Story
Hi all,
This was the HARDEST run I have done in years. We did Lick Brook first and I ran that well but then lost all my energy going up Treman. I was hoping to finish in under 3 hours and did 3:10 but there was lots of walking in there - and not only on the uphills.
Personally, I plan to do Treman first the next time; I think it will vastly improve my time. I think having fresh legs will help with the long uphills and winding woods and then the downhills. Then I am sure I will walk up Lick Brook but that is only one mile of walking versus several miles of walking up hills after getting so tired on Lick Brook.
A few notes
It was very dry today and not muddy - Yay!
It was very hot today. We had hoped to start running early but after several false starts we didn’t get going until 9am. I would strongly recommend starting earlier.
The trail is extremely well marked on the Treman side.
On the Lick Brook side, you have to cross a creek at about 200 yards from the parking lot. I suspect the actually FLT goes across the creek but I also suspect that everybody goes across the railroad trestle (although this really confused us because it says No Trespassing!) However, you need to be safe because we had a train cross the trestle just in front of us! Check out the picture.
The trail is generally well marked on the Lick Brook side. As DG Rossiter said, when you get to Town Line Road you go straight across the street and start on the Orange blazed trail (but I agree with Melissa Wallace that they look Red to me).
While on the Orange blazed trail, after a small uphill, you will get to a fork in the trail where you have a meadow on your left and clearly marked Blue blazed trail goes to the right. The trail also goes straight but there is no Orange blaze to be seen. However, you still need to go straight and you will see another Orange blaze in about 100 yards.
Another point - when you are at the turnaround of the Lick Brook section you will be running about 100 yards in a mowed section next to a house on your left as you run towards King Road. There are about 20 post hole sized holes in the grass! Be careful where you put your feet; I almost tripped several times. You might want to run five yards closer to the house to avoid them.
Finally, I want to suggest that there might need to be warnings about this run. As Scott said, 13.1 miles on a very hilly trail is NOT like 13.1 miles on the road. I consider myself reasonably fit and I was exhausted at the end of this run. I suspect endurance trail runners find this a reasonable run but for the average FLRC challenge runner, this is likely a stretch. After all, it is around 3 hours of running.
Caitlin suggested that maybe people should be allowed to break it into two separate days so they can finish all 10 courses in the Challenge without risking their health on this run. Just a thought. Jamie