Was shooting for a 5:30am start but was a little late starting at 5:33am. Great ambiance with the sunrise. The first 6 miles is on two track and ran efficient but was not pushing the pace by any means. I was surprised to see my split at the start of the single track which was around 53min. Well ahead, of David's split, which gave me confidence. Thrashed through some minor overgrowth dropping into South Smith Creek but not too bad. I started with 4 soft flasks and planned to drink about two an hour. Came into South Smith Creek in 1:43 and filled two flasks which would hold me over until Overland Lake. I had some extra water left in the flasks which I started with which ended up working out perfect on this section. Left at 1:44 about 14min ahead of David's split. Thrashed through more overgrown bushes which at this point were significantly overgrown until the base of the Overland pass climb. Had to take a bathroom stop which took exactly 1min somewhere along the way. Got to Overland at about 2:50 which was about the same pace as David on this section, but I took 7mins filling up 6.5 soft flasks. Left at 2:57 (losing 7mins?) This water stop cost a lot of time, but I didn't have to stop again for water the rest of the run. I am not sure if this was the best way to do it, but it definitely was nice to keep chugging for the last 3+ hours. Had some caffeine after dropping out of Overland which really helped. Everything went pretty smooth on this next section which consisted of the major climbs on the trail. I definitely started to feel weathered on the last couple climbs before Wines, but energy was pretty good. Hit Wines at 4:50 (15min ahead of David). Descended the best I could and totally forgot about the mini climb right before Favre which was kinda rough but still moved okay. Dropped to Favre and started the last climb of the day with the only goal of not walking. Pretty proud of myself, I didn't power hike at all today despite being well over 10,000ft for a good portion of the day. Got to Liberty Pass at 5:47 and I thought maybe sub 6:10 was possible so I gave it everything I had the last descent (as casual hikers looked on in horror lol). From Liberty Pass to Roads end was a little longer than I remembered so couldn't quite get there under 6:10. But I will say; if anyone wants to run this and is at 5:47 at Liberty Pass, they are going to have to let loose the final decent.
I used iodine tabs all day which was probably a good move. Lots of pack animals out and about with today being the first day of archery season. For the most part I trust the water up here but better safe than sorry. I had run a total of 10miles of the route prior to today (Roads End to Wines) and didn't have any issues with navigation. It's really pretty straight forward.