Inside Southbound 400, the Wild, Unsanctioned Relay Race from Canada to NYC

The Empire State Trail draws a gigantic, sideways T across New York State. Three hundred and fifty miles from Buffalo to its sole junction in Albany, where 400 more miles of linked rail trails, towpaths, and road shoulders trace a continuous route between Manhattan's Battery Park and the Canadian border. Many of those miles are calm and bucolic, passing through rolling farmland and sleepy upstate towns. But if you head out onto the route in mid-May, you might encounter a rare and recent phenomenon: a horde of runners clad in hi-viz vests, hurtling southward at breakneck paces. You've just become the unknowing spectator of Southbound 400, an unsanctioned, multi-day, team relay race from Canada to NYC unlike any other running event on (or off) the books.

Inspired by a New Trail

Southbound 400—SB400 or just Southbound, for short—is a nascent affair; 2025 was the third time the race has been held. The event, like today's running boom, flowered out of the misery of the pandemic; that's when Matt Roberts first heard of the Empire State Trail, which had been a disconnected chain of existing thoroughfares until the final links were put in place at the end of 2020. Roberts, a triathlete and ultra runner, began having conversations with a group of like-minded athletes and friends who shared a connection to MOTIVNY, a physical therapy and coaching practice in New York's Lower East Side, about using the route as a venue for a race.

Something like three months after those first talks, five teams of runners toed the starting line in Rouses Point, a small town on the edge of Lake Champlain and a port of entry between the US and Canada. The Southbound 400 formula has been fine-tuned over the past three years but the basics are the same: teams of eight take on the entire north-south length of the Empire State Trail in three stages over three days. In NYC, at the end of day three, the total times are tallied up and a winner is declared.

Southbound is, strictly speaking, an unsanctioned event. There are no barriers, aid stations, or police officers stopping traffic. But there are still rules. For SB400, teams must consist of eight runners, including at least two female-identifying members. Additionally, two crew members are mandatory but no more than four are allowed. One team member must be on the trail at all times. Loss of assigned GPS trackers (SB400's version of a relay baton) results in a penalty. No shortcuts. Fastest time wins.

The nature of the race calls for some stealth, too. Vehicles—each team is allowed two for support and swapping—can't display Southbound branding and have to obey all traffic laws. If anyone asks what's going on, (sprinting five-minute-per-mile paces for 400 meters and hopping into a van for someone else to take over being, according to Roberts, "absolutely abnormal to a lot of the areas we're going through"), just say you're out for a run. Safety is a big priority, and participants are provided high-visibility vests made by Miler Running to wear before dawn, after dusk, and anywhere the Empire State Trail traverses road shoulders where a 55moh speed limit is posted.

Unlike Other Unsanctioned Races

Stages are what make Southbound unique among other unsanctioned relays. The Speed Project is perhaps the best-known event in the category, seeing more than 500 teams attempt to cover the 340-mile distance between Los Angeles and Las Vegas via whatever route they choose (there are also Speed Project races in Chile and France). Even with its team format, TSP is known as a solitary physical trial, a misogi, a slog. Roberts and SB400's co-founders had in mind an event with more of an emphasis on community.

"We wanted to offer something in a similar vein here in New York but that would offer an opportunity for people to come together," Roberts tells me. The teams camp together—tents are provided and set up by the organizers—and there are nightly bonfires. Pizzas and burritos—a lot of them—are brought in from local restaurants. This year, the Knicks were in the playoffs, and everyone packed into a cabin to watch the game.

Even if paces separate teams on the first day, they'll all share a new starting line again on the second, and the third. "You're seeing people a lot and racing people head-to-head every single day," said Greg Laraia, an athletic trainer and coach who has captained SB400 teams all three years, and put together this year's winner. The stage format also keeps the competition dial set at max; a team low in the overall standings has a new opportunity each day to pressure teams higher up. There is no easy-does-it; everyone rips from the go.

While Southbound 400's route is set, strategies are anything but. "Even if you had a two-hour marathoner, they're not going to run 26 miles straight and then come back in an hour and run another 26 miles," explains Laraia. "They're going to die." Instead, most teams opt to swap runners every half-mile, mile, or shorter. In 2024, Laraia planned on mile repeats, but then the energy of the race kicked in and runners surged beyond their planned paces. "We were like, shit, let's change our strategy right away." In the months leading up to the 2025 race, Laraia spent hours on Google Maps and Strava analyzing the course, strategizing how his new team, Honest Work, would deploy its eight runners, four crew members, and two vehicles. They settled on short and fast, adapting to the course along the way.

Similarly, 2025's second-place team, Rhythm Section, went into the race with a well-defined plan, beginning with mile-long segments to get out of the throng of overlapping runners and vehicles at the start. "And then it quickly got thrown out," said Adrian Villarreal, an LA-based runner who also ran on the team that won Southbound in 2024. Amidst all that energy, carefully planned segments and paces were forgotten; everyone wanted to run—fast. And then the course had its say; "the hills start coming and you start to realize that you're not going to be able to hold the pace of a mile versus an 800 [meter]."

No Walk in the Park

Everything comes back to the race's original inspiration: the Empire State Trail, which cannot be divided simply into 400-meter segments. In the north, where the route overlaps with roads and runner handoffs are more straightforward—a van pulls over for the swap—there are small towns, traffic lights, people crossing the street, cars parked everywhere. As it descends southward, the Empire State Trail leaves the road for miles at a time, making van access impossible.

"Each day brought its own set of challenges," said Glen Pou, a runner from the Brooklyn who ran on a team called Border to Borough. There were the non-stop hills of the first day, the intense heat of the second, and how the long segments of trail on the third demand all the grit a runner can muster. But the route also has its beauty. "It felt like something out of National Geographic," she said. "The course was absolutely breathtaking."

Transportation, in a physical sense but also in an abstract and maybe even spiritual one, is what long-distance trails like the Empire State are made for. Cities tend to rub off on runners and each one tends to have its unique culture of training, racing, and gathering for casual miles. "It's a stark contrast when you get it out of the city and you put it somewhere where you know nothing like that exists," Roberts said.

Still, it is a race, and 2025 was the fastest it's been yet. It began with frenetic mayhem not normally seen in Rouses Point, population 2,200, as all 10 teams and their vehicles swapped through runners every 400 meters, 800 meters, every mile. That first day ended with blood; as two runners barrelled into the campsite driveway that marked the finish on day one, one skittered across the ground. Thankfully, they were quickly up and running again, bleeding from leg and elbow, as they tried to close the gap to the other competitor.

Those who raced SB400 this year describe the second day in terms of degrees Fahrenheit and relative humidity. As the sun climbed above the treeline along a portion of Empire State Trail that snaked along the Hudson River, the air became thick with moisture, drenching runners as if their mesh singlets were garbage bags. It didn't stop two teams from engaging in a 24-mile foot chase that lasted hours.

On the morning of the final day, the skies were overcast and the town of Kingston was still asleep. But it was chaos inside the unmarked Sprinter vans that had pulled into town the day before. Chaos on the Empire State Trail, nearly all off-road as it approaches New York, and as the teams leap-frogged one another toward the city skyline. Upon reaching Van Cortlandt Park, teams ditched their vans—city traffic is too thick for roadside handoffs—in favor of electric Citi bikes. Across the Broadway Bridge, through Inwood, and down the West Side Highway, jammed with Sunday cyclists and tourists, the teams made their final sprint to the finish.

In total, Honest Work, the 2025 winner of Southbound 400, completed the race in 37 hours, 38 minutes, and 55 seconds, an average of 5:39 per mile.

Roberts and Southbound's other co-founders see speed like that, and the effort required to plan and prepare to run a race like this that fast, as an honor—and as proof that their idea was a good one. It's only three years old, but Southbound 400 has grown from five teams to 10, and 12 will be welcomed at the start in 2026. Teams have come from Washington DC and Mexico, and runners from Berlin and London. Pou's team, Border to Borough, was the first all-female team to finish.

With the post-pandemic running boom continuing to expand and traditional rites of running passage like the World Marathon Majors becoming harder to get into, the appeal of an alternative event like Southbound seems fair and reasonable, even if sprinting for 400 miles down the entire state of New York doesn't.

Tips for Running Southbound 400, From its Founder & Competitors

Spots are limited — "We want people that are experienced in ultra running who are going to be able to finish the race," said Roberts. "That doesn't mean that you have to be running an eight-minute mile or a nine-minute mile or a 10-minute mile the whole time, but we do have a cutoff time each night at 1 AM."

The fastest team isn't necessarily the best team — Roberts said, "Don't choose the fastest people, choose the people you like the most." People get tired and moody during three-day endurance benders. When you have good relationships with the other runners, you can lean on each other when you're feeling low.

Reserve your vans in advance — With space for the full team and room to rest and recover, vans are the right tool for the job that is SB400. "There's only a limited number of 10 to 12-person vans in New York City to rent for that long of a weekend," said Laraia.

Optimize for fun over speed — "Go into it with the mindset of having the most fun and enjoying this because it's not an experience where you want to be upset with your team," said Laraia. "An argument on day one could ruin the entire weekend."

Make a plan, then scrap it — "Have an A and a B and probably a C plan," said Villarreal. "I think that if you go into the race thinking you have, like, a good structure for the race, you definitely don't."

Fuel with food you're used to — "Stick with foods and fuels that you know work best for your body," said Pou. "I can't digest gels, so I leaned on whole foods and my go-to snacks like onigiris and misubis all day, and made sure to take in plenty of electrolytes to stay hydrated."

Let the trail change you — "The course pushes your body to new limits and the shared experience will be transformative and unforgettable. It will reshape how you view your capacity physically, mentally, and emotionally," said Pou.