Gives me a little joy to know this FKT is held by a Mainer, and kudos to Jordan for blazing the way with an impressive run a few years back.
I’ve missed the unpredictability and challenge of Eastern mountains, and love all the nuances in play on a day like today. Steep, loose terrain; blistering winds atop the mountain; a thick carpet of leaves concealing the best footing; a wet and slick lower third of the trail. Every day is different, the mountain is always rugged, and the only predictability is the unexpected.
I had a relatively smooth ascent beginning at the ranger station trail sign at 8:45, and felt solid until the second half of the re-route section when fatigue caused me to get a little clumsy. Once over the lip onto the tablelands, I was enshrouded in a cloud and faced harsh winds from the southeast. I tagged the sign at 59:59, and headed down. I almost missed the turn at the Hunt/Abol intersection, and accidentally started down the landslide instead of keeping right for the re-route– probably lost about 45 seconds. The rest of the descent was solid, save for a loose shoelace and a somersault with about a mile to go due to some slippery rocks. Tagged the sign at the bottom in 1:36:02 and stopped my watch a second or so later.
I’ve always mused over and appreciated the inherent humility of a Fastest Known Time; thousands and thousands of athletes and adventurers have covered this trail before me, few giving much care to their pace, and fewer caring to track it with a GPS and make a claim to be the fastest of all of them. So I may be the fastest of that small community for now, and for whatever it matters; the mountain stays standing as tall and proud as ever, and I am merely a day wiser and a little more tired than yesterday.
Katahdin is a seriously rugged, bouldery, and technical mountain, making fast travel difficult. Nonetheless, I think sub 1:30 is certainly attainable for a more specialized runner than myself.