This wasn’t an A race so I’ll keep the words limited. Needed a 50 mile training run/training race so coach suggested the CT AT. Messaged a friend to make sure it wasn’t all traprock because after the NET trail FKT I never want to see traprock again. Planned to do it Saturday N->S and stay at a hotel in Danbury but thanks to the surprise slush storm the day before, I had to move the day to Sunday and change S->N so getting home after would be quicker. Didn’t sleep well the night before because my puppy’s first hotel stay went as predicted. Started right at 6am as a car full of youngsters pulled into the parking lot. Two of them passed me around mile 3 with no packs or anything so I assumed they were just going for an early morning jog but then at the road intersection they stopped at a car where someone was taking pics of them. Sure enough they were behind me again but I didn’t jump out of the way this time. They said “how far are you going?”, I said “all the way to MA”, they said “me too, going for the supported record”, I said “wow spoiled. Don’t even have to wear a pack!”. They kinda blew me off and kept going. No packs, no waist belts that I saw, no handhelds. Just two youngsters flying ahead of me. Not a fan of this new way of running FKTs. Feel like it should have its own category like “super supported” or “Boston Marathon style” with car aid stations every few miles and making your friends carrying every single piece of gear for you. I was also bitter with my heavy pack full of every piece of layer and food for whatever the weather or my stomach may do. (Fun fact: young speedster finished in 9:25, wild). Thought the trails would be bare until I got further north but within the first 5 miles I was in snow. The only split I had taken note of was the CT border to NY (the trail passes into NY then back into CT until you reach MA). I reached the NY border 5 minutes before the women’s unsupported attempt did which felt good. Legs felt like shit from the start though. Heavy, tired. I had been feeling off all week. Didn’t taper much as this was just a training day so I wasn’t surprised. Upset stomach. Meh. I just kept reminding myself that this was essentially just a training run and I didn’t need to push hard if I didn’t want to. Just wanted to get to the halfway point and then decide how I wanted to run the rest of the day. The trail was wet. Above 1200 was slushy snow that made the technical descents slow. Where there wasn’t snow was unpacked wet leaves. On a positive note, water was plentiful and the views were stunning and unblocked by bare trees. Some smooth sections here and there. Around mile 18 there was a long stretch of runnable flat trail along water before climbing up and over another technical sloppy mountain. Get to the road. Had already planned to take a blazed detour around a water crossing that’s deep even in summer which added on a mile. Weather was cold, raw and windy, didn’t feel like swimming. Get back to climbing up another mountain, hill, bump, whatever. Poop for the third time. It’s liquid. Cool. Think I’m spotting too. I have an IUD so I don’t normally bleed unless I’m stressed and running 50 miles is a stressful event, go figure. Explains why I felt off this last week. Chase turkeys. Finally reach the halfway point in 5:35. I was happy with this time but also knew the second half would be more difficult. Net uphill finishing on the other side of Bear Mountain which seemed hard from other race reports. At this point I didn’t listen to music or take any caffeine, so I put on music and take a caffeine pill. Time to go! Immediately roll my ankle hard and start laughing, maybe slightly crying. The hardest thing about doing an unsupported FKT is trouble shooting your brain and reminding yourself to do little things before they become big things. Eat, drink, lube, pee, change shirt, re-tie shoes, etc. A few miles later I’m feeling rough. I stop, throw my pack down, take out my second bag of food, change my shirt, eat a brownie while lip-syncing for the gram, and feel better. Plan was to eat 100-200 cals every half hour, no problem. Take some ibuprofen because my knee and foot are hurting, pop another caffeine pill. Now at mile 34ish I’m finally racing. Knew I wasn’t going to touch the men’s unsupported time (10:43) with these conditions so I’m racing the women’s supported time (12:59). Really hoping for sub 12 hours. More snow, more smooth single track. Get down to some more flat miles, some dirt, some paved, some grassy. Funny thing about being inside your head during a race is thinking about little events of previous races. Running along another river I’m thinking of the time I ran so happily eating a bagel hash brown sandwich from dunkin on day 3/night 4 of the NET trail. Thinking about the last 10 uphill miles I’m reminded of that time at Grindstone 100 when my husband said “only 10 miles left” and I nearly strangled him while yelling “TEN HARD MILES”. I hate racing. I love racing. Finally I reach single digits left. Text the hubs mile ETA is 5:08pm but it’ll probably be closer to 5:30pm because of how difficult the last section will be. Trails here are amazing. Hilly but smooth, and must get a lot of traffic because the leaves are broken and less of a problem. Hit a road section. Speed trap says I’m moving at 7mph, then 6mph, fuck you. Get to a trailhead which I think is for Bear Mountain, 5.5 miles to go. Regretted not actually seeing where this mountain was on the route. Climb up is so smooth I’m able to jog a bit. Start seeing people. They look at me weird. Did I mention I fell hard on my knee and it’s bleeding? Maybe that its. See a dog who nearly takes me out, which isn’t hard to do right now. I miss my dogs. So much climbing but these trails are so nice and I can actually run them. 3 miles to go and shit finally gets messy. Ankle deep slush and puddles between rocks. I’m kicking water up to my ears. Try to run when I can but this shit is hard. Laughable. Reach a sign for the summit, half mile to go. Trail conditions just keeping getting worse and I can’t stop laughing and saying “what the fuck”. Get to the summit, climb a pile of rocks to take a pic. Only a 1/2 mile to go and it’s all downhill but it’s absolutely horrendous. Super technical and rocky, super slushy and wet. I’m crawling, my gloves are soaked, my hands are cold, and I’m laughing. I’ve lost my mind. Couple tricky water crossings that probably aren’t even normally water crossings. Get to an easier section, sort of jogging just trying not to fall. Make it to the Sage’s Ravine sign which is where other FKTers finished before they added the MA/CT border sign a couple years ago that I didn’t even see as I ran by. Stop my watch. 11:24. Over an hour faster than the women’s supported time and over 4 hours faster than the women’s unsupported time. The most anti climatic ending ever. Slowest mile of the entire day. I’m relieved my dogs and husband aren’t here because I’m freezing and just want to get to the truck which is about a mile away. Start to think they didn’t even make it there. Hobble out. See the truck, see my dogs, see my husband. Day over. Overall this trail is as hard as I anticipated but way more beautiful. So many views. Terrain reminds me of the Robert Frost trail (got that FKT) and the NET MA section (got that FKT), and the MA AT (failed that attempt). Typical NE trail running. So many ups and downs that add up big time. I use to say I hate CT but this trail made me find some love for it. Slush and all.