FKT: Ryan Ghelfi - Half Dome, Yosemite (CA) - 2008-06-16

This FKT was originally reported on my site, which is dead (and I was on the trail and ran part of it with Ryan, but I could only keep up for a short ways). So as I did for Rickey Gates' FKT, I'm adding some of the info from that page here so that it isn't lost completely and may be of help to people going for the record. 

Splits:

• Start and end: the new sign across from the old bridge (at the gauging station in other words). This is the "official" starting point for timed runs on Half Dome.
• Splits
  • FootBridge- 7:17
  • Gate at Vernal- 17:16
  • Bathrooms above Nevada- 34:04
  • 2 Mile sign- 1:00:28
  • Base of Sub dome- 1:18:20
  • Top- 1:32:54
  • Down time- 57:56
  • Finish- 2:30:50

Notes and comments from Ryan:

Like most runners, Ryan walked the steep stairs before the top of Vernal Falls, the last bit before Nevada Falls, the sub dome and the cables. He said the hardest part of the run is keeping it together for the last thirty minutes on the uphill part. He says that "It all happens in that section… Mentally that is the hardest part so prepare for that like that is the whole race. It's going to feel slow. And I find that it is very easy to want to give up in that section". Last year, he was on record pace at the "2 miles to go" sign, but lost a lot of time between there and the summit. This year he kept it together to reach the summit in 1:32:54, running the downhill leg in 57:56.

As with previous record holders that I know of, Ryan's run was unsupported, meaning that he carried with him whatever he was going to eat and drink on the trail. He took one liter of water, a couple of Gu packs and some electrolyte tabs. He recommends taking in about 300-400 calories if you can, but he was actually only able to down 200 calories himself.

You can get the complete original write-up via the Wayback Machine: https://web.archive.org/web/20100918225850/http://yosemiteexplorer.com/…