Inline: 8 States — 3,000 Miles — 47 Days
The untold stories of a woman’s world record breaking rollerblade journey across the U.S.
STORY AND PHOTOS BY MADELINE TAKATA | PHOTOS COURTESY OF KACIE CLEVELAND
It’s June 4, 2012. Day 41 and Kacie Cleveland’s inline skates are submerged in water on a Louisiana highway.
Every stride is met with ankle-deep resistance and she has 700 miles to go. It has been raining for six days straight, but quitting is not an option.
In 47 days, 23 hours and 37 minutes, 27-year-old Kacie will have inline skated from California to Florida, setting a new world record and triumphantly conquering a promised future of never being able to run again.
Had Kacie been told she would skate across the U.S. seven years prior to this moment, she would have laughed in disbelief. She had been athletic her whole life, but everything changed in 2005 when she experienced her first account with heart failure. Kacie, 21 at the time, was out for a run three miles away from home and collapsed on the side of the road.
“Doctors didn’t know why my heart would stop and start again,” Kacie says. “They encouraged that I go into therapy because they were certain I would die. I was in complete denial.”
Several specialists who were unable to solve the mystery behind her sudden heart failures dismissed Kacie, and after months of unanswered questions, they finally narrowed it down to her birth control. The hormonal dosage caused the heart failure, an extremely rare side effect.
“I felt like my life restarted,” Kacie says. “It was a wake-up call. It made me realize I needed to take advantage of my health while I have it.”
Two years after her heart failure, Kacie was diagnosed with compartmental leg syndrome, also known as athletic exertion. This diagnosis ceased all athletic involvement, and caused her to quit track at Cal Poly where she was attending.
“I just remember thinking ‘why me?’ They said I wouldn’t be able to walk or run again. I couldn’t even pick my feet up off the ground,” Kacie says. “When my legs weren’t inflamed, I wore special shoes because I had to drag my feet.”
Kacie’s determined nature motivated her to find alternatives to staying active without creating too much impact for her legs. She turned to the pool where she would place a floatation device in-between her legs and swim solely relying on her arms. From the pool she went onto biking, and from biking she discovered Crossfit in 2008. It served as an alternative to training and she now owns and teaches at Kulshan Crossfit Gym.
Through Crossfit Kacie started stair climbing and slowly began to run again. She teamed up with three others to set the world record for climbing a 42-story building for 24 consecutive hours. In 2009, she conquered another goal — running the Boston Marathon.
Kacie yearned for the runners high, but the condition of her legs kept her from running as frequently as she hoped. This led her to inline skating.
“I would have never stopped running if I didn’t have to,” Kacie says. “Yet going through what I had to made me a better athlete. Skating gave me the same sensation as running.”
A journey across the U.S. was never the original goal, but was created over two years.
Her original plan was to bicycle the East Coast Greenway, a route running from Maine to Florida. When doing research on the route, she saw that it was accessible for bikers, runners and inline skaters. This caught her eye.
Kacie was mapping out her inline journey when a call from Danny Dannels changed her plan yet again. Dannels set the world record in 2002 for skating across the United States in 67 days, and challenged Kacie to beat him. He told Kacie his route; California to Florida, and she accepted the challenge.
On April 28, 2012, Kacie, with her fiancé Adam and best friend Kevin, packed up a school bus they bought for storage and a place to sleep. Kacie jumped in the Pacific Ocean at Solana Beach, California and was off.
CALIFORNIA
She began the trek surrounded by 50 other athletes who traveled from around the country to skate and bike beside her. Kacie’s first challenge of the journey was crossing a mountain pass. The first day of skating consisted of 48 miles and 4,500 feet of elevation. The second day was an additional 1,200 feet.
“Day one was the only time I thought ‘Crap, I don’t know if I’m in shape for this’,” Kacie says. “I was puking, my hamstrings were so tight and I just questioned ‘What am I doing?’”
Kacie recalls those first few days being extremely emotional. Her family and fiancé were convinced she would die. From the intensive uphill route to the dangerous way down the pass, her journey was becoming more daring than imagined.
“Everyone was concerned for our safety,” Kevin says. “The roads were so narrow there was barely any shoulder for us.”
The first two days were behind her and the accompany athletes quit, but Kacie and her best friend Kevin, who biked beside her the whole time, were determined to keep going.
ARIZONA
Arizona consisted of another pass to skate through, a 27th birthday and a lot of police.
“I remember day 12 was the only day I didn’t skate because the police and state patrol were following us threatening to arrest me even though I wasn’t doing anything illegal,” she says.
Concerned for her safety, Kacie’s uncle, who was originally driving the bus, called the police secretively and begged them to stop her. Once the team realized it was Kacie’s uncle who had attempted to stop them, they decided to push forward and dropped him off in the next town. In effort to get through Arizona as quickly as possible, Kacie skated through the night on day 14 with Adam at a vantage point telling her when it was clear of police.
NEW MEXICO
“It was a whole lot of nothing. It was dry, hot, exposed and without shade.”
TEXAS
It took her 15 days to skate through Texas. Heat, dogs chasing her, poor conditions of the roads and headwinds slowed down her progress. Kacie’s compartmental syndrome flared up because of the rocky terrain, which forced her to change her skating pattern throughout the state to create minimal vibration on her legs.
“I would skate in tears and end the day in tears,” Kacie says. “Texas felt so defeating because we would skate for 12 hours and only get 38 miles. It felt like it was never going to end.”
Despite her legs flaring up and their bus breaking down three times Kacie’s friend Anna flew down and bicycled beside her. Kacie’s sister also flew down for two weeks and drove a rental car behind them while the bus was in the shop.
“When Anna came it was as if the roads smoothed and the sun came out, she says. “The support of my team is what got me through those 800 miles.”
LOUISIANA/ MISSISSIPPI/ALABAMA
On day 38 the team crossed over state lines into Louisiana. A change of scenery lifted the team’s sprit as they realized they were getting closer to the end.
“Kevin and I would just sing the whole time and were laughing constantly,” Kacie says. “We set mini goals for ourselves each day, and we even went 200 miles out of our way so we could go to Bourbon Street.”
It rained every day since Louisiana, but the team skated 500 miles along Highway 10 despite aggressive, unfriendly drivers.]
Skating through towns that had been completely devastated by Katrina made Kacie want to absorb everything they saw. They made efforts to enjoy what they were seeing, whom they were meeting and where they were, Kacei recalls.
FLORIDA
Florida was experiencing record breaking floods.
“The rain showers were so intense, Kevin and I would find shelter on random people’s porches, watch lighting strike, and then start skating as fast as we could,” Kacie says.
The last five days of the trek, Kacie skated 350 miles. Waking up at 3 a.m. in the pitch dark on June 15, 2012, Kacie and Kevin powered through in silence determined to finish in less than 48 days.
The clock struck noon and Kacie and Kevin saw Jacksonville Beach in the horizon and powered through with everything left their bodies had to give. They saw their family and friends waiting for them at the waters line, and with only 23 minutes to spare, Kacie touched the Atlantic Ocean and was done.
Tears were shed, celebration was had and Kacie felt surrounded with a level of love and support she will forever be thankful for.
From Florida, after skating a total 2,700 miles, Kacie decided to keep skating up to New York.
“Anything is possible. We had so many odds stacked against us, but our spirits never doubted the goal. For such a crazy dream, and what seems to be an impossible thing, you can do it.”