Beautiful day for my first run on The Wild Oak Trail (TWOT). My husband, Mike, and I had intentions of running 1 loop of TWOT on Friday, October 16th, which ironically lined up with the 2020 start of the TWOT 100, a fat-ass race that consists of 4 loops of the Wild Oak Trail. Due to COVID protocols, the 100 mile start was conducted in waves that left every 1-2 minutes. Mike and I, who I believe were the only ones running one loop on Friday, left with a few others in the last wave, starting at 8:07 AM.
Mike ran the entire distance with me, though I carried my own food/water. There were two spots with aid- one at Mile 10, where I grabbed a cup of Gatorade, and a water stop at Mile 15.5, where I filled up my two bottles.
Conditions were near ideal for this attempt- low 50s with light rain and no shortage of leaves covering the glorious east coast rocks and roots.
Per Strava, it looks like Holly Bugin had the fastest time for women on the pre-2016 loop (very similar loop with 27 miles & slightly more climbing - 7700 ft) with 05:16:00 on August 16, 2014. And, according to the VHTRC webpage (http://www.vhtrc.org/results/2016/HotTWOT.htm), it appears that Sarah Schubert ran 05:19:00 in 2016 on the current route during the fall HOT TWOT fat-ass race. Alyssa Godesky ran the fastest reported women's time on the current route not during a race setting in 05:28:10, on June 13, 2020.
Thank you to all these amazing women for setting the bar high! Hoping that my time can push other women to go under 5 hours on this beautiful and rugged east coast route. :) It's a fun one.