What an experience! My original intention was to head out on August 29th, then we had to postpone until September 11th with the smoke, then we had to postpone indefinitely with the national forests closing... then Devon Yanko and I were going to set out unsupported on Oct 7th just to go on an adventure (but alas more smoke)... then finally the winds shifted, the forests opened and we had both a green light and a green air window. With the no "overnighting" policy we made sure to confirm that we were allowed to be out on the trail with the national forest spaces and the Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit, and we got a thumbs up!
To give me enough time to get a crew together last minute we decided to start on Sunday October 18th. We started clockwise from Tahoe City (64 Acres Lot, from the sign) just before 6:00am (~5:58am) having loose goals for splits that would conservatively put us just 5 minutes under Krissy's time. Krissy's FKT time and Magda's attempt from last fall would not provide great splits for me because they started alternatively from Big Meadow instead. Right away I was way ahead of schedule, which almost ended poorly when I beat my crew to Tahoe Meadows (mile ~41) because I was over 2 hours ahead of pace. This trend continued through the first night and into Monday morning, although I will say I struggled mightily between Highway 207S (~Kingsbury) to Big Meadow with the climbs through that section. Once I arrived in Big Meadow, lanced a blister and ate some mashed potatoes I was feeling so much better in the daylight. My pacer and I took off and we chipped away at time once more, at this point I was starting to have visual hallucinations and kept thinking there were tents around the little lakes and along the trail. I knew the last two legs were going to be tough, before this attempt I had never run more than 24 hours straight, and the desolation section was going to be daunting coming late in the run. We arrived at Echo Lake, once again so fast that my pacers almost didn't make it there in time, but with a turkey and cheese tortilla in hand and some soda I felt ready to power hike up the pass. At this point my only goal was to make it to Barker Pass between 11:00pm and midnight knowing that would keep me under the record. We moved really well up Dicks Pass despite feeling a little shaky. I switched to liquid calories at this point which allowed me to get more calories in (my throat hurt so much from the dust that eating had become really hard) and it made a huge difference. We pushed on into the dark and the trail trolls seemed to stretch the remaining miles from Richardson Lake to Barker Pass on and on. At this point my watch actually died (~151.9 miles) but I was able to get it charged again when we saw my crew 4 miles up the hill, and was elated to realize it was 'only' 16miles to Tahoe City not the 18-19miles I had convinced myself it was. I will add that the section of trail from Barker Pass to Tahoe City is a little convoluted, with some odd uphill in a "downhill finish"... then again that could be because I had been awake for a very long time at that point.
It was far from perfect, I projectile vomited around mile 52 (no idea why), the dust took its toll, it turns out 171 miles is a long way to run etc... but overall I'm elated! I'm thrilled I got the opportunity to test myself on this trail over this distance! Most importantly, big thanks to my crew/pacers Devon Yanko, Tony Di Pasquale, Paddy O'Leary, Ben Koss, David Lam, Olivia Amber, and Erik Soli I could not have done it without you all!