Green Beret Fitness (GBF) Operation OCALA ’24

2024.01.13 1700

Overview

Operation OCALA tests candidates to complete 65ish miles through the Ocala National Forest in Florida in under 24 hours. Candidates must carry 25 pounds in their pack prior to packing food and water. There are five Checkpoints with water replen and small snacks. You are required to follow the Florida Trail, identified by orange trail markers. Operation OCALA 2024 was sponsored by Born Primitive Tactical.

I completed Operation OCALA in 2023 in 22 hours and 33 minutes.

Training and Preparation

Gym Workouts, walking, running, hiking, and mobility. Starting on Christmas, I took a short gym break and went on hikes for five days. Most were regular hikes, but I added a day with extra weight. My longest hike was a little over 14 miles during that week. It was a great week off from work.

The week leading up to race day I did light weight workouts on Monday and Tuesday and then stuck to walking and packing for the remainder of the week.

I spent a lot of time on Wednesday afternoon and evening getting my gear ready. Last year, I wasted a lot of time at checkpoints digging through my pack for gear. This year, I wanted to be more efficient to speed up my checkpoint stops.

Travel

I flew out of LAX on Thursday morning, landing in Orlando in the evening. I opted for flying during the day this year rather than overnight to get better sleep.

Crosby and I drove to the AirBnb we booked with Moogie, Moogie’s Dad, and Kevin. We kept the AirBnb through Monday. It was nice to have a place to keep our stuff, decompress after the event, and do laundry before flying home.

Gear

Starting Outfit

Pack: VOG Global Assault Ruk

From the bottom of my pack up

• RecPak meal, Lifestraw, Red Dry Bag: spare Altra Lone Peaks with Woxers stuffed inside
• Emergency Shelter, 2.5kg plate, 1L Emergency Nalegene filled with water, Rain Jacket, Light Green Dry Bag: extra medical items, duct tape, shoe laces
• Blue Dry Bag: t-shirts and sports bra, Dark Green Dry Bag: socks, spare headlamp, ID + cash, spare batteries, spare bladder mouthpiece
• 3L Bladder with water slid into the middle, bag of food placed on top of that, and Vog Global hoodie jacket on top of that

Pockets

• Front Pocket: med kit, base layer, tape, Garmin InReach, hand warmers, sunglasses, battery packs
• Side Pocket 1: bear spray, knife, flashlight
• Side Pocket 2: 20L bottle w/LMNT, snacks
• Front belt pockets: salt tabs, Leatherman, snacks
• Other: NEBO light clipped on left shoulder strap, chem light attached to back

Nutrition

Pre-Race

• Friday: large diner lunch, rice bowl for dinner, and a few beers
• Saturday morning: acai bowl
• Saturday afternoon: Subway 12″ + chips + cookie

Race

• 3L water in Bladder
• 20oz LMNT in bottle – refilled throughout
• Packed 2 large Snickers, 1 large Reeses Fast Break, 3 Honey Stinger waffles, 2 Clif Blox (1 caffeinated), 2 Uncrustables, 1 ONE Bar, Swedish Fish, 4-5 Welchs fruit snack packs, extra LMNT + Liquid IV, 2 Sport Beans (1 caffeinated)

I drank a minimum of 5 liters of water before Checkpoint 3. I ate 1 Snickers, all the Honey Stingers, 1 Blox (caffeinated), 1 Uncrustable, a ONE Bar, and 1 Sport Bean (caffeinated), 3-4 fruit snacks. Additionally, from checkpoints, I ate two bananas and a few chewy bars.

Reflection: I still needed to eat more and eat earlier. I did follow my advice and ate food from checkpoints, but should have taken more. The bananas started to mess with my stomach, so I switched off them.

I drank a lot of water and arguably either too much or not enough salt. For long durations, I had to pee every 20-30 minutes. I am pretty quick with this, but it adds up when you have to stop for ~30 seconds over and over again. I needed more salt based on the water I was taking in.

Admin

I did a lot of tasks before heading to the trailhead this year. I taped my feet and put in contacts. I didn’t have to do anything to my pack because of the prep I did leading up to event day. I finished packing on Friday afternoon. We parked near the toilets before heading to Admin and the Start Point. I used the bathroom, brushed my teeth, and put my shoes and socks on.

Admin was straightforward. We showed proof of specific items on the packing list. I knew this was a part of check-in so I had my items accessible. We were given ample time to repack our packs. Everyone then was required to weigh their bags. Packs had to be 25# before adding food and water. My pack came in just over 26 pounds. The extra pound likely came from the extra battery pack and flashlight. They weren’t something I needed, but it’s better to do something and not need it than need it and not have it. I could have also switched to a 5lb plate rather than the 2.5kg, but it wasn’t a huge deal.

We had ~30 minutes before we started, so I went to the bathroom again. I jogged around a little to make sure my shoes were tied comfortably and checked that my pack weight was evenly distributed. I lined up near the front of the Start Point.

50 candidates started at 1700.

Goals and Strategy

My 2023 goal was to pass (finish in 24 hours). I completed 2023 in 22h33m and predominately walked/rucked the entire race.

This year, I wanted to push myself to my edge. I recently reflected after Operation DARK HORSE that I should be setting tougher goals for myself. The fact is that I’ve already finished OCALA, so I felt like I had nothing to lose. My goal was to finish 2024 in under 20 hours. This comes to under 18min/mile.

My strategy was to bust out some miles in our limited daylight. I planned on doing a 1:1 run-to-walk strategy of 1mi, 0.75mi, 0.5mi, 0.25mi, and repeat. Shout out to Sean for this recommendation. I would continue this until it didn’t work anymore. I also planned on including some time-based intervals between running and walking. I also knew I had to stay in tune with my body to determine when to adjust.

The Race

In my 2023 AAR, I recapped OCALA split out by Checkpoint segments. This still feels like the best breakdown.

SP to CP1 (13 miles)

We kicked off at 1700. Myself and a few others started at the front of the pack. The first part of the trail is a little narrower, so if you plan on running, it’s more comfortable to start up front. Crosby planned on sticking together. I started in a T-shirt and took my gloves on and off to keep my body warm.

I went with the 1:1 plan to start. We were strong off the bat and started to create distance from the straight ruckers. We followed the beautiful orange trail markers and stayed on track except for a slight deviation

Then my watch beeped – “off route.” We were clearly on a trail, but there were some weird splits early on. I opted to trust my technology, even with my advice to everyone to “just follow the trail and the orange blazes.” We bushwhacked around. This one was on me. We were on the trail before, whoops. We found our way back and bumped into Marissa and her group. We leapfrogged for a bit and eventually pulled ahead. We generally continued the 1:1 intervals but also took advantage of the ever-so-slight downhills.

At some point, while it was still light out, I misstepped and rolled my ankle. Crosby checked to make sure I was okay. I didn’t think anything of it at the moment. I do this occasionally while I’m hiking. I just shook it off as a misstep. The only thing I could think was to stop talking shit about people, which I was doing at the moment. Heard, Mother Nature, heard.

We moved quickly and only stopped to grab Crosby’s headlamp and my light clip. We continued running when the ground felt good. We got to CP1 just after 3 hours. I filled my water, which was lower than I thought, ate a banana, opened up a granola bar to start to eat as I was going to step off, and moved food from the main compartment in my bag to more accessible locations. And then waited. Crosby told me to move along if I was ready to go. I waited a little longer and then obliged.

Reflection: I should have left CP1 quicker. I hung around for an extra minute or two while waiting for Crosby to get through his stuff. I knew he planned on taking more time than me. If I was going to stay, I should have utilized the time. Either way, he was capable of catching up on the trails.

CP1 to CP2 (15 miles)

Just off the first checkpoint, there is a split. I started a few steps in the wrong direction and backtracked to the right trail. Crosby then caught up, but we were slightly off from each other. I swore I saw an orange blaze. We ended up in some brush. We found our way back on track relatively quickly. It’s easy to get lost.

I continued mixing in some running. My hip felt a little funky; running was better than walking. Shortly after this, I’m not sure exactly when, but sometime before mile 20, Crosby and I were no longer together.

At the lake or marsh or swamp… honestly, I don’t know what this thing is. Brock caught up to me (I think we had passed him at CP2). I could see his headlamp bobbing behind me. This area is neat because if other athletes are around, you generally know where they are. Based on my pace in the sand and focus to stay on the trail, I knew he was going to catch up. Suddenly, I ate shit, tripping over something on the ground. There was a yard sale of my gear on the trail. I hobbled forward a little, observed some tents, and knew I wasn’t in the right place, and then Brock was there. We both missed the turn. Again, Nature did its job and let me know I’d made another mistake. It would be nice if she was a little nicer in her approach.

At some point, I decided to do run/walk time intervals. I was getting a little distracted, starting to feel some aches and pain, and felt like this was a satisfactory way to focus my attention and not look at the time or distance that passed. Shout out to Moogie for the recommendation to which my response was, “I hate intervals.” I did 1:4 minutes running to shuffling. The four minutes felt like it lasted a lifetime, but my body and brain responded well. I planned to do this for 45 minutes. One or two intervals to the end, I had to go to the bathroom badly. This may have been just before CP2 or earlier on before the water.

Soon enough, I was at Checkpoint 2. It was a little after midnight. Gregg casually mentioned that I was moving a lot faster than last year. At this point, who I assumed was the first female was struggling and could not get warm. I left salts from my bag since I wasn’t sure what the situation was. I put on my jacket. Filled my water, which was almost empty. Grabbed another banana and pocketed a bar. I moved around food again and took off my jacket. I peeled the banana and started moving and eating.

Reflection: The last few miles of this block got a little feisty. I had anticipated this for the next block, but not here. I made it through but got a little ahead of myself by thinking about what was coming next rather than being in the moment.

CP2 to CP3 (15 miles)

I planned to limit my “watch watching” until the log appeared. I wasn’t feeling great at this point and this stretch is a long haul. I got to the water. There were some campers watching movies in their tent. I made it most of the way across and soaked my feet at the end. Awesome.

It was about 2 am. I texted my husband Scott and mentioned my foot was hurting, but not to worry because now it was cold and numb from the water. I love some dark humor in the middle of the night. Now to my point. He is a reiki master (One Heart Way), amongst other healing modalities, and I am always open to accepting remote healing from him. I like that I have him for this. GBF events don’t allow a typical “support crew.” This gives us a way to stay connected and for me to have “support” during races.

At this time, I also noticed a message saying that Marissa was coming for me. I knew her group probably wasn’t too far back from me based on the knowledge that they came into CP1 just as Crosby was leaving. I started to feel competitive but kept my wits and game plan. My goal was sub 20 hours. I did not want to burn out or make rash decisions. If she was going to catch me, well then, she was going to catch me.

At a certain point, I needed to pee at intervals that felt like every 20 minutes. I was taking in enough water but not enough salt. I became efficient at stopping, but it was frustrating and painful if I tried to push through the feeling of having to go.

Two to three is a mind fuck. It’s long. It’s dark. And at least some of it is during the coldest part of the night. I incorporated another round of time intervals at a 1:3 minute run-to-walk ratio. Besides that, I kept switching to whatever movement was feeling the best. I aimed to hit Checkpoint 3 at 4 am (~4mph pace) but couldn’t sustain the pace. I ended up pulling into CP3 a little before 5 am.

I put on my jacket, filled my water, chugged some LMNT and replaced it, moved around food, grabbed a few pocket snacks, repacked my jacket, and left quickly.

Reflection: Throughout the latter half of this time was the first time that I considered dropping out. My foot was hurting. My head wasn’t straight. I had every excuse in the book ready to go. I still had a marathon distance after I got to CP3. Checkpoint 3 is a common dropout location. I got in before the 12-hour mark, so I told myself I couldn’t drop – our briefing stated no (non-injury) pick-ups before 12 hours. I let these negative thoughts go. I connected back to self and refocused on the task at hand. There was no way I could walk into that checkpoint with these thoughts in my head.

CP3 to CP4 (12 miles)

First things first. I knew there was a water crossing. And this time, no log is there to help you across. I keep grinding and waiting to run into this water. I am well aware that my pace is slowing. I keep going with the flow and finding ways to keep my body as happy as it can be.

I turned my thoughts during this time toward appreciation for the work I had put in. Last year, I got to Checkpoint 3 right around sunrise. I was well past this point while it was still dark out. I was proud as I thought through this and kept moving.

Eventually, I ran into some water on the trails, which I was familiar with. At one, I purposefully stuck my foot in to see if it would numb it. It may have been a placebo, but at the moment it helped. I stomped through some other water, less on purpose. I ended up at the picnic tables where I met the “Hey Bear” crew last year. I crossed paths with Brock again. Shortly after the road crossing, I ended up passing by him.

I took another moment to myself when I hit 50 miles to recognize that the sun still wasn’t up. It was a rewarding experience to reflect on how far I’ve come in a year. I was still going to the bathroom – a lot. I felt like I was wasting a lot of time. I stopped drinking water until I felt thirsty and tried to take in more salts.

Just before 7 am, I heard, “Hey, I’m coming up behind you. Don’t freak out. I’m not a bear!” And Marissa was flying by. All I could say was, “Hell yeah! You got this girl.” She looked strong. A common race strategy is to look strong when passing by another athlete, but this was the last time I saw her. It wasn’t a tactic. She was moving and wasn’t stopping.

I was tired, but the sun was encouraging. It didn’t warm up too much, which was pleasant. I was aware I was in 4th at this point, 2nd female. And I wanted to keep this place. I knew I wasn’t catching Marissa at the pace I was moving, but wasn’t stopping to do anything unless I was around a corner and felt like I wouldn’t be seen by Brock coming up from behind – to try and keep an illusion distance.

I saw Jay (jayknickerbockermedia), responsible for the awesome photos and videos, through the trees. I thought about putting on a smile because I was content (and cameras!), but out came my thinking face as I started going through my checkpoint plan in my head, which was more important.

I wasted no time at Checkpoint 4. I knew I wasn’t filling my water if I had at least a half-full bladder. I refilled my LMNT. I grabbed a pocket snack and headed out.

Reflection: I started to fall into the trap of coming up with why I couldn’t keep pace. I had plenty. It’s not worth getting into it. The race results were going to be the results. I only could keep running my race. So that’s what I did. I kept running my race and set my ego aside.

CP4 to CP5 (12 miles)

I was getting sleepy. I popped caffeinated snacks occasionally but tried to control taking in too much. I really could have used a Dark Horse Truck Bed Espresso. I kept moving. I knew I was moving slower than I wanted, but it was just the home stretch. I think this was around the time I threw on Sally McRae’s Choose Strong Podcast to have some voices other than my own in my head. It was an hour of relief away from my occasional internal existential crisis.

I noticed that my back was torn up from running with my pack. It’s something I need to figure out. Anyway, I’ve mentioned before that it’s natural for us to finish things at specific intervals (see Operation BUCKWHEAT). So, I set my new goal to finish by noon – before the pizza place opened! This time goal would keep me in check to stay at a reasonable pace.

When there were slight downhill sections, I took advantage and moved “quickly” through them. I had my gloves and hat still in my pants pocket. I planned that at the quick checkpoint, I would stamp and take everything out and shove it into my pack’s outer pockets. I did just that, stamped my card, and headed off.

Reflection: I don’t have much to reflect on for the last 12 miles. I was moving and enjoying my time. I ran into a few kind people and was grateful to see other humans enjoying the trail. I probably looked like a zombie, but they were still nice to me.

CP5 to Finish (<1 mile)

I turned up the road to start on the last stretch. Even though the road was busy, I stayed on the shoulder – it felt nice to be on solid ground. I wanted to finish strong and not be stumbling across the finish line. I planned to run as much as I could.

As I turned the corner and knew the pizza place was off in the distance, I felt a strong wave of emotion overcome me. I was extremely proud of myself. I snapped back to reality and kept pushing – it wasn’t over yet.

I saw Gregg, Peanut, and Jay at the finish and suddenly heard “Nice, we’re going to make it in under 19 hours!” behind me. I glanced back to see Brock coming up. At that moment, I knew I wouldn’t let him pass me. I turned it on and ran through the finish line. My final time was 18h50m, a 3-hour and 43-minute PR.

Reflection: After Operation STIRLING, I realized that I could do more. Post-Operation DARK HORSE, I reflected that I needed to set higher goals. I created a tough goal for OCALA. And then I pushed beyond what I thought I was capable of doing. This is why I felt emotional just before the finish line. That moment was for me. I earned a lot of respect for my mind, body, and spirit.

Helpful Links

• AllTrails Navigation
• Split Times

Personal Reflection

“Your emotions are messengers, not dictators”

We often say we “can’t” do something. After 67 miles of rucking, it would have been easy to keep walking instead of running. I proved to myself that I could do it. If we only went through life basing our decisions on emotions, we wouldn’t get anything done.

Think about the act of going to the gym. If you only rely on motivation, you’ll probably end up staying on the couch more often than not. Emotions can be both good and bad. It’s okay to recognize and acknowledge them. But we shouldn’t feel tied to them and allow them to dictate our every move.

Lessons

1. When it starts to get uncomfortable, try not to feel sorry for yourself. I told myself this multiple times when I started listing my problems and excuses.
2. Know your gear. In 2023 I lost a lot of time sifting through my bag for gear and lost valuable time, plus it made me colder. This year I knew where everything was and was able to move efficiently and with purpose through checkpoints.
3. Run your own race. It’s important to stay focused on your goals and not get sidetracked by someone else’s race. Being adaptable is a great attribute, but adapt for yourself, not for others.

Final Thoughts

Gregg was extremely disappointed when we had perfect weather for OCALA. It wasn’t too hot and wasn’t too cold. I think it’s sprinkled for 12 seconds, max. It was the perfect weekend to test yourself and push yourself to the limits. I would be surprised if OCALA ever has a weekend like this again.

A strong field and great weather led to a higher-than-average completion rate. It was exciting to see incredible athletes out there competing. Will I race OCALA again? The jury’s still out.

Until the next. ⏳🧂🫡

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