I came into town to visit my parents and extended family. On Sunday March 9th I attempted the Adena Trace FKT. It was a solo run before the long drive home. Tried to get to the trail head early, but got a little thrown off by the time change. Thanks to Taton Bertsch for posting a very solid time earlier this year and giving me something to work for. To start the day was sunny and cold, but would reach 50 by the time I finished. I went with shorts and a long sleeve but no gloves. The right call. I didn't want to carry a lot of water so I finished my first bottle of LMNT before heading off. I brought with me a .5L bottle with a pack of LMNT in my Janji fanny pack along with a Maurten Gel and a pack of Stinger energy Gummys. I started at the Brookville Dam and Spillway and headed off in a counter clockwise direction doing the East side of the lake first and then the West. First 13 miles went smoothly while I averaged a 7:50 pace keeping it pretty easy. The only difficulty was some long stretches of deep mud. Turning onto the Causeway I drank my bottle and ate the Stinger. Once I crossed the causeway I made the sharp turn to head south along the western side of the lake. First couple of miles went well. However with about 8 miles to go the trail got pretty hard to follow with a bunch of fallen trees. Concentrating on the trail I forgot about the Maurten I still had and took it with about 6 miles to go. Made a few wrong turns costing me about three minutes. Got through it through and was able to drop the pace back down for the last mile. I would like to do the route again but will be going clockwise. I recommend doing some recon if possible.
Overall tough and challenging route. Had a great time and will recommend.