Checked this one off my bucketlist finally! I chose one of the toughest times of year (and day) to run this FKT by running midday in the Alabama summer heat & humidity but I was down visiting family and wanted to take advantage of the opportunity. Hoping to come back in the winter and better this one again. The trail system is very straightforward and the trails were in great shape (I think they are frequented by mountain cyclist so I was pleasantly surprised with no overgrowth issues). The only “tricky” parts were: 1.) when you pop out of the woods at the parking lot on the other side (~9mi in), you will take a right through the grass and it brings you back to the connecting trailhead in 0.1-0.2mi- there wasn’t clear signage but it wasn’t too difficult to quickly figure out and 2.) when you come off the bridge approaching the dam ~14mi in, take “lower trail” instead of upper trail. This is the longer section that traverses down over some rocky terrain before coming back up to the dam.
This area is very beautiful and I’m so glad I decided to check it out!
I wore my vest and ended up using 3 gels and drank 22oz of tailwind (ran out before I finished and really wish I had more). Stopped at a creek crossing and splashed my arms & legs with water because I was overheating near the end too. Experienced some GI issues along the way but pushed through the pain and was able to snag the fastest women’s time even though I was aiming for overall.
I have been experiencing some issues with my Coros ‘trail mode’ being inaccurate with distance/pace and have submitted this to their support. My Coros shows that my mileage was only 17.5 instead of the ~19mi that most runners get for this loop but my gpx shows that the loop was correctly completed and Strava shows that I got the ‘18.97mi’ segment as well so hopefully I’m able to officially receive this FKT. Fingers crossed!
If anyone is eyeing going after this FKT, please reach out! I’d love to answer any additional questions!