Runners Hit the Trail Today for the 34th John Holmes 50K at Tucker Hill

Up to 250 runners are lacing up this morning at the Tucker Hill Fire Tower in the Withlacoochee State Forest for the 34th running of the John Holmes Trail Run, a race billed as the Southeast's oldest 50K trail run. The 50K started at 7 a.m., with the 16-mile and 9-mile distances following at 8 a.m. All three loop through the Croom Hiking Trail's sandy singletrack and scrub oak hills just outside Brooksville, with a 3 p.m. cutoff for everyone still on course.

For Hernando County, it's one of those events that has quietly outlasted most everything else on the local sports calendar. The race began decades ago as the Croom Trail 50K, a grassroots fixture among the runners who trained on these same trails year-round. In 2006, race director Jim Bodoh, a longtime Croom regular himself, renamed it to honor John Holmes, a fixture of the trail and the race's founder. The name changed. The course and the crowd it draws did not.

What the course asks of runners

Croom's terrain doesn't have mountains, but it isn't easy. The Withlacoochee State Forest trails are known for loose sand, root-covered footing, and rolling hills that wear on legs differently than hard pavement does. Early October in Florida still brings real heat and humidity, so pacing here is as much about managing effort through soft ground as it is about covering distance.

Race organizers set up three water stops along the course's 7-mile loop, with aid stations offering fruit, snacks, soda, candy, and gels once runners complete their first lap. Runners who want a resupply partway through can send a drop bag ahead to an aid station on that same loop.

Every 50K finisher gets an award, and top finishers in the 16-mile and 9-mile races take home trophies, along with separate masters division awards. Packet pickup ran the evening before at the fire tower and again early this morning starting at 5:30 a.m.

A small race that stays small on purpose

With the field capped at 250 spots spread across three distances, organizers have kept the event intentionally intimate even as interest in trail and ultrarunning has grown across Florida. That cap, combined with the race's reputation as part of the old Croom Ultra Long Trail Series, has made it something of a pilgrimage race for Southeast ultrarunners who want to say they've run the oldest 50K in the region.

Once the last runners clear the course, the post-race picnic kicks in back at the fire tower, with grilled hamburgers, hot dogs, fruit, snacks, and desserts for finishers and volunteers. Free race photos are typically available afterward, though organizers note they aren't guaranteed for every runner.

Stay tuned to our coverage for results from today's race as they come in, and check back for details on next year's registration window, which typically opens well ahead of the fall event.

For more on local happenings like this one, visit the Hernando County Community Website, follow us on Facebook, and join the conversation in our Community Forum. You can also read more sports stories and local events coverage from around Hernando County.

Header photo: DanTD / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0)