I had originally been training for a local 50k but life came up. Switched last minute to this FKT attempt. The idea was to leave town at 7 AM on October 20th, since Eugene is only 2 hours away. This would make a 10 AM start time easy. We left at 8. But I rushed through getting the bike ready and managed to pull off at 10:10 AM start time.
Ran most of the first 3 miles of climbing with no issues. I quickly stripped off layer and hung them in the trees to pick up on the way down. Long sleeve was the 1 mile mark. I stashed a soft flask on the way up at mile 2 on a log, it was half gone and I had a second in my waist belt. I reached the point where the road collides with the trail and friends, Jesse and James, where there with Milo the pup. They kept me company while we climbed to the top of Black Butte. Once at the summit we snapped some photos and quickly began the descent. Once at the road again, the two peeled off back to their car and I kept running the final 3 miles solo.
Upon arriving at the trailhead again, my dad and another friend, Jeremy, were waiting with my bike. I sat down, drank some tailwind, and ate a piece of fry bread while I switched to cycling shoes and put on a fleece Jacket. It wasn't cold but it was windy enough to be slightly chilly. I was wearing tri shorts and a tech tee so I wouldn't need to change clothes.
The bike leg was brutal. I chose the road bike option deciding the extra miles would be made up by the use of my TT bike. I kept hitting headwinds that had me going 11 mph, and twice I got cramps that required me to dismount and waddle in a circle. There was loose gravel all over the roads for some reason, but it was incredibly beautiful. The fall colors were popping, and there were at least 3 massive herds of turkeys.
Once I got to Skull Hollow Trailhead I dismounted and handed my bike to my crew while I attempted to gather my self. James was going to pace me fr the final run leg, and he was not ready to let me chill out and relax. 1 mile into the run I was on the ground with both quads cramping fully. By mile 2 my calves were cramping as well. We trudged on and eventually, in what felt like forever, made it to the top of Gray Butte. We attempted to run at a decent pace down Gray Butte. The super chunky head sized rocks we were running down made a good pace hard to hit but the final 2.5 miles were buttery single track. Stopping multiple times along the way for cramps, I had pretty much given up the Overall FKT. But when we came out of the final gate and we were running in to the finish my crew started yelling that I had 4 minutes. I started sprinting and ran all the way to touch my bike back in the parking lot. 2.5 minutes under the current FKT. Finish time: 7 hours, 21 minutes, and 42 seconds. Maintained a 100 grams of carbs an hour on the run and140 on the bike in the form of 2 Gu Roctane gels, and a packet of tailwind every hour plus a piece of fry bread at every leg.
Such an awesome route. Such a fun day.