FKT: Tim Crow - Buckeye Trail "Little Loop" (OH) - 2022-07-30

Athletes
Route variation
Standard route
Multi-sport
No
Gender category
Male
Style
Self-supported
Start date
Finish date
Total time
4d 21h 37m 0s
Report

On Monday July 25, 2022 at 6:02am I started from the Bedford Reservation/Egbert Picnic Shelter to attempt a self-supported FKT on the Buckeye Trail (BT) Little Loop. I was traveling with a Nathan Vapor Air 7L vest with no bladder. I carried minimal items: Energizer lamp and spare batteries, 1 thermal blanket, 2 12 ounce Gatorade bottles, Squirrels Nut Butter, 2 rain ponchos, about 1400 calories of bars, a change of socks and underwear, reflector vest, iPhone, and charging cords for phone and watch. I was using LEKI polls. Due to the amount of road on the BT Little Loop, and the dryness  of the trails in NE Ohio, I was able to run in a pair of Hoka Clifton 8s with no worry of a shoe change. I was wearing the Coros Apex, and kept it in ultra mode. My plan was to eat at every possible place, forage berries, and hydrate when and where possible (there is sufficient water on the course from parks at this time of year). The weather was humid the first morning, but then Monday-Wednesday the high was 82 degrees and lows around 64-66 degrees. But, on Thursday, the temps soared to 88, and the heat was a challenge and slowed the pace, and made me stop mid day simply to rest out of the heat on the trail. My Coros Apex made it to mile 152 without needing charged. I took the opportunity at mile 152 to rest and sleep for 5-6 hours, and charge my watch. The course has several challenging aspects. The first is the inconsistency of the Blue Blazes. There are many places that the blazes are missing, wrong, or lacking rigor in their presence, e.g., where a trail dumps into a trailhead/parking lot. The other challenge is the lack of possible nutrition on the course. There simply are not many places to fuel. I intentionally started in Bedford to run clockwise the parts of the course I had never ran, and leave the familiar for the end. I had no issues with traveling solo, and enjoyed the beauty of the course. I had two low moments: 1) Wednesday early morning due to lack of sleep, hydration, and nutrition. I was hallucinating and hypothermic, and was ready to pull the plug when the sun arose, and 2) Saturday early morning the last 6 miles was horrific. Much the same issues, but I had a sense of extreme paranoia that I was going around in the same continual circle, and wasn’t making progress. Beyond the 5-6 hours of sleep on Wednesday, several trail naps of 30-60 minutes were done on the course. The BT Little Loop course is estimated at 250-258 miles. I finished with a total of 274 miles, which is easily accounted for by missing a blue blaze and having to backtrack to get on course, and by times of going off the immediate course for calories. I finished at the Bedford Reservation/Egbert on Saturday July 30, 2022 at 3:39am. Which is a time of 4 days, 21 hours, 37 minutes for the BTLittleLoop 250.