I wanted to get in a race or harder effort in my training towards my main goal of Tunnel Hill 100 in November. I couldn't find a race to work with my schedule and found this route on the FKT website. I'm a sucker for loops and having a time to shoot for would keep the effort honest. I circled this day on the calendar and set the alarm for 2am. Made the drive over and got a start just after 4am. Unfortunately the weather did not cooperate today, which made me very cautious in the early miles. Being self supported I only had what I carried with me and a few parks to fill up water. I completely maxed out my short pockets and naked waist belt. It was way too hot to wear a pack today. The first 10 miles were fairly uneventful. I did have to dodge more cars then I was hoping for. Got to Green Mountain and the gate was opened. Refilled my bottles and got on the trail. Saw a ton of wildlife including alligators, posums, bobcats, racoons, deer, and foxes. That almost made up for how many bugs there were once the sun started rising! I spent several miles staring at the ground so I wouldn't get bugs in my eyes. Made it to Magnolia Park and the gait was still locked. Had to hop the gate to be able to refill there. I filled up 60oz and chugged an additional 20oz. Was definitely behind on fluids at this point. This is when I gave myself permission to start pushing a bit. Things were all good until I hit about 5 miles to go. Could tell I was pretty dehydrated at this point and backed off to avoid a full blow up. An unimpressive last few miles and I touched the sign where I started, completing the loop about 22 minutes under the previous FKT. I'd love to do this loop in the winter where I think I could easily go sub 5. Definitely a fun route!
Athletes
Route variation
Standard loop
Multi-sport
No
Para athlete
No
Gender category
Male
Style
Unsupported
Start date
Finish date
Total time
5h
22m
23s
GPS track(s)
Report