FKT Attempt

With the lack of races happening this year my coach suggested trying my hand at an FKT attempt. The Waterloo-Pinckney trails is about 36 miles that starts on one end of Waterloo Recreation and ends in Pinckney Recreation. I was about 6 weeks out from my 50K that was in Pinckney Recreation. I had recovered for a couple weeks, had a couple weeks of workouts and then tapered before the attempt. I had been dealing with some on and off right hamstring (or IT band?) soreness ever since the race but it seemed to calm down right before the attempt on Saturday Dec 5th 2020.
I had been running in an REI pack but had just picked up the Salomon ADV Skin 8 around Black Friday. While I shouldn’t have done anything new, without ever trying this pack on a run I decided to use it for the FKT attempt. Surprisingly it ended up working great and I’m glad I made the last minute decision to use it. In my pack I had the following: headlamp, first aid kit, toilet paper, pepper spray, backup charger, phone charger, headphones, hot hands, and an extra pair of socks. I also had about 3.5 liters of water with Tailwind, 3 sleeves of Clif blocks, 6 Huma gels, a couple handfuls of pretzels, and some dates. I ended up consuming all of the Huma gels, 1.5 of the Clif block sleeves, a handful of pretzels, and 2.5 liters of water. In total I took in about 1500 calories. I never had any stomach issues but I definitely should have taken in more calories because I did feel hungry about 5 hours in.

I started the trail a little before 8:30am and it was an overcast chilly day. I saw a couple people in the first hour but that was it for a little bit. I was moving at a decent clip and I felt my hamstring briefly but the soreness went away pretty fast. Around 7 miles in I started to hear a pack of dogs barking. I kept running and the barking got louder. I’ve run up on bears and rattlesnakes before but something about dogs always puts such fear in me. This was the start of me slowing down. There was absolutely no one around and the barking kept getting louder. I started to turn around ready to run back and scrap the attempt. I saw some animals in the distance so I just stopped. They eventually passed and I reluctantly started running forward again. I came up on a road crossing not too long after and saw some hunters. They assured me that the pack of dogs were just hunting dogs chasing off the coyotes and I had nothing to worry about. I kept on going and passed many more hunters. This is when I realized that even though rifle season was over there was still hunting and I should have been wearing more orange than the buff around my neck.

I made it through this heavy hunting section and moved away from any people again. Several times throughout the run I heard dogs barking which made me stop running and just walk in case they were nearby. Also throughout the run I probably added at least an extra mile onto the run from going the wrong way and having to backtrack to find the trail. Thankfully I had both my watch and my phone to help me with the navigation. Around the halfway point I was running through a county park and was happy to see a decent amount of people. While I usually relish trails that are not full of people the past few hours had made me find comfort in seeing people. This was also around the time that my legs were starting to get sore. I tried not to think too much about and just keep moving forward. I eventually moved past the park and back into the remote sections. Between animal noises and the noises that I was making I was on edge and jumpy. The trail was beautiful and serene but I couldn’t wait to make it to the familiarity of Pinckney Rec.

By the time I made it to Pinckney Rec around mile 29/30 my legs felt trashed. I was having trouble even lifting them over small trees that had fallen over the trail. I was relieved to have made it to Pinckney Rec and my nerves were calmed when I saw a decent amount of hikers and mountain bikers. These last 6 miles dragged though. I had already lost a ton of time from taking wrong turns and stopping when I heard barking and stopping to talk to hunters. Even though this was the flattest section I was walking so much of it. I thought I would easily get the FKT but a few miles from the end and I was worried. When I got to the end though I was elated. I had finished with just 20 minutes to spare to snag the FKT. While I walked to the grass to wait for my sister to pick me up, I told myself I would never do this again.

However, now that it’s been a couple days and the soreness has started to subside a bit, I’m thinking it would be nice to try this again in the spring. I know for a fact that I could cut time off the attempt. I would make less wrong turns and not add on unnecessary mileage since I have a better idea of the trail. I would hopefully have more confidence to not let the sounds of animals put me on such edge and even stop. I would take in more calories to hopefully delay the energy drop at the end. And once again I always want to work on having more grit and determination to push harder and get out of my own head. Once I hit Pinckney I slowed down a ton. It might have been partial defeat or it might have been partially because I knew I only had to move at a certain pace to get the FKT. Either way I want to go back and dig deeper to see if I can do it better.