I’ve been wanting to do this run for a while now. Once Tracy ran it and got it set up on here I couldn’t wait any longer. I started at the furthest north mile marker and worked my way south. There isn’t an official male time for this route but I know that someone has gone the opposite direction in around 2:30 so I wanted to be under that. I wasn’t planning on running too fast just getting an official time.
The downhill start was rough on my cold legs but once it leveled out I started running a lot faster than I wanted too. I couldn’t get myself to slow down and just held that pace. Just before 7 I had to stop at a bathroom (that’s why there’s a time discrepancy with strava). After that I started running even faster.
The pace gradually felt worse but it was manageable until I hit the hills with about 7 miles to go. The hills very quickly broke me and I had to work a lot harder to run slower the rest of the way. I couldn’t even get going on the flats/ downs. I really blew up. I was very glad to be done when I passed the final mile marker.
I carried a handheld of SWORD drink and had 2 gels. I could have used a bit more fluid but it wasn’t too bad. There are water fountains along the way but by the time I was running low I had already blown up and I didn’t want to stop.
Overall, I’m glad I did it and got a time for the route. But I wish I could have run it a bit smarter. There’s definitely a lot of room for improvement.