I've wanted to run the full Rivanna Trail route for while now, so when I saw that there have been no female unsupported efforts logged yet I thought I'd give it a try. I started out at 6am at the trailhead at the Wool Factory and headed clockwise because I wanted to end with the familiar and flat Rivanna path. It was a typical very muggy July morning and there wasn't a second during the run that I didn't feel the heat and dense air. I carried 1.5 L of water and 0.5 L of electrolyte drink in my running vest, though I should have brought a bit more.
The Rivanna Trails Foundation has a fantastic map that you can upload on Avenza, so I held my phone on the run so I could see my location relative to the trail. I followed the green Rivanna trail signs nearly the whole way, though I am very skilled at getting off track - and the few times I did, I had to scramble through poison ivy and thorny blackberry bushes to get back on the trail. The volunteer Rivanna trails crew is amazing at keeping the trail as clear as possible, which is no easy feat with the fast-growing vegetation in the summer. They added a new Moore's Creek path just southwest of Jordan park, and though I want to blame overgrown vegetation for me not finding that path easily enough, it was probably due to my lack of familiarity with the trail. So I took the original path on 5th street in that section.
Even if this FKT doesn't hold for long, I do believe no one can beat the number of spider webs my face took down during the first half of the run. I claim the record of 2 billion face-web encounters.