There's something magical about this Niagara stretch of the Bruce. And when I say magical, I'm talking like a dark, tainted, impure sort of magic that manipulates reality, making what should be some of the easiest running somehow the worst grind of your life. As far as Bruce sections go, the elevation gain here isn't especially remarkable, and aside from the first little bit, it's not overly technical terrain. But there's something that occurs in the latter half that just absolutely takes the wind out of your sails, drains you entirely, and makes you feel utterly weak. It did for me at least. I suppose the sun exposure on the longer road stretches and some of the trails can make it uniquely challenging, but even still I can't quite make it add up in my head. I'm not entirely sure how to explain this, but as hard as I was pushing to maintain my pace by the end, I was also sort of just coasting... It wasn't necessarily feeling all that physically demanding (though, let's be honest, it was!), and there was never that heart-pounding rush to go-go-go. Instead, the real challenge was more in the mentality of simply choosing to continue to run, consistently, and accepting that I wasn't going to be hitting that higher gear for faster paces that should be achievable on this relatively flat ground! It's the same sensation that got me to DNF in 2021, and "slowly" finish in 9h28 in 2022. Dark. Magic.
But this time, we were prepared for that! It's still messed up, and I can't explain it, but it wasn't a shock. And this 3rd attempt at the Niagara FKT honestly could not have gone better! My mobile aid station/crew chief, Kurt, and I even commented to each other afterwards that this all went eerily smoothly. I mean, aside from starting the race (Happy Trails Stone Cairn) 3 minutes after the official start time, consequently having to awkwardly and sheepishly pass by numerous runners on technical single track in the first 2k (fortunately everyone appeared to be very friendly and accepting of my buffoonery!). Oh, and let's not forget getting stuck waiting at that damn dreaded Glendale Lift Bridge!!! (Although it felt like an eternity in the moment, it looks like that was only a 5 or 6 minute delay, which we took advantage of to bust out the Theragun, so in the end, despite it being my biggest fear for this attempt, my legs were thankful). Apart from those moments though, we had a plan with projected splits for each of the 9 aid stations along the way, and we were genuinely nailing them with relative ease the whole way, even with a bit of wiggle room to accommodate the inevitable slow down towards the end! Kurt also followed his side of the plan perfectly, being exactly where I needed him, when I needed him, with exactly what I needed. Genuinely, nothing significant went wrong, and anything that wasn't completely perfect was easy enough to roll with. Nothing came close to failing, including my body - even if my mind may have been questioning things a wee bit. Also, no vomiting this time!! yaaayyy!
The time to beat was 7h55m, and our written plan had us finishing in 7h41m. So when I rolled into that finish line and headed right to that beautiful Stone Cairn southern terminus at 7h39m, despite all that mystical dark magic holding me back, I genuinely couldn't believe it! These predicted times are supposed to be rough estimates, but this was right where I was hoping for! And I've only just realized this, but I guess if you account for the 3 minute late start, we were pretty well right on the money!!