On October 10th, 2020, I ran the Wabash Trace Nature trail south to north in an attempt to beat the FKT unsupported time of 17:25. I have run the Wabash Trace many times over the years from the Council Bluffs trailhead, but had not seen any of the trail beyond Silver City. With races cancelled in 2020, including the Kettle 100 in Wisconsin, I was looking forward to a challenge. Friends Kaci Lickteig and Stacey Buckley both provided some inspiration to me in their journeys of setting FKTs on the Wabash Trace. With a bit of recon running on the trail in September, I was able to confirm the location of public water spigots along the trail. As the FKT guidelines note, public water taps along the trail are accessible. For any attempt on the Wabash Trace on a hot October afternoon, they would be essential. The risk was that they were not all open. I took that risk and was glad to find them open. I knew that doing this unsupported (as desribed in the FKT Guidelines) was going to be tough, given the distance of this FKT and the distance between the towns that had public water spigots. It turned out to be a fantastic day and although I struggled a bit on those final miles due to the heat, it will be an adventure I will never forget!
My full story is out on my Instagram account - https://www.instagram.com/p/CGNgyMuhB-w/ or https://www.instagram.com/davidreddel/
A short video of the run will be coming soon.
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Here is a link to a short video.
https://youtu.be/NUMOJ3j3NZo