This FKT attempt was my A-race for the year, capping off a good injury-free three month training cycle. My wife was kind enough to crew me, meeting me at miles 18 and 23. Mile 18, near the Bear Lake junction seems to be the earliest that anyone is able to crew unless they want to climb up Flattop Mountain. My strategy was to run miles 1-9, switch to power hiking to the top of Flattop, then run the very steep and moderately technical downhill to the aid station at mile ~18.5. From there, miles 20-22 are somewhat difficult to navigate due to the number of intersecting trails and dense brush, but they are runnable. The plan was to then have a quick shoe swap at mile 24 and finish strong on the road run to Beaver Meadows.
The first 18 miles went well and there were few hikers coming up Flattop, so I was able to run the downhill to the Bear Lake junction. I then switched from Evo Mafates to Xodus Ultras since my feet were feeling pretty beat up. This was likely a mistake as miles 20-23 were more technical than I remembered from my scouting runs and I ended up fiddling with my lacing many times in an attempt to better lock down the Xodus Ultras. At the mile 24 aid station, I switched out my vest for a hand bottle, swapped the Xodus for my pair of Salomon Pulsars, and tried dealing with some nausea by taking a walk break uphill to the final road section. This all helped to get me back into the game and I was able to finish strong with an 8'30" final mile.
Overall it was a great day. I was lucky on several fronts: no wildlife-related detours, very few hikers on the Flattop descent, beautiful sunny (if extremely windy and cold) weather, only a single wrong turn in the section that is somewhat difficult to navigate, and excellent crewing by my generous wife. Despite the slow pace from miles 21-23, this was my best run of the year.
Hydration: I started out by carrying 2.5 liters of water from the Kawuneeche Visitor Center up Flattop. This was likely a mistake and time can be saved by filtering from the abundant water sources on the way. At mile 18 I switched to a second pre-loaded vest with two soft flasks. This worked well. For the final stretch from mile 24-27, I swapped the vest for a hand bottle.
Nutrition: I mostly stuck to Spring Energy gels although I did eat a Maurten caffeinated gel to try to get an energy bump. Despite mostly good work on regular fueling, I still ended up encountering some nausea issues from miles 21-24.
Other challenges: Although beautifully sunny, it was incredibly windy and very cold. I think there may have been a record low set in Winter Park that morning. The wind definitely slowed progress near the top of Flattop. I also considered digging out my extra pair of socks I had packed, not for my feet but to use as gloves for my hands since they were getting fairly numb from the crazy wind and cold. Additionally, I ran into some calf cramping surprisingly early in the day. Even training for this route, the constant uphill for 14 miles was still a challenge for me.