Hi, Jamie,
Very nice run of the Outer Mountain Loop in Big Bend NP and thanks for adding it to this site. My brother, Greg Drum, Big Bend National Park's pilot and a law enforcement ranger, and I attempted the loop on December 31, 2016. I completed it in 8 hrs 4 min 24 sec. Greg ended up dropping out at about 22.5 miles (Homer Wilson, where our wives met us) because of severe muscle soreness induced on the long, 3200+ foot descent of Juniper Canyon. We GPS'd the run, but I'm unable to download at this time due to the ANT Agent messing up. I'll keep trying. In any event, it was a great day out. Your time of 8:10 motivated me a bit at the end since I lost about an hour nursing Greg along the Dodson, then spending about 20-min at Homer Wilson deciding if I wanted to go it alone. There were plenty of hikers on New Years eve out there, and we passed a fellow Ranger friend of Greg's on the Dodson. Needless to say, the beer tasted pretty good afterwards.
I agree, it's nice to have some Outer Mountain Loop love for future FKTs on it. For sure, I'd like to see someone blaze it in under 5-hours, but more realistically in under 6-hours. I'm prodding Greg to get his legs conditioned to blitz the downhills, which destroyed him during our above mentioned run. I think he can do it in under 7-hours. Actually, my legs were pretty beat as well, but not living there like Greg motivated me to just get it done. I'm currently enjoying the snow in Marquette, MI in the Upper Peninsula, my home area.
Ok, the FKT's on the Outer Mountain Loop are starting to roll, I think!! Have at it! And, as you and others are probably aware, the best time to run the loop is Nov - March to avoid the heat...or even Dec-Feb.
Cheers,
Scott Drum
sdrum@nmu.edu
Associate Professor - Exercise Physiology
Northern Michigan University
Marquette, MI