2025 Southern States 200

This year’s Southern States 200 promised an accumulation of elevation gain, made-to-order aid station food, and volunteers who understand the unique creature that is ultrarunning, and it didn’t disappoint. The race began Wednesday, March 19, near Dalton, GA, with some community chat time and a race debrief, followed by a 12pm start (along with a few cuddles from Brice, the golden retriever therapy dog, owned by Rob, one of my fellow ultrarunners).

During the first few hours, several of us remained clustered together and we spent quite a few miles chatting about life, work, running stories, and goals. After the first aid station, however, we began to spread out (as is the nature of point-to-point races) and most of us spent the next several days rarely seeing another runner. To avoid being alone for hours in the dark and 30-degree misty rain, I opted to rest earlier with my running buddy, Amber Orman. Rest strategies are always a gamble; you don’t know until later in the race if your choices were good decisions. Since I ultimately finished the race, I’ll call it a win!

Southern States provides a good combo of terrain, from rocky and rooty climbs to smooth, rolling single track, to cushy mounds of pine needles that you can nearly ski through. It’s roughly divided in half, with the first 100-ish miles taking place in Georgia and the last 100-ish in Alabama.

Although the nights were colder and wetter than I anticipated, the days were beautiful and the biggest issues were, as always, related to sleep deprivation. Thanks to my crushin’ crew – Andrew Brydon, Will Griffith, Tommy Acierno, and my coach-with-the-most, Peter Mortimer – I powered up on “pocket tots” and lots of laughs and finished the race in 88 hours 34 minutes, ate a bowl of homemade potato soup at the Bald Rock Lodge finish line, and promptly fell asleep.

Thanks to RunningLane of Huntsville, Alabama and Southeastern Trail Runs of Birmingham for putting on a great race and to my cosmic crew. You make all things possible!