FKT: Bart Grebowiec - Stonetown Circular (NJ) - 2020-06-17

This was an unsupported FKT attempt long in the making. The Stonetown Circular is a rugged technical trail loop that goes over five mountain peaks in a span of 10 miles with an elevation gain of 2500+ feet. It features plenty of steep climbs, rocks, roots, and even some scrambling. I've been running this trail and others in surrounding area over the last few years. It's been my goal for some time to register a sub two hour finish. At one point I held a top 5 finish behind local legends Karl Loops, Julian Vincente, Thom Knowles, and Jay Lemos. Last year, I bettered my time to 2:05, but by then Jason Friedman passed me with a time of 2:00:23. Also, the long standing FKT of 1:53:46 held by Karl and Julian, was bested by Graig Mihok with an insane time of 1:50:05. All hope for an FKT was lost, but I still wanted to go sub 2.

It took several training runs with my two friends to re-learn the trail and figure out the most efficient way to run it. We started out by running the first half three times and then we ran the second half twice before the actual attempt. On the day of our attempt, I was going to back out last minute and just pace my friends. My left hamstring and ankle started acting up the day before so it was a last minute call. I think I almost overdosed on turmeric trying to speed up healing / recovery. It seems to have worked. My ankle was better and hamstring just tender at the start. The conditions were just too good to pass up with 57 degree temperature and low humidity. There wasn't any rain in the week prior so the trail was dry with only a few pockets of mud.

The plan was to stagger our starting times. I would go last, giving my friends a 15 minute head start. They started together at 6:57am with me following at 7:12am. The loop begins flat for maybe half a mile and then turns into a steep climb. It's very technical and rugged terrain. Pretty difficult to get into any sort of rhythm as it's mostly up and down with few flat-ish sections. Since I wasn't sure about my hamstring, I figured I'd red line the first climb to truly put it to the test. Worst case, something goes wrong and I just have to come back later. Best case, I get segment PR and keep going with a good start. The latter turned out to be the case and I KOMed the first segment, a .7 mile, 16.5% grade climb, matching my previous KOM on the segment. It turned out, I also CRed the longer 1.11 mile segment (10.3% grade) from the start of the loop to the top of Windbeam Mountain. That first 1.11 miles took about 15:33! At this point, I knew I had a chance to better my previous course PR of 2:05 and maybe even come in under 2 hours. That was the real goal, get under 2. It was pretty much "smooth sailing" (I may have had one or two short delays where I lost the trail.) until the dam and crossing of Stonetown road to run the second half. By the way, the steep descent to the road is a fun one... full of sharp, loose rocks!

I got to the road, pretty much the half-way point, just under an hour. By this point, I have caught up with and passed my friends. As I proceeded to cross the road, I looked at my watch, tripped and face-planted in the middle of the road. Pretty sure the driver of that car barreling down at me was like, "WTF! Where did that guy come from?! And why is he laid out in the middle of the road?!" I quickly picked myself up to avoid any further delays and a death by car, and continued on my way for the second biggest climb of the day. At this point I was exhausted, but excited by my progress. Also, knowing that only three quick climbs remained after the big one and the rest of the way was down hill, put a little pep in my step. The climb was brutal. I mostly "ran" the flat-ish sections and power hiked the ups. Climbing is definitely not my strength, especially not power hiking. The descents on the other hand are a different story. I may have made up some time on this section of the trail as it's mostly down hill. Some of the sections here are slightly less technical, too. With 2 miles to go, I pretty much knew that unless something went sideways, I was going to definitely beat my original goal of 2 hours. At one point, I even considered the possibility of finishing second. By the time I got off the trail and onto the final .5 miles of road, I had a little under 4 minutes left to beat the course record. I wasn't sure if I had it in me to get there in time to claim the crown and was still aiming for the second place. The road section begins with a slight climb followed by a descent. As soon as I got over the hump, I punched it in and gave it all I had. When I crossed the trail head I stopped my watch and took a few steps without looking at my final time. When I did look, I was amazed to see 1:50:01 and 10 miles registered on my watch. It felt awesome to get this PR and FKT. I'm still not sure how I managed to best my previous attempt by 15 minutes!

Nutrition: One 20 oz. bottle of Tailwind. Drank about 16 oz.
Gear: Nike Terra Kiger 5, Coros Apex, iPhone SE 2020, Ultimate Direction vest, Giro hat, Tiffosi sunglasses