Trip Report:
Timothy Lake Loop FKT Attempt
October 8, 2023
Fastest Known Times aren’t very easy to come by, especially when you’re 64. You have to be strategic, and go after ones you might have a chance of breaking (which aren’t very many), or try to establish the much easier “First Known Time”. Today I attempted to establish the FKT for the Timothy Lake Loop. This is one of my all-time favorite runs, and my finish today puts me at a total of 20 loops around the lake over the past 10 years. Many of these have been part of official trail races, so they would not qualify for an FKT.
I’ve run this loop as part of a race 14x, solo 5x, with a friend 1x, and in the dark at night with my headlamp 3 times. This was certainly not my fastest loop around the lake. As I get older my times get slower, and I’ve also become more prone to falls. Today I took one hard fall, but lucky for me I landed on soft fir needles and dirt. Got up, brushed myself off and kept running. I was really not in shape to make this run today, but I wanted to keep my annual run streak around Timothy alive, and I had noticed that someone had published the Timothy Lake Loop on the FKT website, but amazingly nobody had posted a time. I just started running again after major surgery 6 months ago for an inguinal hernia. It’s been a long road to recovery, and I’m very grateful to be back running. Today was very special.
Stay After It!
Steven Wagoner
Earth Runner
Timothy Lake Running Statistics:
Date: Sunday October 8, 2023
11:59 am Start Time
11.58 miles / Total Elapsed Time: 2h 26m 21s
4.8 Average mph / 6.4 Max mph / 76 rpm
12:37 Average Pace / 9:19 Max Pace / 10:31 Fastest Mile
492’ asc / 446’ dsc / 1,317 kcal