FKT: Emily Monahan-Morang - West Side Trail (ME) - 2022-05-14

Route variation
Standard Out-Back
Multi-sport
No
Gender category
Female
Style
Unsupported
Start date
Finish date
Total time
1h 48m 42s
GPS track(s)
Photos
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Started midday on an 80 degree day at 11:25am. First day this spring it’s been summer feeling hot. Used this FKT as a training run for an upcoming trail race I’ve in a few weeks. Hope someone else can push it faster since I mainly treated it as a workout and did it in uncomfortably hot conditions in my opinion.

First time trying this route. Started out slow/careful because there are many intersecting trails and it can be easy to miss the trail mark if you’re not paying attention. The trail is overall well marked but it would be pushed faster if I had run there prior and wasn’t checking my phone as much first half to make sure I didn’t miss a turn.

Lots of roots and rocks in the beginning. I ran it in trainers and I wish I wore my trail shoes for it since I thought the trail would be cleared more. Got in a rhythm and was holding around 11min pace going out. When I got to the road/bridge section I started pushing for a pickup as part of my workout. After you get past the rocky/root type sections in the beginning it turns more into a rolling track that spread out in open power line fields with some trail in between. Heat really got to me on the way back, I walked a few times, and fell once with several other times tripping over roots/rocks. Overall, proud of trying my first FKT attempt with the conditions that made the run seem a lot longer/brutal than it was. Brought some Tailwind for fuel for the run. 

Solo unsupported.