My Northville-Placid Trail (NPT) fastest known time (FKT) attempt was unsuccessful in July. I know I can set this FKT and will try again in the coming year or two. It has just been a tough year running-wise to date.
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| At the start of the NPT at 8:30am |
I started at the true start of the NPT in Lake Placid at 8:30am on July 10th, 2015. After 1.l miles on the paved road it was on to the trail on a long stretch of isolated trail. It was a beautiful sunny day around 80F, but very little humidity. I concentrated on maintaining a comfortable pace as the trail went from a nice, well-used path to a more narrow, winding, muddier, rocky trail the further I got from the trailhead. I only saw a couple people for this entire 35 mile section. I carried with me 2-20 oz handheld water bottles and a small 'bag' on my back. The bag was really just a camelback bladder holder only without the bladder in it. I carried iodine tablets, Nuun tablets, GU, peanut butter crackers, cereal bars, granola bars, etc. Hydrating was a task, although the water sources were abundant. Drinking about 30 oz. an hour after I got in the groove meant I needed to stop at water crossings every 40 minutes or so to treat water in a single bottle. I would drink from the other while the iodine did its deed, then fill the other as soon as possible. So in the end the continuous stops to stay hydrated surely added up. With all of that said I showed up at the road near Long Lake (mile 35.5) in 7 hrs 41 mins (~13:00 pace). The record of 39 hrs 16 mins would be a 17:27 per mile pace.
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| After 1.1 miles I enter the trail |
Hillary loaded me up with liquids and calories. I sat for a quick meal of cold ravioli while Hillary repacked me with transportable calories and more Nuun. After a couple minutes I was off again towards Durant Lake with another 15 mile section. This section has the largest climb on the entire trail. I made sure I wasn't over doing it, but was already able to see that I was working a bit harder than I should have to at this point. It felt great to feel the cool air near the top of the climb, and even better to start descending. As the sun started to get lower in the sky the views around Blue Mountain and Tirell Pond were beautiful!
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| On the trail in Lake Placid |
Soon the sweet sound of the highway could be heard in the distance, so I knew I was close to seeing Hillary again and meeting another benchmark. To my surprise I see my sister Brooke and my niece Maddy waiting with Hillary near the highway! The time was 7:30p, or about 11 hours, at about 50 miles in to the run (~13:10 pace). I ate some pizza at the highway, Hillary got me restocked and threw a headlamp on my head. She ran with me through the campground which was a bit surreal after being out in the woods all day. People were making dinner, walking around the campsites, looking really comfortable. Meanwhile I have dried sweat all over me as I run by shoving pizza and granola bars in my face! Back on the trail with 9 miles to go to Wakely Dam on Cedar River Road. As darkness took over I was happy to see that the new NPT trail markers were super reflective! After a bunch of miles of more uphill then down I finally started to make my descent and hit the wider old forest road trails leading towards Wakley Dam and the dirt road. Through the darkness I see a light ... Hillary and the car! 62 miles into the run, 13 hours and 51 minutes (~13:20 pace). It is 10:30pm.
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| Hillary waits in Long Lake |
I take a cereal bar and some Nuun quickly and we decide to meet further up the road at the picnic table near the camping area. A dinner of cold ravioli in the dark. My feet are starting to feel a bit irritated, but I shrug it off. In hindsight I probably should have changed socks at a minimum at this point. Little did I know my shoes were actually full of mud and my foot beds were starting to get scrunched up inside my shoes. The trail was pretty muddy throughout. Off into the darkness on the clear night I tell Hillary don't worry, but it might take a little longer to get through this section. It will be the rest of the night into the morning to get through the next 30 miles with no access for support. I felt like my nutrition was doing pretty well and I felt well hydrated with my Nuun, with no need for additional salt. This would be my first run for more than an hour or two in the dark, my longest continuous running time to date, and my first run through a night.
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| Hillary finds me on the trail approaching Long Lake |
Leaving Hillary I was on the dirt Cedar River Rd for awhile before the trail turned south. The trail was really good for 5 miles or so leaving the road and all was going well. Around mile 68 or 69 my pace started to slow as the trail approached Cedar Lakes and Canada Lake areas. The dew was setting up, the lightly used trail got narrower, muddier and was on a constant weave. There were lots of sections of flat trail that I had to walk (and even not so briskly!) due to the tightly packed overhanging vegetation over the trail where I couldn't see my feet. It was about 1:30 am, the cool air felt great even though I was still in a t-shirt and was lightly sweating. I was still feeling pretty good about my pace when the trail allowed me to run. I still had a long way to go to get to Piseco, but I started thinking to myself, dang when will I get there. BAD thought process! Just keep moving, checkpoints will arrive when they arrive!
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| Choking down some ravioli at Long Lake |
I pass a leanto near the Mud Lake outlet and cross the awesome wooden bridge with a crescent moon in the sky and stars everywhere at 3:30am. It was certainly a highlight of the night run, especially after battling through the winding narrow trails around the lakes. In about a mile I cross over a small wet gully, see trail markers to my left and continue on. Little did I know that I was now traveling backwards on the trail!! This seems nearly impossible to do and it would take too long to explain why it happened, but it did. I didn't realize what had happened until I crossed back over the wooden bridge and saw the leanto again. I was stunned and in a frantic disbelief. My whole world was spun around in the dark and I had been now running for 19.5 hours straight. I calmed myself and found a place to sit down.
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| Welcome to Durant Lake! |
Use your observations to make a decision here, do not proceed with what you 'feel' is correct. Make an objective decision. I turned on my phone and tried to pull up a GPS point on a Google map, but nothing would load with the lack of reception to show a map. I then remembered that my Garmin watch had a map function that would show my track, even though it did not show any landmarks. Since I never use this function it took me about 5 minutes to get it to display. I saw what I had expected. My track and my current GPS location was not at the end of that track. I had ran backwards. I was fully aware that this could be devastating mentally, so I ate some food, drank and told myself that it was not a big deal, all is good. However, I know this played with my head and my physical condition to a degree. It was a very stressful time and my body was likely reacting to that stress in a way that was not productive. Higher heart rate, tightening of muscles, etc. Looking back at my GPS track this ordeal added an additional 2 miles and about 48 minutes of time. It was a lot to handle at 81 miles into a run at 4am.
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| Headed through the campground at Durant |
Fortunately in another mile I see a light in the woods and it is Palmer who slept in a hammock on the trail for the night to wait for me to come by so she could run out to Piseco with me. Thank you! I needed someone to assure me I saw running the right way. It was soon starting to get lighter out, but I could feel my body wearing down more and more. I kept moving. My feet were starting to ache and we would take short stops to throw down food or fill water. 7 miles to go to the Piseco trailhead. We could see Spruce Lake and I was really slowing down. We could see the lake for what seemed like hours and my mental state deteriorated. My feet and ankles were hurting so bad that I was having trouble attempting to run on the rocky, rooty sections of the trail. Palmer would encourage me to run and I would for short sections, until there was another small obstacle and I would slow to a crawl. I kept pushing to run again, pick up my head and go. My body refused to respond. I was in a low and just kept waiting for it to pass, so I could pep up again. During my slow run pace my heart pounded, feet ached, and I couldn't keep it up for more than a couple minutes. It turned into a full on walk. Things kept going downhill and I wasn't turning the corner. I softly tell Palmer with my head down that this is it, the run is over at Piseco. I couldn't believe I said it, but this wasn't like a low point I have hit in the past. I looked at my feet and they were both so swollen that I could see my skin bulging out of the tops of my shoes. With about 2 miles to go we see Hillary on the trail coming towards us. We all walked without stops for those two miles in the morning sun. About a mile to the trailhead we see a group of two guys, clean, fresh, peppy, ready to take on the day! I smile and say hi. Where are you guys going? Eventually to Lake Placid they say. Awesome, I reply. I started there yesterday. Huh? Yeah well this will be it for me in Piseco though, I'm toast.
Hillary was not convinced I was done, but when I hit the car my body and I gave up. 97 miles of the NPT in about 25 hours, with the final miles being a zombie crawl. I was still averaging a 15.5 minute per mile pace and had 14 hours to try to complete the final ~35 miles, which would normally be no big deal, but at my current pace it would take me another day. In an 80 degree car with the sun shining down I wrapped myself in a down sleeping bag, lifted my feet and had Hillary help get my shoes off. They hurt so bad it was not an easy task. Mud flowed out. My socks were torn to pieces and there was a ring around my fat ankles of blood and scrapes from the mud that was packed in my shoes. I started shaking uncontrollably as my body relaxed from the effort. After about 10-15 minutes it stopped and I tried to set my weight down on my feet. I could not stand on my own. Once my head said it was over, my body followed suit and there was no turning back.
I told myself in that moment that there was no more that I could do on that day and there was no way I could look back and say I should have gone further, because I couldn't. When I got home it took me 5 minutes to crawl up the stairs at our house and I nearly passed out. I laid on the floor until the next morning without moving. I couldn't even make it up to the bedroom.
There were mistakes around this attempt, as would be expected from someone fairly new to the ultra scene, but I learned a lot and will become an even smarter athlete from this attempt. I will pay more attention to my feet and debris/mud. I will better manage setting up water, so I don't need to waste an equivalent of 0.8-1 min per mile to prepare water along the way. My next FKT attempt on this trail will have a better training foundation. My ankle injuries this season limited my mileage and that hindered performance. Lastly, I pushed this attempt in terms of the season. The trail was extremely wet and a true attempt should be done when many of the northeast trails are attempted, late August to September. I was hoping to 'fit this in' before the Grindstone 100 miler on October 2nd.
I was inspired by all the support from Hillary, Palmer, my family and from the folks in the NPT Chapter. I look forward to another attempt on this iconic trail.
