FKT: Candice Burt - Wonderland Trail (WA) - 2018-08-30

Candice has reclaimed the unsupported FKT!  Running counter-clockwise, she started at Box Canyon at 10:20am on 8/29 and finished at 3:05pm on 8/30.  Hopefully no mountain lion encounters this time!

Report:  http://www.wilddefined.com/2018/09/new-wonderland-trail-funnest-fastest.html

"With 30 miles to go I was like sh*t! I have to run faster per mile for the last 30 than the first 65!"

Here are some thoughts from her Instagram:

Somehow I fit this tough & fun route in between my 2 biggest Race Directing Projects of the year Bigfoot 200 Endurance Run & Tahoe 200 Endurance Run (always pushing the envelope over here ??). I’m really stoked because I decided to suck it up and show that the FKT could be broken again solo. Last year when two women ran the route together claiming the unsupported FKT w/all sorts of articles both before and after their run focusing on beating my record by 2 hours (29:12 was their time, I ran it in 28:45 this time around) I thought, that’s all? I knew my 31:11 was a soft record back in 2012. I’d burned so much time getting lost and navigating I knew I’d eventually want to come back and nail the sub 30 time. Now, of course, I still see much room for improvement... definitely sub 26/27 if I can get my pack a bit lighter. It weighed in at around 19-22 pounds depending on how much water I had with me at any given time. I’ll speak more to FKTs and why I feel that the definition of ‘unsupported’ should not include accompanied runs (running with a partner). Regardless, I knew running solo was the challenge I needed to face my fears. My fear of not meeting my goal, my fear of the dark, of running into mountain lions ? (like in 2012 when I saw them at night ?). When we face our fears we take away their power and claim it for ourselves. How did I deal with almost 10 hours of navigating and running in the mountains by myself in the dark? I forced myself into a situation where I had to get through fear to overcome it. I admitted to myself that my fears were real but that they didn’t need any energy. That I would scare the wildlife away, not the other way around. I made myself queen ? ? of the trail that night & when I emerged from the forest at sunrise I saw a mother deer and her baby. They were both perfect. I was in awe of how beautiful they were and the metaphor was not lost on me in that moment, I felt reborn from overcoming my fear which for years had remained so big and scary in my mind.