Snow Running On A Foreign Section of the NET

Goodbye Sweet Dirt

Exploring Buckland Hills

The Morning After

Brookfield Evening Social Run

Previously 3:31:57 by Neil Clauson, who duked it out with Mr Nephew in 2017, and left a very tough time to beat.  I ran this last year at just under 4 hours and realized it would not be easy to beat.  Came out really strong and felt great until the final 5 miles, and hit the wall hard on the final climb up Bald Mt.  Usually I can slow down and get it back but that didn't happen this time.  It got worse.  I was easily in line to get the FKT but found myself unable to run at the end. Descended well enough to the road, but the final road section was absolute torture where I was getting light-headed and on the verge of crying, puking, and passing out.  I alternated between walking and shuffling, checking my time and distance left to get the FKT. I pushed through the bonk with all I had, will-power battling my body yelling at me to stop. Will-power won (just barely)!  As bad as it felt at the time, I'm more then repaid by the feeling of achieving my goal through extreme hardship. 

Analyzing it after, I think I was far more dehydrated then I realized, and maybe a bit calorie-depleted. I've been doing 30-45 mile runs every weekend for a while, and after I let up on that, I've found I can go quite fast on shorter distances with little water/nutrition. I decided to only take along a handheld 500ml (with 150cal of Tailwind) and a nut butter cliff bar, which was probably a bit cocky, and I paid for it. Temp was around 80 with light humidity and a nice breeze, and I've acclimated to far beyond that...still, bad choice! The spring at Glastonbury was not flowing out of the pipe and I couldn't fill all the way dipping in the shallow pool, drank about 300ml and took 300 with me for the second half...not enough! After finishing, it took me 5 hours to pee, even after drinking copious amounts of water (then beer). When I finished I was totally wrecked and had to lay in car air-conditioning a bit, but felt good shortly after.  My legs felt numb at the end but are not sore now, which convinces me that it was dehydration that led to the weak finish, and I think I could do better with proper preparedness.  

And for anyone that's looking to try this, the West Ridge Trail is notoriously overgrown (Ramble in the Bramble), and it totally lived up to it's reputation. It's hard to go fast when you can't see what you're stepping on. I wore long shorts and high socks but still got cut up on the section of exposed skin, and also had a couple hard ankle twists.

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Dan Grip

FKT: Glastenbury/West Ridge Loop

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Snow Running On A Foreign Section of the NET

Goodbye Sweet Dirt

Exploring Buckland Hills

The Morning After

Brookfield Evening Social Run

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