What a beautiful day to spend in the mountains running. First time running together in 15 months. Weather was rainy was rainy and overcast to start, but it cleared up by the time we were up on north mountain. Wind prevailed for most of the day with some strong gusts that made us very thirsty. This route has been on our radar for a long time, and it finally felt like a good time to try our luck at it. We started at Tinker Cliff's parking lot and headed south towards north mountain. We each had 3 liters of water and tons of snacks (including my all time favorites, ramen and 90 gram precision gel that felt like straight up sugar in our mouths). The packs were quite heavy at the beginning. We moved swiftly through north mountain, but the climb up and down to Dragons was quite slow (although not many people in sight!). I don't think either one of us was prepared for how long the stretch between Dragons and McAfee's was, but we powered through it. The climb up Tinker was pretty heinous. lol. But we knew we were so close to the end! Coming down on the other side of Tinker was more steep and technical than we remembered and the legs were def noodlely. Once we realized we were going to be able to beat the established FKT, our goal became sub 9. We pushed til the very end and had an incredible time together. Thankful that we had no major setbacks, the weather gods were in our favor and that our bodies held up. One of our watches had the route loaded and briefly glitched, hence the small discrepancy in distance, elevation and time. For all the women out there wondering if they can do this route, you definitely can!!!! Let's bridge thE gap between the men's and women's time. GO GO GO!
Pura Vida!