Stoked about this one. Been eyeing this loop for like a year but didn’t think I was going to run it till recently. This is my first substantial trail run ever and am pretty happy with it. Still fighting off a cold and was a little fatigued from the weekend. Honestly just wanted to beat 5 hours. 9:33 average pace for the whole thing. Took a 5 minute fill up water break that I could probably get rid of and get that average under 9:30.
The trail was really good. It was kind of rough from pillsbury lake lean to to cedar lake - lot of mud and some pretty dense spots - but faarrrr from the worst trail I’ve been on in the dacks. A lot of spots I could open up my stride a bit and not worry about rocks which was so nice. Started conservatively cause I didn’t know what to expect and was def a good call. It was super wet and I got dumped on a bit but I was zoned in. Honestly never felt that hard, definitely difficult but I wouldn’t say I pushed it too far outside my comfort zone.
Really excited to see what I can do when I’m more fit, have more experience, am not sick, am rested, and with better conditions.
I think someone could really crank this route and get the average pace down into the 8:30s.