Definitely a bad idea of a good time!
This was longer and harder than I had conceptualized.
This run served as a successful time trial of a trail I’ve been wanting to run for many years, and feel ready for now, even though this ’time trial’ was just so so brutal. 105 miles of pavement is a special kind of torture. I had a strong 70miles (possibly too fast), but definitely fell off the bus when it just became so difficult to run and I started speed walking respites…which had become the primary mode by 80 and I had to mentally build up to every 0.1-.2mi run mixed in as often as I could bear it. I was able to run more of the last couple miles because the suffering had a forseeable end.
I ran the first 50mi in the Hoka Mach 7, then switched to the Hoka Skyward X for the remainder. These shoes were just so so critical for the training block and performance effort.
Friends were give supply bags, and met me at points every 6-8mi along the route. This would be feasible to self-support, but the risk of losing stashes to rodents and opportunists would be high.
I enjoyed amazing support from family, friends, and coworkers in all three valleys; thank you all! It was fun to have some surprise and planned pacers running, biking, and walking beside me. Each of my kids rode over 20mi with me. Thank you friends & pacers: Jason Blickenstaff, Derek Storrs, Tyler Curley, and your families supporting your lost Saturday.
I set out to run 98mi of this under 17hrs (my target for a future objective abroad), and accomplished that! This Golden Spoke took longer than expected, especially with an extra 2mi of running forced by detours, c'est la vie.
Thank you to Philip Howland for putting this route on the map for me.
Now, back to the mountains…