Afternoon Run

Lunch Weight Training

Lunch Workout

Morning Ride

Evening Weight Training



This FKT attempt was my A-race for the year, capping off a good three month training cycle. My wife was kind enough to crew me, meeting me at miles 18 and 23. Mile 18, near the Bear Lake junction seems to be the earliest that anyone is able to crew unless they want to climb up Flattop Mountain. My strategy was to run miles 1-9, switch to power hiking to the top of Flattop, then run the very steep and moderately technical downhill to the aid station at mile ~18.5. From there, miles 20-22 are somewhat difficult to navigate due to the number of intersecting trails and dense brush, but they are runnable. The plan was to then have a quick shoe swap at mile 24 then finish strong on the road run to Beaver Meadows.

The first 18 miles went well. I then switched from Evo Mafates to Xodus Ultras since my feet were feeling pretty beat up. This was likely a mistake as miles 20-23 were more technical than I remembered and I ended up fiddling with my lacing many times in an attempt to better lock down the Xodus Ultras. At the mile 24 aid station, I switched out my vest for a hand bottle, swapped the Xodus for my pair of Salomon Pulsars, and tried dealing with some nausea by taking a walk break uphill to the final road section. This all helped to get me back into the game and I was able to finish strong with an 8'30" final mile.

Overall it was a great day. I was lucky on several fronts: no wildlife-related detours, very few hikers on the Flattop descent, beautiful sunny (if extremely windy and cold) weather, only a single wrong turn in the section that is somewhat difficult to navigate, and excellent crewing by my generous wife. Despite the slow pace from miles 21-23, this was my best run of the year.

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Steven VanDenDriessche

Trans-RMNP Marathon

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Afternoon Run

Lunch Weight Training

Lunch Workout

Morning Ride

Evening Weight Training

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