The inspiration: The seeds of inspiration can be attributed to none other than Alexander Parker , who convinced me to make an effort at this 4.5 years ago in June 2021. It was a newly created FKT that I had wanted to do with Will Fuchs , Chris Andrews and Alex in January 2021, but Will hurt his foot and the group disassembled. I had a phenomenal track season in the months between, and decided to give it shot even though I wasn’t in trail shape. We were on solid pace through Oats, but I absolutely fell apart after the descent, finishing in around 2:25. I can’t thank Alex enough for sticking through that with me; his patience is unmatched. Come 2025, the FKT has been lowered by 5 minutes by Nickademus de la Rosa , for a current time of 2:08:57
The fueling: I got a new naked belt (which I love so much more than the Salomon pulse belt I have because of far superior pocket access) and filled it with 3 250ml soft flasks containing ~60, 60, and 30 g of carbs. I drank the 30g one during my 2 mile warmup and refilled it with water, wrote split times on my hand, did some dynamics, and tied my shoes as tight as I could.
The effort: I tied my shoes too tight. My legs felt amazing going up Valencia, where I reached the summit 1:06 ahead of Nick’s pace, but my feet were killing me. I took 45 seconds to retie my shoes then hit the descent. This was the last time my legs would feel amazing. I had a brief mixup because I had forgotten how the Valencia trail connected to the Oats trail, so I lost another 10 seconds or so. The Oats trail is dreadfully flat, and I felt a mild jello in my quads from the brief descent, but still hit the summit of Oats 1:16 ahead of pace. It was on the descent that I realized my sloppy mistake of going for this effort on the same day as the Lack of Trail Awareness Convention (LOTAC). A painful rolled ankle and countless close calls with riders fueled a rage inside me that helped me focus, but I was feeling clunky. I lost a lot of time on the descent. I was worried about my legs, but I was prepared to give in my all on the Hazard climb, which I knew was my best shot to get some separation, which I would need because of Nick’s blazing descent time down Hazards. I took some deep breaths through the stress and locked in hard for the climb. This was the hardest part, as I felt slow but I knew I was doing good and just had to stick with it and keep pushing. I hit the summit with a good time cushion, 2:20 ahead of pace, but that’s when it got painful. My stomach and sides ached dreadfully and I had no choice but to yelp and growl through the pain as I pushed the descent. This was another level of effort than the previous two FKTs I’ve done. In the end, it was worth it, and I came through the trailhead at a time of 2:08:03, lowering the FKT by 55 seconds.