FKT: Sam Herreid - Delaware & Raritan Canal Trail (NJ) - 2021-04-05

Before this run I used the Suunto app to draw the same route as Cole Crosby which summed to 109.8 km/68.3 miles. After running the route, my watch logged a distance of 111.0 km/69.0 miles rather than Cole’s 113.0 km/70.8miles, but at this distance, plus/minus a few km might just be splitting hairs :)

At 4:50am April 5th, 2021, I started running from Milford/Frenchtown towards New Brunswick. I ran unsupported, carrying all of the food and water I used throughout the run. I had never set foot on any part of the route before, but figured road flats seemed like the right choice. I didn’t regret it. The run was uneventful and quite pleasant until the afternoon sun bamboozled me into gulping down the last of my 2.5L of water ahead of schedule. Having cut my long distance teeth in Alaska on long single push alpine climbs and 100 mile skis, my hydration calculations don’t quite scale to the US East Coast! The last 10 miles were rather dehydrated and I walked some to keep sweating to a minimum. 

I broke with my vegan ideals and ate Cheez-Its for the salt along with enough stroopwafels to make a strong case for dual Dutch citizenship.

The trail and scenery were gorgeous, but in typical millennial fashion I mostly fixated on my devices, the pace and map display on my watch while playing a handful of tracks on repeat-1. I would have loved to run slower and soak it all in, but my tired Sunnto was threatening to run out of battery. I strolled into New Brunswick in 12 hours and 12 minutes.