WHAT A DAY!
I set out to do this FKT as an adaptive athlete (para athlete) after having completed this route in an overnight last year. This time around it was a training run in preparation for Eiger 250 in a month from this FKT submission. As such, this run followed a full week of training to simulate fatigue after being running for multiple days
For this effort, I carried my own water and staged a resupply stop in Bolton Park and Ride with water and more food. I was glad I did. The day was so hot that I needed way more fluids than anticipated.
The first half went quite quickly, other than the roughness of the humidity and SO MUCH POLLEN, spirits were high, and the pace was good. Quick stop in McDonald's (in Tolland?) to get some water, a snack, use the bathroom, and then carry on!
Getting to Bolton Park and Ride was very welcome; the temperature rose quickly, and resupply was much needed.
The second half of this run went really slowly. The heat and humidity were a challenge, but the hardest part was traveling when reaching the less-traveled portions of the trail, it was extremely overgrown and made travel and navigation really challenging.
Nearing the Gun Range in Glastonbury the humidity peaked but I was grateful for the coming road miles that were a good window to get back into a groove.
As the sun went down, travel became VERY slow. Markers were not very visible with a headlamp, took a couple of wrong turns, and just the tiredness of being on the trail all day started to kick in. All the wrong turns are reflected in the GPX track submitted.
My watch died at 67km. When I got the low-battery notification, I started AllTrails to track the full day but forgot to stop it on the drive back. To corroborate the time, I have submitted the third link, which shows the total time. I traveled with Marissa T, who was also self-supported throughout the whole route. Also supplied several pictures of us together in several parts of the trail from start to finish.
Would love to have fellow para-athletes CRUSH this FKT soon!