In typical fashion, I stumbled upon this FKT online for one of my favorite flat trails. I usually only do the closer sections to me, and have never run or biked the entire length, from Freeport to Butler. I saw the FKT and fixated on trying it. Not sure why I thought I could do it as I have struggled with GI issues on any distance over 16 miles. I DNF'd my first attempt at a 100 miler last year with serious GI woes. I did manage a 50K earlier this year, but really had to push through with a bad stomach. I didn't want the DNF to win so I signed up for the same 100 miler this year in October to get some payback and figured this would be the perfect opportunity to get in a peak high volume day. So I set a date during the week to avoid crowds - Friday, Aug 29th.
I woke early and dropped fueling at the Butler turnaround and at the Cabot trailhead near the caboose, close to halfway. Fortunately, the weather was unseasonably cool and dry. It was close to 60 degrees at my 7:14am start time and stayed in the 60's all day.
I planned to use my GoPro but the aftermarket batteries were bunk so I left it behind. I wore my Adv Skin 12 vest, and carried 2L of water and Precision 1500 hydration. I fueled with Precision gel 30g carbs every hour supplemented with peanut butter pretzels.
I purposely went out slow, and drank as much as I could thinking it would help my stomach. It was very peaceful and I only saw two bikers headed south. I felt really strong all the way to the first cache. The next 10ish miles were a bit harder as I was not as familiar with the trail, but I still felt good. Made it to the turnaround in Butler and couldn't believe my stomach felt good. Either the cool temps or slower pace, or both, were helping. The next section back to the midway cache seemed long. This trail is so flat, sometimes you dont realize there are slight increases in terrain. Now that I was a marathon in, I felt them. My pace slowed a bit as I was still mostly concerned about preventing stomach issues. Popping the pretzel bites helped for sure. Made it to the halfway cache, restocked and headed out for the last push. Legs were a bit tired, but I was motivated not only to finish my longest run ever of 40 miles, but to do it in under 8 hours. Had to stop a couple times but I was determined to get it done. The slight elevation drop helped and before I knew it, I was at the parking lot and the finish.
I was so glad I did this run. It gave me confidence for my October race and showed me that maybe I can race without GI distress always on my mind.
This is a really flat trail with all kinds of different environments. Sometimes you feel like your are in a pine forest out west, or in a populated suburb. It is probably 90% shaded and goes from rails to trails wide down to almost single track. Worth giving it a go!