Notes
pemi loop record attempt with keefe. tried to beat ben nephew's 6:27.
pre-run: all sorts of flood warnings and forecast of rain/thunderstorms, so we were thinking that we probably didn't have a chance at the record, but it should be a fun time anyway. made plans for bail-outs in the event of too much lightning. ate 2 breakfast sandwiches and a pop tart before starting. wore a fuel belt and carried 4 gus and a few m&ms.
lincoln woods to flume (mile 5): somehow, the start is one of the hardest parts of this run. it's tough to decide what's steep enough to switch to a walk, and you don't want to start walking too early. my heart rate felt like it was already through the roof on the way up. it was crazy humid, and we were soaked with sweat. 1:08 to the top of flume, which put us 4 minutes behind pace. i was expecting to lose some time on this non-technical/uphill section though, so I was okay with that.
flume to lafayette (mile 10): right after flume my legs were already feeling wobbly, but after a bit of downhill i think we both recovered some. up on the ridge the humidity and temperature were much lower too. this section is pretty easy, kept a decent pace and walked the steep sections up to haystack, lincoln, and lafayette, but none of them were too long. we lost another minute, 5 minutes down at the top of lafayette.
lafayette to galehead hut (mile 15): very technical decent from lafayette, but I figured that's where we could make up time. we were both feeling pretty confident in our pace at this point. somewhere on the climb up garfield though, i ran out of water, my legs started to cramp up, and the legs started to get pretty wobbly. there was no more running uphill after that. the descent from garfield was also technical, and i think we lost a bit of opportunity to make up time here, keefe was lagging behind a bit and i was getting dehydrated. we found a stream right before galehead hut and took a few minutes to fill up.
galehead hut to south twin (mile 16): this is the hardest part of the loop. the climb up south twin is only .8 miles from the hut, but 1000 ft of elevation. we just kept moving at a steady pace, but it was really hurting. At the beginning of the trip i told myself if we got to the top of south twin with about 6-8 minutes, we had a shot at the record, since we can make up a lot of time on the downhill after. We got there 12 minutes behind pace, and I knew it was out of reach. I laid down after we crossed the top and rested for a few minutes. I was already low on water again and dehydrated, and legs were cramped and throbbing in pain.
south twin to bondcliff (mile 21): with no chance at the record, we just took it easy from here. we walked this entire section, and although it wasn't difficult, my legs were still in a lot of pain from dehydration/thanks to the stop at the summit. I couldn't stop moving or they would cramp up again, so we just kept walking. I made keefe tell me stories about colorado to try to keep my mind off the pain.
bondcliff to lincoln woods (mile 31.5): took a little bit of keefe's water, since he had a bigger fuel belt than me, and my legs felt a bit better, started to jog again. my garmin died somewhere in here. rolled downhill for a while, and finally got to some running water about halfway down bondcliff. drank a bunch, and my legs almost instantly felt better. i was so happy to stop being in incredible pain. no longer feeling like i was going to die in the woods today, we continued running down to lincoln woods trail, now at a faster pace, but still taking it easy/trying not to fall and get hurt. hit lincoln woods trail, 5 flat miles left. My legs felt much better now, and we really started to pick up the pace. I was convinced we were doing 6:00s, but keefe told me later it was closer to 7:00s. finished, laid in the parking lot for a bit, got some chocolate milk and drove home.
take-away: i needed more water, obviously. i had given keefe the bigger fuel belt, since it fit him better, but the small one just wasn't enough. i took all 4 of my gus and ate a few m&ms, that seemed like the right amount of food. I was nauseous and couldn't have eaten any more. if we drank more water and didn't quit for the second half, i think we could have run under 7 hours today, since we were well under that pace through the hardest sections of the loop. Everything after south twin could be very fast if legs are cooperating. we were not in shape, however, to run 6:27. that was too fast. sometime when i'm actually running consistently and keefe hasn't been riding up mountains in colorado, we'll try again. it would also help if the trails weren't completely flooded.
stats:
rolled ankles: me - 0, keefe - 3
falls: me - 0, keefe - 4?
bloodshed: me - 0, keefe - some