I know that my person is going to be there , shall we say , uh , five miles down the road , so I know I can get food and water , whereas until I sort of morphed into the group , my 1245 set off from the KOA , I knew 100% there was nothing , there was no option to get over . If I'm honest , lisa was talking about you bring what you fear , right ?

So you end up packing all this stuff on you because you're not sure when you might be able to next get at some water or food , whatever . It is so kind of interesting to run this as a solo . Kind of interesting to run this as a solo . Eventually , though , we all kind of made our way up back through Nag's Head , having demolished KFC .

Shout out to KFC and Nag's Head . I don't think they've ever had as many people order as much in one shot as we did when we rolled in . Did anybody have the Taco Bell ? Because it's a dual KFC Taco Bell . I did , lisa you had . How were the tacos ? They were great . Did you take them to go ?

But it really hurts when you've got spicy sauce and sunburnt lips , but it was worth it .

But , yeah , if you're going to do this race , make sure you take a sunscreen and be lip balm . Those two things we're going to are going to see . See you , right , and I don't know that I packed enough of that . I had to stop at the 7-eleven for some sunscreen , uh , but I even I had lip balm and it , like you , got to have the what do you call it ?

The sun protection spf . Yeah , exactly , you got to have that in your uh , in your lip balm as well . But , yeah , so you , you pretty much demolished that , lisa , because just up the road then that was your Black Pelican stuff . So that wasn't too much . After the KFC feast , shall we say that we all had . So , yeah , it was a pretty hungry day .

It was For sure , for sure . So we made our way back up . We went back through Duck , southern Shores , up through Duck into the Hampton Inn .

I thought this was a really interesting quirk of this race versus previous races and , mike , you might be able to comment more on this , having done a few of these in the past but this year we were absolutely not allowed to go back through the last six miles of the course on the beach and then off the beach to the finish through the wildlife preserve , the

Back Bay Wildlife Preserve , because of permits , and in previous years I don't know if I'm probably doing the race wrong , but we'd sort of skirted around that a little bit .

I thought that was a really interesting and different mental challenge and I feel like we had a lot of group discussion about this going towards that spot and I wondered how other people approach this . But yeah , I , just how did you guys feel about that ?

So once we figured out what time we needed to leave the hotel , and then we just adjusted it based on the weather forecast , so we knew between 12 and 12.30 am we could leave and not get wet .

I think Elizabeth was . I sat with yourself and Christina . We were just chatting and I was like this is really weird . We're just sort of sitting sat with yourself and christina , we were just chatting , and I was like this is really weird . We're just sort of sitting waiting for I don't know how long we sat in in the hotel .

So the hampton inn is about it's kind of the last realistic hotel . You've got before the finish line and , for folks listening

, it's about 32 miles from there to the finish and the last six of those is through this reserve . So you've a bit of mileage to go to get to the wildlife reserve first and then the last six miles to to the finish through it and out the other side . So so , yeah , it's just . I think I was .

I think I was with yourself and christina at the time who took over from wamsi as your crew , and we were just saying this is really weird . We're just sort of sitting here , I think , because we arrived at the hampton inn uh , miles from the finish , I don't know . Two , three , three o'clock , two o'clock in the afternoon .

So yeah , it was just this weird block of time where we didn't know what to do with ourselves , because had it not been raining , we could have left at nine o'clock and we could have timed it so that we would have arrived at the reserve at sunrise and continued on , but we had the rain to deal with , so it was an unusually long period of time .

I mean , mike and I went and were alternating between the hot tub and the pool , you know , just trying to kill time , took a rest , tried to take a nap , but it felt weird , it felt like cheating in a way .

It's like , you know , we're in this , this multi-day race and we're like hanging out at a hotel in the swimming pool and it's like what are we doing ?

You got a time . You can't just keep going , keep going , keep going . You got to stop and say okay , what Nick did ? Nick Yates did ? He went to the beach towns up before the state line . He was up in that area .

But even the faster folks you know , I think Michelle , lisa , katie and others who were up front , they all bunched together at the hotel too and waited .

So you ended up with these big clumps of people sort of finishing together , where , certainly last year when I ran it , and probably years before , people were just coming in as as and when they as and when they finished it .

It's a very unique situation .

You were only half an hour behind , maybe that ?

So thank you , lisa , for keeping me from going all the way to who knows where on that beach .

But at that point when you're 218 miles into a 220 mile race , especially if it's , if it happens to be dark which maybe that won't happen again , because it seems like it'll always be light now , given the parameters around the finish but in the dark that trail is really hard to pick out , even though you kind of know where you're going with those posts at the

end . So yeah , I just wanted so we each finished . Are there any big lessons or things you feel like you've learned from finishing that race ? Now that we're what ? A week after , and everybody's uh sort of had a little time , lisa's gonna run 18 miles again today , which put us all to shame . What is ?

What is a lesson that you've taken away from this race , if any ?

which is what I did last year , and , like Mike , I packed stuff this year again that I didn't end up using . So every year it sort of gets less and less , but I guess it's . I guess maybe that's race specific .

But I was okay with that because I did not want to get wet and soaking and cold again as last go around . And then Mike and his magic bag , which stuff disappears in it and it's forever light . So I need one of those bags , mike . Anyone else got a big lesson or something they've taken away from this that they feel compelled to share ?

And you know , everyone takes a week off because we don't know when we're going to finish , and it allows .

I know there's some people who , as soon as they finish , they get in their car , they race back home again , but there's a handful of us who , regardless of when we're going to finish , we know we're going to head out Saturday because we've taken the entire week off and it's just nice to be able to talk with other runners and share experiences with it .

So I'm hoping they can continue getting different houses every year that they put this event on .

Afterwards you can kind of commiserate or celebrate or whatever you need to do .

You get to meet so many interesting people and I love that too , that it's not just us , towards the back of the pack that hang around , that you know there's the michelles and others michelle gray and rick um who are , you know , really good runners , very good runners , but they hang around and they and that house is so close to the finish line that people can

come back to the finish line and cheer everybody in . I think that that's just from a community standpoint , that can only help that race . It's just tremendous .

I got FOMO when everybody else was signing up and then I was like , oh shoot , I'm going gonna have to put my name on uh , just to have it on there , you know .

can't place my hand on it , but I think everyone tends because maybe it's the colder months or maybe it's more isolated you tend to be more aware of people around you and make sure that everyone is around you , that everyone's doing okay .

Typically it's something family friendly to lift you up or motivate or just sort of keep you moving while you're out on the trail . Now I did throw that out to you guys . Um , maybe we'll go around the table real quick and so what song did each of you pick and maybe why did that song resonate particularly with you ?

Mike , I'm gonna start with you , because I think you sent in about 15 songs , so pick one If you really think ?

So I obviously that a beautiful day , other than the snow in the beginning . Every day , weather-wise , was a beautiful day . Yes , we had our highs and lows , but weather-wise we were not in the rain . Yeah , it was a little windy here and there , but uh , every day for runners it was perfect .

So here comes the sun , the beatles we'll get that one on there . Yeah , elizabeth , how about you ? Did you pick a song ?

I I will listen to music if it's like at night and 100 , and I need a little boost or I'm at the end or something , but I was just really engrossed in Dodging cars . Yeah , dodging cars ? Yeah , definitely that , but just the experience , you know , looking at the scenery and I don't know , but I did listen to Imagine Dragons

Take Me to the Beach leading up to the event . I think that's who does the songs and I love , I really love a song from the early 80s . I think it's who does the songs and I love , I really love song from the early eighties . I think it's Frankie Smith . It's double Dutch bus , yeah .

But my song is by Miley Cyrus , the Climb , because it's really not about getting to the finish , it's always about the journey . So that's why I like the song the Climb .

If you're picking it , I'm sure it's great , especially with that message behind it . Absolutely Good job . Well , this has been an absolute blast . Huge thanks to all of you for taking the time to relive our crazy journey with me .

I think it's one thing to finish a race like Swami the 200 miler , but it's something else entirely when you get to share it with some amazing people like yourselves . So thank you very much to all the listeners out there .

If you are grinding through miles , struggling in the back of the pack or wondering if you too can take on something particularly crazy , let this be proof that sometimes the best experiences come when you deliberately choose to run with others .

I think , if I'm not mistaken , the sign up for the 2026 Swami shuffle opens on April the 1st , which is a great yeah , great day for the race uh , for the race to open up signing . I wonder if they thought of that and did that deliberately . But either way , I'm pretty sure it opens on April the 1st .

So make sure , if you're listening , you head over to Ultra Sign Up and get your name in the hat as one of those 22 , or maybe 30 if they're opening , expanding it up again and be on the lookout for it . While you're out there browsing the internet , don't forget to subscribe to this show and that way you'll get notified each time a new episode drops .

And if you're enjoying what you hear , please do follow , share , maybe even leave a review . That would mean the world to me . Your support helps grow the podcast , connects more runners to this amazing community and spreads the word to those who can benefit from the information that we share .

Right here , you can find us on Instagram and Facebook at Choose to Endure , or visit anytime at choosetoendurecom . I absolutely love hearing from you guys , whether it's just to say hello , suggest a topic or even share your story so that we can talk about it on air here . You can email me directly at info at choosetoeenjoycom .

Absolutely love interacting with you guys . It's one of my favorite parts of doing the show , so definitely don't be shy about reaching out Until next time . This is the Party Pack . Check it out , run long , run strong and keep choosing to endure as a group .