Grateful for what my body and mind was able to accomplish. Used this run as a training run toward Olympic Mountains 100k next month. Great route with a mix of wider runnable trails/forest roads, yet some steeper/technical and overgrown sections. Big adventure day in the mountains for a solo, unsupported FKT attempt, and not much time to spare from Kevin's 2020 time! My splits were slightly behind at just 1-2 minutes for three of the junctions that I had checked. So I actually had to rely on some of my road speed to finally build a buffer on the final, mostly flatter/downhill section of Dosewallips.
Seemed to feel a lot better in the last 4 hours, legs were responsive and feeling peppier. I think likely due to intention on increased nutrition than usual for these *and* basically stopping at most streams to cool off and douse my neck/head/arms. Eerily quiet for the 13 miles or so with hazy/white skies and what seemed like a slight smoke in distant horizon. Biggest rough patch was definitely the Marmot Pass climb!
Took a semi-sketchy fall (my only fall all day at least!) descending off of Constance Pass on a loose rock/scree section, precariously sliding down the slope. But fortunately and very carefully got *just* enough leverage to hoist myself up and get back on trail. I knew I was cutting it close toward the end. Made quick work of my last few water and electrolyte mix refills and then booked it back to the trailhead (while also trying not to implode either!).
Gear/nutrition choices included:
- Salomon Adv Skin 5L w/ two flasks (one being HydraPak 42mm filter cap)
- HOKA Tecton X2 - the right insole kept getting scrunched up on the steeper descent off of Constance which was unexpected/annoying!
- Precision Fuel flow gel (300g of carb), plus ~6 more other gels (two of them 100m caf)
- Two bars
- Lots of Precision 1000mg electrolyte tablets
- Smartwool running socks
- Garmin inReach Mini, emergency blanket, windbreaker, Petzl headlamp
- White arm sleeves
- Sunglasses