In May 2022 I'll be hiking the entire length of the USA, from the Mexican border to the Canadian border via the Pacific Crest Trail. As part of my training in 2021 I set myself the goal of running 20 marathons, including a 79 mile ultra. On 25th February 2022 I undertook my next challenge, attempting to set the Taff Trail FKT whilst unsupported.
Although the trail is traditionally ran from Cardiff to Brecon, I ran the trail in reverse to allow myself to remain completely unsupported with the Cardiff finish line less than 2 miles from my house. Starting at 8.55am with 2.5L of liquids in my vest and numerous snacks, I set off at a steady pace. The weather was overcast but luckily dry and remained this way throughout the day.
The first 15 miles were largely uphill on rough gravel terrain, making it a hard start to the day, especially wearing road shoes rather than trail runners.
At mile 15 I filled up my water bottles from a stream, a slight risk without water purification tablets, but it allowed me to stay unsupported. At mile 31 I filled up at another small 'stream' with water running off a hill; no idea how safe it was but a risk worth taking to stay topped up on liquids.
At mile 36 just outside of Pontypridd the trail was closed due to maintenance, with the diversion adding an inconvenient ~0.5 miles to the run. The diversion followed parallel to the trail for 2 miles before rejoining in Pontypridd town centre.
Miles 40 - 50 were insignificant and flew by, having ran the Tongwynlais to Cardiff stretch many times previously.
At mile 50 I realised I had far too much left in the tank, and ran just over a 25 minute 5k to close out the day, arriving at the Wales Millennium Centre in just under 9 hours 10 minutes.