Woo! Redemption is so sweet. Went for this 2 years ago (the same time goal) and missed badly. It's good to be back.
I used FarOut guides for GPS help. Very helpful in the few cases of getting lost at tricky back-and-forth creek crossings. Also helpful in determining how many miles left.
I consider Eagle Rock Loop a square, conceptually. There are 4 sides of the square. One of the 4 sides is almost all climbing and descending - it is objectively the hardest side of the square. This is the side I wanted to do first.
I parked my car at Mine Creek Road parking/trailhead and started off at ~10:15am, counterclockwise. This parking is at the apex of the side of the 'square' with the climbing. This meant my first 7.5mi would be the majority of my major climbs for the day. I hiked hard up the uphill sections and bombed the downhills. My plan was 13 min/mi through this section and then 8:45min/mi for the remaining miles. I finished the climbing section at about a 12min/mi average, so I banked ~7 minutes.
By halfway, I felt for sure that I was going to get the record. This would be the most confident all day I would feel lol. Following the last real climb at ~mile 15, I thought it would be a coast to the finish line. I was of course, very wrong. The trail remained technical with many creek crossings. The creek crossings kept my shoes nice and water-saturated leaving them heavy. And the technicality and creek crossings took their 30s penalty almost every few minutes. While my actual running pace was still ~8:45min/mi - the trail took its 1min/mi penalty for the technical stuff and ended up putting me dangerously close to failing with each passing mile.
By mile 22-24, I thought I was fucked. I was feeling fine but I just kept losing time. I couldn't pick up the pace much more or I would get sick. The last 3 miles were a constant uphill it felt like, despite the unassuming FarOut profile. Just constant small sections of uphill - each sending my heart rate up another few beats as I tried to maintain a running pace and not be forced to walk. As the timer got close to less than 10 minutes for the record and I was 1.0mi out, I realized how much faith I had put into the FarOut miles remaining. If it was off by 0.5-1.0mi I would almost certainly miss the mark. But as I came around a corner and saw the Mine Creek Road parking, I knew it was less than 0.1mi to the sign I started at. I kicked it in one last time and sprinted for the sign.
4:31:06. I thought the previous record was 4:34 and some change. I was wrong. It was even closer. I am so so so so glad I did not come in at 4:33. I would have certainly thought I had broken the record and would have had a heartbreaking realization that I hadn't. Things worked out though.
The trail was awesome as always. The conditions were as close to perfect as possible, maybe 5F degree colder would have been nice. It was 45 in the morning and heated up to like 60-65F. Arkansas has been dry and windy recently so all of the creek crossing were quite low, I was able to keep my feet dry on many crossings I would typically romp through. Not to say I still didn't have to romp through maybe 10-20 crossings. Everything worked out perfectly.
There is still time to be gained here. I think this record can get to 4:00:00 with someone really fit and knows the loop. I think my starting point and direction is perfect though. I wish the last 2-3 miles hadn't had so much debilitating short climbs, but knocking out the large climbs to start the day was huge. I was chock full of energy and just kept momentum strong through that whole section. I think I would have lost a lot of time had I moved the section somewhere else.
All that to say, a shitload of fun! I hope I never have a finish that close again lol! Someone go out and smash this time and tag me when you do so I can come back for round 3!
IG: @jackrabbithikes