The best day I’ve ever had in the mountains. Weather was perfect. A little chilly when I started (high 30s) but quickly warmed up. Despite Blaine’s suggestions to conserve energy for the second half, I took it out wayyy hard with absolutely no regard for the second half, hitting Big Slide in 35 minutes and back at JBL in 1:06. I’ve been dealing with a minor hip injury and it pretty much immediately flared up on the Big Slide ascent. I was worried it would increase and end the attempt, but it ended up staying pretty stable all day! After Big Slide, I climbed to LWJ, and then pushed the Great Range HARD! I was at LWJ at 1:46 and Marcy at 4:42. Had a mini-bonk going up Marcy and really struggled on the last push. I can’t complain about the first half to Marcy, because although I was pushing it hard, it felt great. The same can’t be said for the second half…
Skylight was no problem and the jog down to Lake Colden was also surprisingly smooth. I made it to the Dam around 6:05 feeling decent but with immense dread for the climb up to Boundary Pass. This climb was brutal. I made good time up it, but felt like I was crawling and taking a lot of breaks. At the top I felt like garbage and this carried over to Iroquois and Algonquin. Nausea, stomach cramps, and weird mini calf cramps which would start to initiate and then go away. I still made good time over Algonquin, reaching the summit in 7:28. At this point I was feeling a little better but still not great. The worst part of the day was the descent back to LOJ, and that was where I lost any hope of a sub 9 hour run.
I hate the trail down Algonquin with a passion. It is so awkward, rocky, and slippery. The out and back to Wright is fine, but the brutal descent continues down until you hit the junction with the Marcy Dam trail. It’s tiring, slow, and extremely hard on the ankles, especially after 25 miles and 14k feet of climbing. It seemed never-ending, but I eventually found myself jogging past the HPIC (around 8:40 elapsed) for Mount Jo. This ascent is short and quick but kinda rough at the end of the day. I was definitely dehydrated as well so felt off for the climb and descent. Adrenaline carried me through and back to the start.
Consumed a bunch of Gu energy gels, Tailwind, Scratch Gummies, and Cheez-Its. About half of the gels and Tailwind were caffeinated. Totally stoked on this one. I really don’t think I could’ve pushed much harder. Big thanks to Blaine Doyle for giving me advice when I went for this last year (and failed) and this year. Give this route a go!!!!