FKT: Justin Kousky - Nehantic Trail (CT) - 2020-09-20

Athletes
Route variation
one way
Multi-sport
No
Gender category
Male
Style
Unsupported
Start date
Finish date
Total time
1h 37m 12s
GPS track(s)
Report

ran unsupported, ran west-to-east-to-west.  only took 1L of tailwind and didn't even use all of it - with low humidity and temps starting in the upper 30s and ending in the mid 50s there just wasn't much of a need.

neil had dropped a very impressive time on this course a few years back - i wasn't sure how much of a shot i had at beating that, but wanted to get out today and enjoy the excellent running conditions.  two miles in it was looking pretty dire - i was running 9:30 miles and had just wasted 30 seconds going up a hill in the wrong direction (but with tons of blue blazes).  i forced myself to speed up to a pace that felt pretty unsustainable, and once i got past the mt. misery area i was able to open things up a bit.  there are 3-4 miles of relatively flat trail or road section so i made up a bit of time there.  things got choppy and hilly again towards the end.  hit the road at the end and watch showed a split of at least 1:43 - well off neil's pace.  i tried to gun it on the way back and run most of the hills.  got gassed around mt misery and had to walk a bit which was sad.  luckily i didn't need to focus as much on navigation so was able to flow a bit better on the trail.  hit the end with a few minutes to spare and i feel like i fought for every second.

be warned it is very easy to get lost on this trail.  several other blue trails, also there's a patchaug-nehantic connector trail that fooled me (i just saw part of the sign saying nehantic and figured it was the right way).

note on gpx - seems pretty good, some offset issues in spots and also it kind of rounded the corner on the turnaround.

splits:

1:43:07 (outbound)

1:37:12 (return)

i'll submit the one-way and round trip since nobody else has claimed the one-way