Tough day on such a beautiful trail. Kept it in my zone 2 on the way up, and I was pleasantly surprised with how efficiently I was covering ground. Made it to the top a little under 5 hours with hopes of negative splitting on the way down, but ran into quite a bit of trouble around 32 miles in. My legs were much more worn out than I thought they'd be, and an old back injury flared up and was giving me numbness and tingling down my left leg. Then the heat really kicked in which ended up being the main struggle of the day. I kept stopping to lie down and stretch my back, and was just not feeling good at all. Came very close to quitting and hitchhiking back to my car from Blue Pool TH, but I knew I had quite a time buffer and could still get the FKT if I just stuck with it the last 20 miles. Ended up stopping for half an hour or more to soak my legs in the river and lie down. I was able to get my back somewhat sorted out, and I started hobbling down the trail. I just slogged it in through 100 degree temps which was not fun at all. Just couldn't get my legs moving fast, even with fuel. Dunked my head in the river crossings every chance I got. No support at all, took all my food with me and filtered from the river. This trail was my first "ultra" shortly after my 16th birthday, and it was the birth of my passion for long adventure runs. Not super stoked about this performance, but I felt honored to spend a day on a special trail exploring such a beautiful river :)