Ran the Broken Top Loop today. I had attempted back in 2022 but got really awful lactic acidosis (I think). Honestly, this distance is intimidating to me because it’s shorter and quite fast. My friend Alex Laub just got the men’s record this week, and as we wait for the sun to melt the higher aspects of local peaks he encouraged me to go for this route today.
And so glad he did. I had Kristen Quadrone’s splits screen shot, and they seemed fast. Coming off a lot of racing and not any recovery, I didn’t feel very confident, but I figured I would try. She laid out a great pace on this course. I was able to hit my targets each mile. By the last few miles I was running out of gas- legs were heavy and had just stopped eating, so wasn’t able to punch it much on the last uphill. But it was beautiful and fun and challenging. Was really hoping for a sub-4 hour when I was near 21.6 miles, but alas, the route went on curiously for another mile- gps watches be damned.
Between Broken Hand and No Name Lake I had to check the gpx a few times to make sure I was on the correct path as this isn’t open course- there are a lot of potential short cuts and I didn’t want to screw myself by taking one on accident. Just a stellar route in general.