FKT: Miller Groome - Art Loeb Trail (NC) - 2021-11-10

It was a tough day on the Art Loeb trail. Carrying extra supplies (food,water,gps,clothes) quickly became a burden. The leaves were much heavier than they were 2 weeks ago when I ran a one way. The trail was slippery, slow, and tough to see at times. I was forced to run slower than previous times on the trail. Also, two of the water sources were out. So my last sorta fill up was at mile 7ish until I was well into shining rock wilderness. I quickly finished that off and went hours without any water. This put me behind nutrition and hydration early on and I could never catch up. I ran the first half (northbound) in 7:51:25. and the second part (southbound) in 11:03:16. This put me running the first and last couple hours in the dark. I actually saw my first human at 23 miles in. This was an unsupported effort. My friends were able to watch my Garmin track from my In-reach mini from home in Asheville. I probably would have dropped after 40 miles or so, but there is almost no easy bailout points. And it would have been a huge inconvenience to a friend.