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Hundred Mile Wilderness FKT--23:09

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Grafton Adventure

What a day. Super proud of this run, and really special to finish the year with a success, ending at the hometown lighthouse. Huge thanks to Lila Gaudrault for pacing miles 6-14 and returning to cheer on the finish, to Jack Kingsley for biking miles 57 to the finish, to Will Peterson for happening to give me a call when I really needed it, and to my Mom, Betsy for handing me bottles all day. Big kudos to Lila for running such a fast time a couple years ago--kinda a stud. 

The run was a tale of 3 parts: the first marathon went super smoothly. I was a little quick to start but not fast enough to pay a serious price later. The next 22 miles were seriously brutal. Although objectively stunning, the roads through southern Maine started to become super monotonous, and give my legs a beating--I couldn't wait for the soft surfaces to start--but they really don't until mile 48 or so at Thornton Academy! I kind of disengaged for a while (not great--but also certainly due to having no clue where I was) and slowed down a bit. Unfortunately this section also has a few unavoidable big intersection crossings (looking at you, Biddeford at mile 46!). Finally hit TA around mile 48 and got some juice from being back in familiar territory. Super proud of the last 17.5. The finish was emotional to run through my hometown like I've done a million times--filled with gratitude for the day. 

A quick disclaimer: the HR data is whack for 2 reasons. First, my watch is bad and my HR was not 170+ for 3 hours of this. Second, my watch is bad and can't hold a charge for more than 5 hours. I carried a charging cord and portable battery plugged it in for 20ish minutes around mile 36, and then again around mile 61. 

Now for what Strava is truly for: the Stress Test was a concept developed by Tim Geithner, head of the New York Fed during the 2008 GFC. The Fed had pumped billions upon billions of dollars into the financial sector to keep struggling banks afloat, but the market was still tanking because everyone was scared that everyone else was underwater. So nobody on Wall St would lend, and nobody on Main St could get the funds to operate. Ergo, stock prices continued to fall. Geithner's idea was simple--give financial institutions a hypothetical and unknown adverse market scenario to test their books against. If the book could withstand the test case, they were safe to lend to! Once implemented, it turned out that the financial sector was far healthier than anyone had previously thought, and the market began to recover. 

This run (an adverse hypothetical) was my own version of a Stress Test. I felt I needed to run an honest 100k before Black Canyon. I felt I withstood the simulated crisis fairly well, with a lot learned to take into February's race.

Some may say this has been too much writing for what was essentially a road 100k on a fairly unknown route. To those people, please consider reading Sun Tzu's "The Art of War" instead. It's much lighter reading.

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Xander Keiter

Stress Test - The Eastern Trail FKT

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B2B shocker

Hundred Mile Wilderness FKT--23:09

(Un)Pleasant up/down

Sopo Reps

Grafton Adventure

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