ABOUT ME
For the most part of my life I had been a bicycle freak and avoided going by foot wherever it was possible. Then I started running in 2016 after a personal crisis and resulting change in lifestyle (which helped me a lot in this troubled times). At this point of my life I also did a lot of bicycle touring and through this became interested in being outdoors again. I did my first day hike since a very long time in fall 2018, and became addicted. The following summer I did my first thru-hike of the german hiking trail "Westweg" and since then hiked thousands of kilometers on countless multi day hikes. I quickly found pleasure in doing long hiking days pushing the covered distances with every new season. Since one year I also started running on a daily base (except for my hiking days). Funnily enough today I hardly use a bicycle anymore.
THE IDEA
During my thru-hike of the swiss Jura Crest Trail in late summer this year I did one day with 65 km by doing some running in between the hiking. After coming home and listening to several FKT Podcasts and reading on the web page, the idea of maybe doing a FKT attempt before this year's end slowly took form. I chose the "Markgräfler Wiiwegli" as the distance of about 90 km seemed doable and there was no FKT set up to this time. As I live in Freiburg doing the route northbound also gave me the possibility to finish in my hometown. In 2020 I had already hiked the trail southbound but at that time was not able to cross the swiss border due to corona regulations.
I decided to do the attempt on my 40th birthday on the 27th of October to have some fixed date for the attempt but also because it seemed to me like a really good way to celebrate this day for me. My idea was to start in the night as I imagined the sunset and upcoming day being a nice motivation after already covering some distance over the night.
THE TRIP
The days before the attempt I slowly shifted my day / night routine. The night from the 25th to the 26th of October I stayed awake until 10 am. Then I slept the whole day getting up at about 8 pm. After having coffee, breakfast and doing some stretching routines I left home about 10 pm to catch the train to Basel. From there I took the next train for one more station to arrive at Grenzach just in time for the beginning of my birthday at midnight. At the train station I did some last preparations to finally start on the trail about quarter past midnight.
I started with the rhythm of one kilometer of hiking alternating with one kilometer of running and the idea to adapt this rhythm spontaneous to my needs while continuing on the way. Interestingly in the end I stuck to this rhythm for the most part of the trip. Sometimes in the beginning I extended the running part into the hiking time but at some point decided to better stick to the straight rhythm again as there still was a long way to go. I had no clear idea of how fast I wanted to go except that I said I would be faster then 20 hours. When noticing in the last hours that I could stay under 14 hours I started extending the running periods again from time to time. Unfortunately for going uphill I switched to hiking also during the running kilometers.
I did three major brakes on my way. I stopped after 25.5 km for about 5 minutes, and after 53.5 and 77 km for about 10 minutes. I used this brakes to sit down and eat some food and also get some new pre-packed food packs out of the backpack. In the last break I also took off my shoes one time to take of my running tights. Apart from this I only had short stops for orientation, refilling water, rearranging stuff and using the "toilet".
The night went really well and at dawn at about 8 am I was just before Müllheim having already completed nearly 50 kilometers and with that more than half of the way what gave me a huge push. With the beginning of the daylight I also started listening to music which I already had been looking forward to. During the night time it would have seemed strange to deprive myself of my hearing sense.
Endurance wise everything went fine but after about 70 kilometers some pain in the bridge parts of my feet began to arise. I now think this may be due to the fact that without thinking about it I was using Zero Drop Altra shoes in which I am really comfortable hiking long distance days but had nearly zero experiences running in.
The day was really beautiful with lots of sunlight but approaching noon it started to get really hot and I was happy to have already covered a lot of way during the colder night (which was a mild one for the time of the year). After a whole night in wet shoes from a few way parts through wet grass I was happy when my shoes and socks began to dry with the beginning of the warm day.
I had a short part of the trail blocked due to woodcutting work shortly before Sulzburg so I had to take a bypass. I lost the track a few times but always noticed it quite fast. Interestingly this happened to me in the daytime more often than at night. Only one time shortly before Staufen I went about 250 meters in the wrong direction until I noticed I was off track and had to return.
I managed to finish at the last signpost in St. Georgen Schneeburgstraße shortly after 2 pm. The final time was 13:46:33 which is way faster than I expected. I was happy to be able to buy an ice cold coke just after finishing the trail.
FOOD & WATER
I carried about 5000 calories of food mainly consisting of bars, vegan snacks, croissants and some gels. During two breaks I also ate cold soaked mashed potatoes and Ramen. Finally I only managed to eat about half of all the things I had taken with me. While packing the stuff I already thought that I would not be able to eat all of it.
For water I carried two soft flasks each with 500 ml of capacity. I refilled them on the countless fountains along the way ignoring the "Non drinking water" signs. I also had a Beefree water filter with me which I used at no time. Because I was unsure about the water situation on the trail I also had the 1 liter flask of the filter filled nearly all the time. This was unnecessary as I was always able to refill the drinking flasks before they were empty. I would carry the filter again anyway in a possible future attempt but without the backup water.
GEAR
I took a lot more stuff than it was neccessary but was fine with it as I didn't suffer under too much weight during the way and would not have wanted to risk having stuff missing.
I wore running tights with running shorts and a merino longsleeve with a t-shirt over it during the night. In the day I switched to running shorts and t-shirt. I had a wind jacket and windpants with me as a backup. I also had a down vest with me for the breaks which I didn't use.
I used a Ultimate Direction Fastpack 25 for most of the stuff and a Naked Waist Band which I used primarily for having fast access to my phone for orientation. I also had the idea to use it for storing the trekking poles during running periods but ended up never using it for this case as I always carried them in my hands.
I used both my phone and my Garmin running watch for tracking. This turned out to be a wise decision as the track on my phone got interrupted as I accidentaly switched it off during a toilet break just a few kilometers after the beginning.
I had a spare headlamp with me and a powerbank as I was not sure if I needed to recharge my new phone during the tracking. I did not need neither one of this devices.
I also carried a light weight set of clothes for the time after the trip as I didn't return to home immediately.
REFLECTIONS
I think this was by far one of the craziest things I did in my life - and I really liked it!
I am happy with the time I achieved and I impressed myself by just being able to do a thing like this.
Anyway I also learned that the dealing-with-pain-thing which seem to be part of a lot of ultra activities is not a thing I need to have in my life very often. This I assumed already before trying the attempt. Interestingly in all the pre-trip planning phase I never thought about the possibility that this kind of trip could have a impact on my daily running routine. All the time I assumed that I was just going to run to work the next day as I am doing usually. After finishing and realizing the pain in my feet I got scared by the thought that maybe I could have gone a little to far. I did some running the next day but only for 2 kilometers. Since then I try to spare myself by doing only short daily running distances but anyway writing this report about one week and a half after the trip I still feel some effects of the overstress. In a possible future attempt I would pay more tribute to this as the ability to run every day is way more important for me than something like this FKT attempt. At the moment I think that if I would plan to do a long route again I would propably approach it in a strictly hiking attempt over a longer period of time.
Concerning this trail I know that for sure there are people out there who can do it faster than me - what I'm really excited about now is wether one of you will do it!