This was a day-before decision. Wanted to get a long effort in after not running the past few days, and told myself that if I could do this in the cold weather, I could do much shorter runs in it, too.
Started at 10:15 AM from the Algonquin trailhead on Souwanas Trail. An absolutely scorching 10°F at the start (the wind chill made it feel like -1°F according to my watch). Wore a tight long sleeve tech shirt, a looser long sleeve over that, and a Craft midlayer jacket. For bottoms, full-length runninf tights and a pair of stretchy track pants. Darn Tough midweight micro-crew socks and the Saucony Ride 17s (which I plan on wearing at Hennepin Hundred in October).
About 400 meters in, I realized my front pack pocket with a 20 bottle in it was not secure, and the bottle fell out. Had to grab that, and took my glove off to pop it back into the pocket, but then I didn't realize I dropped my glove until about 100m later, so I had to go back and grab it. Until about mile 10 I felt pretty solid, taking a gel at mile 6 and a pack of fruit snacks at mile 9. I didn't think my bottles would freeze as quickly as they were. By this point I was drinking slushy sport drink and had to fully open the bottle to get it out. I took another gel at mile 11 and dropped my glove yet again after taking it off to eat. This time I didn't realize until over a quarter mile later, and this made me pretty frustrated. After regrouping, I stopped for 2 minutes to rearrange my bottles, finishing the first and swapping it into my pack pocket. I also ate a Verb energy bar here. The next 7 miles were pretty calm, nothing major besides the big hill near the connection to the Jon Duerr preserve parking lot. Took that nice and easy, slowing to about 9 min/mi pace.
After this point I felt the soreness setting in, and over the next 4 miles I started to overthink it a little bit. Reaching St. Charles and running through the town allowed me to open the legs up a bit by sprinting to beat traffic. The stairs broke the monotony a bit too, making me take quicker steps to keep the turnover up. I don't remember the exact mile marker, but at the North Aurora Riverfront Park there was a service vehicle on the trail, so I went through the grass to stay out of the way. I backtracked to the trail's natural crosswalk and got back on before crossing the street.
Miles 28-32 were the hardest on the legs, and the wind started picking back up, cooling my now exposed hands (fiddling with my gloves was getting too tiring). I hadn't drank anything in about 5 miles, and I would only get two more drinks for the remainder of the run with my frozen bottles. After reaching 5 miles to go, I became almost numb to the soreness and worked with what my muscles allowed, slowing down slightly not so much because of the soreness but because of the fatigue itself. The last two miles felt smoother than most of the second half, and when I reach the trail's endpoint marker I felt that I could keep going if I had to. (I continued to the end of the Garmin GPX route, despite the map's endpoint at the circle shown on the route page, just to make sure.)
Overall, finished in just under 5:13, unsupported, with an extra half mile+ of backtracking. If I (or another one of the talented runners in the area) run this again (in better weather conditions and with more planning), the mark will surely dip below 5 hours. The combined effects of wind, added weight from extra clothing and the pack, the cold, and backtracking leave lots of potential for improvement on this flat, fast, and scenic trail.
Fuel: 5 GU gels, 2 Verb energy bars, 2 packs fruit snacks, 500 calories from homemade sport drink (not enough, certainly).