FKT: Peter Bonito - Mount Ascutney (VT) - 2023-05-23

I ran this route unsupported in 7:43:39. The previous record was 9:30. I started this run at 7:02 am at the Futures Trail Trailhead at the park headquarters. I wanted to start with the Futures trail because it is by far the longest (4.5 miles each way) and I figured a 4.5 mile descent would be the best way to finish. My goal was to go under 7:30 and I was on pace for this until mile 18 when I took a caffeinated energy gel that instantly made me extremely nauseous and dizzy. I don't regularly use caffeine, but I do use these when I race and typically tolerate them fine. I was just getting over a rather sever stomach bug, so I'm guessing that had something to do with the extreme adverse reaction. The next 4 or 5 miles were mostly an effort to combat the dizziness and stay on my feet, which I did end up falling a handful of times. Things started to improve once my body metabolized through a lot of the caffeine and I was able to move well again on the final descent, though I never got back to feeling like I had before I ate the gel. The damage had been done at this point and I wasn't able to get back on track for my desired time. My secondary goal was to go sub 8 so I'm still happy with time. My legs felt really fresh at the end, and my moving time was 7:07, so I think that on a day where everything went right I could maybe take this sub 7. I consumed 800 calories in total and drank approximately 100 oz. of water (the temp got up to 77). I stopped to filter 4 times. Thankfully, Ascutney has a vast variety of water sources for filtering. I am hoping to come back in the fall and give this another go to try to take it sub 7.