I started out on my own at Pen Mar and ran the first stretch solo, bouncing through the rock sections. I had never seen this part of the AT before and it was one of the trickier stretches! But I felt good and calm. I passed some thru-hikers early on who were already getting after the day.
Dustin Meeker was waiting for me at Foxville Rd, and I grabbed 2 bottles from him plus running company! We chatted and stumbled through some rocks together and then cruised through some easy sections. I stopped talking as I experienced a bit of a low point, likely from running out of water. After I chugged some water from the tap at monument knob and washed down a caffeinated salt pill I felt fantastic!
We rolled into Reno Monument where I met my crew for the first time: Daniel O'Connor and Marty Zaback. With the extra boost from seeing them plus refill of fluids and carbs, I was feeling great. I was also right on my spreadsheet time down to the minute, despite feeling like I was on the conservative side as far as effort. Dustin dropped out here so my crew could deliver him back to his parked car, and I headed out solo and full of gratitude to have such lovely folks behind me.
Overall it felt like a quiet and calm day on the AT. It was misty and on the cooler side, but the cloud cover made visibility really good as sometimes sun peaking or strobing through trees as you run can be disorienting. I refilled water at Gathland State Park and kept pushing, still feeling pretty solid. This stretch was comfortingly familiar from JFK50mile (which I had an outstanding 50mile debut at in 2023, narrowly missing the win behind Jennifer Lichter) – although felt longer today lol.
As I drew closer to Weaverton, I started feeling some IT band pinching on my right leg. I settled down quite a bit on the downhills, especially the drop down to Weaverton. It never got painful but given the time buffer I had and upcoming goals, I backed off in a way I would not have if this were a race, and I don't have any regrets. I met Dan right after that descent and grabbed new bottles and gels, and a new running partner! He informed me a train had just passed, so I was happy we wouldn't get stalled at the tracks. I said we had about 10km/6miles left and he said he thought we had 10 miles, which threw me for a little loop. We debated each other until he double checked the spreadsheet on his phone and conceited, few!
I struggled a little bit to follow the trail through Harper's Ferry, where I had never been before, and then we met Marty right before the final climb. The two of them pushed me up that final climb (metaphorically, no actual physical assistance) as the cold rain started to pick up. We got to the finish together in a total time of 7:43:24 – three minutes off my spreadsheet prediction (perhaps the most impressive part of the entire day). If I had not had a couple confusion moments or knee nervousness I could have price-is-righted it bang on!
Then came the hardest part – the hike back to the car in the cold rain and wind. Thermoregulation was off from the long effort and I was scary cold. This is the one part of logistics I failed on, I should have grabbed a jacket from Marty on the way through. Don't underestimate the >2mile hike back to the pickup spot!
Altogether it was a great day on an iconic stretch of trail for my very first FKT attempt. Still proud of how my body held up as I reintroduced a long effort for the first time after injuries (pelvic stress fractures) and other health issues.
Love this route and all the people out on the AT in any capacity!