The idea came to me a few weeks ago when I realized I had never done a complete North to South crossing of the Regicides. Inspired by women like Lisa Batchen-Smith and her Quad Badwater (4x Badwater to Whitney Portal, wtf!?) as well as guys like Jason "Ras" Vaughan and Christof Teuscher for their work on Grand Canyon multiple crossings, I had it in my mind to do something that probably no one in their right mind would ever want to do, except for Alex McDaniel who joined me for about eight miles on my 4x Regicides attempt yesterday and told me he actually had this idea a few months ago (great minds think alike, or apparently crazy minds do).
I hit a split of 1:34:12 for the first N2S segment, then met up with Alex as he was heading down from the Q and R Trail intersection. We went back to South Overlook in 1:38:17- that includes an almost five minute "aid station" stop where I stashed gels and water and a much welcomed ice cold can of Coke. We left to go back north at 3:12:29 elapsed and Alex peeled off at the feeder trail to go home and I got caught in a nice little downpour about an hour later- I hit the northern terminus at 4:46:52 for a 1:34:23 split on the last segment. Now the work started- the rocks were now wet and slippery as I started going towards a pace that felt barely sustainable for another 90 minutes of work. I gave it everything I had and crossed the southern terminus at 6:11:03 for a lap split of 1:24:11.
Have at it y'all- it was a great experience to get out and really go for it on what I think is CT's most technical and challenging 6.9 miles, it absolutely demands your every ounce of attention for the duration of the trail.