Grafton Loop Trail FKT (Attempt)

STRAVA DATA

On Friday August 28th I attempted to set a new FKT (Fastest Known Time) for the Grafton Loop Trail. After weeks of humidity, the cold front finally passed, and the day was dry and much cooler (high 70's) then the two training runs I had done out there the week before. My goal was to run under the 9:29:30 time set by Adam Wilcox and Ryan Welts last summer. I didn't taper or treat it like an A race, but though of it more like a training run for Grindstone 100, my first attempt at 100 miles, which I will be running in October. I did feel good and thought the record was attainable that day. As mentioned by Adam and Ryan in regards to their effort, they were not pushing hard and set a softer FKT that would probably/hopefully be broken and reset a few times. Something that makes these thing more fun to go after.

I drove up early that morning from Portland and headed to the northern Grafton Notch State Park parking area where I cached some water and food. I then drove back to the southern parking area at the base of Puzzle Mountain where I began my run. I went counter clockwise, the same as Adam and Ryan. After some recon I think it's the faster direction, though if I were to do it again, I might start at the northern trailhead and begin with the Old Speck climb. I think the East side is easier even though it's longer and would prefer to do it last. A few seconds after 7:20am I started my watch and began to run.

I felt great on the climb up Puzzle Mountain. The morning air was cool. I was running with my heart rate monitor and wanted to keep my HR lower than 145 for the day. It's a comfortable aerobic pace for me uphill, and I figured I could hammer the downhills and stay well below that. I don't really pay attention to splits and barely looked at my watch all day. When trail running, I try and run by feel and HR. I try and just be present moving through the woods and not think about time or pace. I like checking my pace if I'm racing roads, but generally just run by feel almost all the time no matter what the surface.

The descent down Puzzle is very runnable and I was feeling great. Except my heart rate monitor kept slipping and I had to take it off which frazzled me a little bit as I was planning on using it as my main metric for the day. (I hate chest straps and look forward to the day that all HR monitors use wrist technology.) I wanted to chuck the damn thing in the woods, but though a poor bear would feel sad about not having the watch to use it with, so I tucked it away in my pocket.

Overall the east side of the trail went excellent. I was feeling good and like I had the energy to go all day. I was moving well and pretty sure that I was keeping up with Adam and Ryan's pace at this point. There is a beautiful large creek that follows the trail for a while around mile 10-11. I don't know what it's name is, but it's the same one that comes out at Step Falls on Rt 26. I was running with a 2L hydration bladder with Tailwind and water in it, had plenty, but had planned on using my Sawyer Mini Filter and squeeze bag here to stay topped off on water and not have to drink so much at the northern trailhead. Because the weather was so cool, and I wasn't sweating a lot, I decided to pass and keep my momentum and speed going. In retrospect, I should have stopped, and I paid for it later.

From here the trail goes up along lightning ledge, drops back down, then heads up to the Baldpates, the AT, then drops down rather quickly back to Rt 26. Its about 10 miles from the river I mentioned to the road. This section, though still easy to follow, is littered with blow downs, which makes it harder to keep a consistent pace. The trail is over grown a lot, so even though the footing is ok, you can't see it, and need to hike and go pretty slow. Once you hit the AT it's fine. You then just have to deal with the rocks and roots associated with a heavily trafficked trail.

I reached the road around 5 hours and 15 minutes. This was the first time I looked at my time and I was pretty sure it was about the same as Adam and Ryan's pace. I knew then that I would have to continue to feel strong to out run their west side time. I stopped to change out my hydration bladder, drink some water, and also some coke. This was partially a training move, as I wanted to experiment with Coke as a caffeine/fuel for Grindstone. Not sure if it was the coke, dehydration, or inadequate Tailwind fuel levels to this point, but this is where things started to fall apart for me. Adam mentioned struggling up Old Speck with water sloshing around in his stomach from drinking too much when they crossed the road. I had planned on avoiding this by drinking at mile 10, but since I didn't, I ended up consuming too much before going up Old Speck.

Old Speck is a rugged climb, but I've never thought of it as being extreme. On this day it was a killer. I was moving real slow, feeling nauseous, and weak. I wanted to eat something (even though I didn't feel like it) but wanted to wait until the top when I reasoned that it would be easier to digest on the descent. I finally got up to the turn to the summit and off the AT after almost an hour and a half climb. I ate a packet of Justin's Peanut Butter and had a hard time getting it down. I used lots of Tailwind water in my mouth to wash it down because I couldn't swallow it. I also realized somewhere on the climb that the hydration bladder I was now using was a new one I had had for a long time but never used. It had that terrible chemical plastic taste, and made drinking out of it really unappealing. This didn't help me keep up my hydration on the second leg, and was another factor in my weaker performance on the west side.

The trail down Old Speck is very runnable and I was happy to be moving faster than 30min/mile. But the day was getting hotter, I was getting dryer, and my stomach was starting to hurt. Somewhere between here and Sunday River White Cap, the stomach cramping got real bad and I had a hard time running even the flats and downhills. Exactly the same thing that happened to me at the Vermont 100K this year. This is when knew the record was not going to happen for me that day. As mentioned by Adam and Ryan in their interview on DFL ultra running, this side of the loop is deceptive. I had even run it the other way a week before, and was totally surprised by some of the climbs. You think there is just a couple, but they keep coming and coming like they're never going to end! I was somewhere near Bald Mountain when I checked my watch and saw that I was already at 9 hours and 30 minutes. At this point I slowed even more. After making it down the steeper sections, and only a mile or two from the road, I stopped to filter water and drink. I wanted to let my stomach relax and also see how water would help the pain. I didn't care if it delayed my finish time by a few minutes. The stop did help some and made it easier to continue on. I took an especially easy running pace down the snow mobile trails and road back to the parking area and stopped my watch at 10:22:28. Which, for what's it's worth is now the unsupported FKT for the Grafton Loop Trail.

I had a great day, then a not so great day out there. I learned a lot about my fuel and hydration needs. I realized when I got back to my truck that I had only drank maybe 20 of the 80 oz of water in my bladder. The combination of Tailwind with the foul plastic taste really hampered my hydration, and not fueling enough effected my mental state. I had no idea how little I was drinking. It could have been more dire if the weather conditions were what they were a week before. I did get a great training run in, and feel awesome about completing this entire loop. The climbs are relentless and the trail makes you focus the entire time. I did take away some important lessons that I hope help me at Grindstone in a month. I highly recommend that people get out and run/hike/enjoy this loop. It doesn't get a lot of traffic and feels very remote in certain spots. It's a special part of Maine. I feel lucky to have experienced it in such a unique way.