My name is Andrew Stringer, and I'm reporting after my successful supported southbound end-to-end run of the TCT. I'm not sure if this counts as an official FKT, but this run was a long term goal of mine after my grandfather, William Carrigan passed away in February. A long time resident of Pittsfield, he spent a lot of time in the Taconic Mountains, and this was my way of honoring his memory.
Saturday was about as comfortable as July gets for running, temps mostly in the mid 60s. It was a little soggy and humid, but the trail wasn't any more muddy than usual. Ended up finishing the southbound route from RT 346 to Route 20 in 7:29:57. I was shooting to average 12:00/mile pace, and I was on track through RT 43, but found my way into the pain cave on the climb up to Berry Pond. Luckily I had some friends running with me on the final push to keep me going. I made it to Berry Pond in about 5 hours 43 minutes, and then slowed down significantly on the final leg.
The route from my GPS watch can be found here:
connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/1857406642