FKT: Joshua Goad - Catawba Triple Crown (VA) - 2020-09-23

This was an unsupported attempt. For nutrition and hydration I took the following in my running vest:

• 2 liters of Gatorade in a bladder in the back;

• ¼ liter plain water in a soft flask in the front;

• Water filter connected to another soft flask with Gatorade powder in it;

• 8 gels;

• 2 chocolate bars (160 calories ea.);

• 3 beef sticks

Shoes: Salomon Sonic RA 2. I decided to wear my road shoes because I expected the trail conditions to be good and they are much lighter than my trail running shoes.

0:00 (Start) – I started at 7:06, just before official sunrise. I decided to run clockwise, starting at 624 (Newport Rd.), so that I could get Dragon’s tooth out of the way first and then have plenty of energy to cruise on North Mountain. Plus, it puts some of the steeper and more technical sections as climbs instead of decents, which I thought would let me fly down the mountains and make up some time.

0:35 – Dragon’s Tooth top. This was about when I expected to make it to the top of Dragon’s tooth, so far so good. Legs felt a tiny bit heavy but the weather was great (mid 50’s with low humidity). Passed a couple hikers and a tent but otherwise the trail was clear.

1:00 – Dragon’s Tooth Parking lot. This was exactly the pace I had hoped for, which was encouraging.

3:05 – Andy Layne Parking Lot. North Mountain was a blast, I had a great pace and scared a bear on the trail toward the Eastern end. Near the bottom of the Catawba Valley Trail is a small stream with a waterfall just off the trail. I used the waterfall to filter half a liter each into my soft flasks for the remainder of the run. Pace was still right on my targets.

3:55 – Tinker Cliffs. This was a shocker, I got to Tinker Cliffs 10 minutes faster than I expected. This was especially surprising since I was hating the climb and felt like I was struggling to keep a decent pace. Unfortunately, the 10 minute cushion was short lived. Also, my GPS started going a bit haywire here and was adding about 20% to my distance.

5:08 – McAfee Knob. My 10 minute bonus from the Tinker Cliffs climb was quickly gone when I started cramping right around the Pig Farm Campsite; left calf and right hamstring. This dramatically slowed my climbs such that I was walking slooowly up anything more than a 1% grade although I could still run on the flats and downhills. This was not a great situation for the climb up to the knob. Also about this time, I lost all interest in eating. I put a beef stick in my mouth at the bottom of the climb and hadn’t finished it by the time I got to the top.

5:55 – McAfee Knob Parking Lot. I was now 10 minutes behind my goal time and my cramping was getting worse and worse. Now my feet were also cramping. Any small misstep caused severe pain in my leg and foot had stumbled.

7:22:22 (elapsed time) – Finish. The last section, from 311 to 624, which I expected to take about an hour, took an hour and a half. Every climb was slow and all I wanted to do was stop. Everything was cramping, even my arms and hands at this point. The only good news was that the GPS seemed to be giving me accurate readings again.

I passed some hikers but did not run with anyone for any distance.