Guest post by 2023 SRT 70-mile winner Jordan Snyder, who set a modified course record of 15:40:05 (modified because we started the race approximately 1/2 mile ahead of the official start, to avoid an exposed area and risk of lightning — nonetheless, this was a dominant performance relative to the prior record of 16:22:52.)

I want to start by giving my thanks. To my wife, for sacrificing so much this past year to allow me to train. Her picking me up countless times while I was doing point-to-point runs on the course and taking care of the girls is the reason I did so well. To my kids for cheering me on, at every event leading up to this, making me feel like it’s all worth it. To Ken and Todd, thank you for putting on this fantastic event. This is hands down my favorite race that I have ever done. To the volunteers, you guys are amazing. The words of encouragement are appreciated more than you know. It was a real morale booster. To Katie Rhodes, your suggestions helped shape a lot of what was in my pack. Also, telling me I was more prepared than I felt took some anxiety off my shoulders. You are a great ambassador. To Kami Morgenthaler and her crew of the NYNJ Trail Conference. The section from the hunting cabin off Shin Hollow rd, down to the Bashakill, had areas where it seemed like you were just placed in the forest with no sense of direction. Her team re-blazed that entire section, making it one of the easiest parts of the course for me to run on autopilot.

Training

I want this to serve more as a guide than just a recap. Sub 15 hours is definitely achievable, and I would love for this to help someone achieve it. I went through every available race report online more times than I’d like to admit. The insight and information shared were invaluable.

I discovered the SRT in October of last year. I was searching for a trail that would get me from Port Jervis to Wurtsboro. While creating a route on Strava, I kept seeing these segments labeled as: srt1, srt2, srt3. I did not know about the SRT until this moment. For the next couple of days, it just kept bugging me until I finally decided that I was going to start training for it.

I live in Port Jervis, which is only 15 minutes from the start. I can see the monument from my house. Every day after discovering the race, I inadvertently looked at it one way or another as if it were taunting me. Everything from that moment forward was preparing for the race. I had never done an ultra event, let alone an official half marathon. The longest I’d run at that point was 31 miles, but that wasn’t a race. I just started running less than two years ago.

I signed up for two ultras pre-SRT to prepare myself for the distance and vert. A 12-hour endurance race in March, where I finished with 63 miles and 6k of vertical gain. Then, a 4-hour vert-heavy race in May, where I finished with 19 miles and 7k of vertical gain. After that, I started the build phase in June. I usually run 60-70 miles a week with little elevation. My build phase began at 60 miles a week with 10k of elevation gain.  Twice a week, my long runs were on various sections of the SRT. From that, I added 5 miles a week while also trying to add more elevation until peaking at 120 miles and 20k of elevation just before tapering. I was doing strength training 4 to 5 times a week, focusing on core strength and ankle mobility.

The build-up went according to plan except for one issue. At the end of July, while building up to 90 miles, I was doing a 15-mile run from checkpoint 2 in Wurtsboro to the top of Sam’s Point. I’ve done this section countless times, so it was just a typical easy run. I was just about to descend the second hump before the climb up to the fire tower when I slipped on this large flat boulder that looked like a surfboard standing up on its side. I landed on my back. It hurt pretty bad, but I could keep moving, so I pushed through and finished the run, about ten more miles. I didn’t realize how bad it was until I got to south gulley trail. I wasn’t able to run again for almost two weeks. I could barely walk at this point. It took five chiropractor visits and hours of mobility work to feel comfortable again.

After feeling confident with a 78-mile week, I ramped it up to three 100+ weeks. One of my best training weeks was three back-to-back 20-mile-long runs. I wanted to go into the race feeling as if I didn’t need to use any navigation tools at all. I’ve run every 10-mile section 5-10 times. I’ve done two 38-mile runs from High Point to checkpoint 3. I’ve done one 33-mile run from checkpoint 3 to the finish. Some weeks, I was running 4-5 times on the SRT. I know the course forward and backward like the back of my hand. For me, knowing when the next challenging climb was coming up was beneficial. One of my favorite training spots was South Gulley Trail. I would do two to three repeats on it. It’s a lot of vertical gain in a short period.

Kit

Clothing

• Ultraspire Alpha 5.0 running vest
• Shoes- Hoka Speedgoat 5
• Socks- Drymax Speedgoat Lite Trail Running 1/4 Crew Socks. An extra pair was packed in a ziplock bag to change into at checkpoint three.
• Shirt and shorts- They were both last-minute changes because of the rain. I bought them on Amazon because they were marketed as “moisture-wicking and fast-drying.” This was false.
• Rain jacket- Outdoor Research Helium rain jacket. Even though it was raining at the start, I never ended up using it the entire race.

Food

The goal for nutrition was 400 calories an hour and 90 grams of carbs. The food listed below can sustain me for 17 hours.

• 10 packs of Skratch raspberry energy chews.  I divided them into two bags, 1 for the first half and easily accessible. The second one would take its place when I reorganized my pack at checkpoint 3. I would eat 14 pieces once an hour at the 30-minute mark.
• 10 packs of Skratch sour cherry Caffeinated energy chews. Same deal, so four separate bags. I would rotate between caffeinated and non-caffeinated each time.
• 16 Skratch salted maple and mallow rice cakes to be eaten once an hour on the hour.
• 2 Cliff Bar crunchy peanut butter protein bars. (For checkpoint 3)
• 2 Katadyn BeFree 0.6L Ultralight soft flasks with filter, drinking half the flask every 30 minutes after eating.
• Electrolytes came mostly from salt caps, taken every 2 hours.

Electronics

• Watch- Garmin 955 solar. The course was loaded onto my watch as an emergency, but I never needed it. I focused more on pace and heart rate data.
• Headlight- Black Diamond Spot 400 with two extra sets of lithium-ion batteries. I could have made do with only one set, but it was better to be safe than sorry. I changed them the first time at checkpoint 2. I didn’t need to change them a second time, but I opted to swap them again at checkpoint 3 to have no problems going up South Gulley Trail.
• Power bank- it was just a cheap one to charge my watch. I had no intentions of using my phone, so the weight savings on a smaller one was a nice benefit.
• Charging cable for the watch only.
• Phone- I had my phone off the entire time, only turning it on to check in with my wife.

Miscellaneous

• Emergency space blanket. If it were colder, it would’ve come in handy, but the temperatures were just right at checkpoint 3. Happy to have it, though.
• Body glide anti-chafing balm. (Useless)
• 10 ibuprofen.
• Wet wipes in a ziplock bag.
• A butter knife. More on that later.

Pre-race

The week leading up to it was mostly uneventful. I was getting 10+ hours of sleep and eating very healthy. I started wearing an 8lb weighted vest, only taking it off to sleep. I’m not sure how beneficial some might say that was. But I will say the total weight on my race vest was 10 lbs, and on race day, it felt like nothing.

Five days before the race, I spent an hour pruning brambles on a quarter-mile section of the trail. It’s the downhill section of Huckleberry Ridge just before you get onto Old Mountain Rd. As nice as it was not to have my legs cut up, it was not worth the severe poison ivy I have on both legs.

Three days before the race, I started upping my intake of electrolytes heavily.

The day before the race, I checked on the main streams I planned on filling up at, to make sure they were flowing. It wasn’t necessary, though, because we had an hour downpour that night and on race day as well. All water sources were flowing.

I slept well the night before and had a nap mid-day. I ate a massive serving of what my wife calls cheesy taco rice, one of my favorite meals. At 6 p.m., I wrote the split times, total time, and time of arrival that I wanted to hit for each section on my right arm in permanent marker. On my left arm, I had my wife write down words of inspiration, as well as having my daughters (23 months and 3 year-old) draw what they wanted. We then headed up to High Point.

I met Todd and two other volunteers at the start, receiving my bib and t-shirt. Then Todd delivered some bad news to me. Because of the Thunderstorms, we were starting at the trailhead of Monument Trail instead of the official start. My main goal was to finish strong, but I’d be lying to myself if I said the course record and FKT weren’t on my mind. All of my section paces were set up to do just that. Todd then stated that because of the storm, it would be unlikely for anyone to set the record anyway. For a brief moment, I did think about asking Todd if all three of us agreed on it; we could do it from the official start. Not wanting to be selfish and risk the safety of others, I decided against saying anything. Ken gave us a quick race briefing, and then we were off.

Srt 1

I split the race into eight sections, according to the segments on Strava. They are named srt1 to srt6, undivided lot trail, and SRT Chapel to finish. The first section is 10 miles from the start, down to the bottom, where you meet up with the train tracks. My split goal for this was 1:55.

There were three of us doing the late start: Russ, Zach, and myself. I already knew of Russ from reading his race reports many times. I had stalked Zach on Strava and knew he and Russ would move swiftly through the course. When Ken sent us off, I didn’t want to lead the way in fear of going out too fast. Russ took the lead, Zach followed, and I took third. On our way down to Greenville Turnpike,  we exchanged general small talk. The pace being set was comfortable. As we made our way off the road section and into the first part of Huckleberry Ridge, Russ asked if I wanted to lead us through. Reluctantly, I did. I didn’t want to pace us yet. This section is about 2.5 miles with 500ft of vert. I’ve run it countless times, and if you’ve never been on it, it’s easy to get turned around.  On three occasions, I noticed them falling behind, but I wasn’t ready to run alone. I walked until they caught up and then started running again. We made it to the downhill section I had trimmed, telling them about my poison ivy. We ran steadily up to Lakeside Drive and back into the woods. Russ retook point. We made it to the bottom, aligning us with the train tracks, which is the end of this section. We finished it in 1:56. Since the section was shorter because of the modified start, it meant I was behind by 5-10 minutes on this section.

Srt 2

This section is a little more than 9 miles, and it ends at the trailhead for the Bashakill. I still was not ready to run alone, so I didn’t let the deviation from the first split affect me. The goal for this split was 1:40. Russ led us up the Jeep trail past the creepy cabin until we turned left onto the single track, where he asked me to lead again, so I did. This part is only a mile long but can be confusing. I informed them we had three options for water sources that we needed to choose from in this section; otherwise, we wouldn’t have water until the Bashakill. Russ was fine on water, but Zach and I were both looking to fill up. With my soft flasks out and already unscrewed, all I needed to do was scoop and go. When I looked up, though, I realized Russ was not waiting for anyone. I looked back and saw Zach was still filling up, and I decided to continue with Russ to the Guymard Turnpike crossing. Just before we reached the intersection, Russ told me he hadn’t eaten anything yet, and his stomach wasn’t feeling right. This took me aback because his pace was pretty good up to that point. He then informed me that he would slow down on the old rail bed climb. I decided to set my own pace from now on. This is where I started to go by a majority of the 6:30 starters. I felt terrible running past them while they were making their way up. It’s demoralizing getting passed by someone when you’re going at your pace. I introduced myself to them and tried to offer words of encouragement. I went past 6 of them up to checkpoint 1. Arriving at checkpoint 1, I asked Ken how many people were ahead of me. He informed me there were four, but it was still early in the race, and I shouldn’t be worried about that. Knowing that he was right, I then ran down County Rt. 61 at 6:30 mile pace passing two more people before climbing up gobblers knob. Gobblers knob to the Bashakill was uneventful, although I thought  I heard a coyote. I finished this split in 1:39:45.

Srt 3

This section is 7.5 miles and ends just before checkpoint 2. The goal for this split was 1:10. Upon entering the Bashakill, I was welcomed by a trail magic set up with several jugs of water.  It was a lovely thing to see, but at this point, I didn’t need water, so I continued. This section is tedious and slow because of the roots and old railroad ties, so there’s not much to say. I finally saw a glimpse of a headlight at around mile 22, so I picked up the pace. I didn’t want to go through the creepy tunnel under the highway alone, so I did my best to get to him before it. I finally caught up to him 1000 feet before we went through it. That was quite a mental achievement for me, timing it that perfectly. His name was Ted. I had also stalked him on Strava and knew he was a strong runner. I was happy to see he was in second place at that point. In my perspective, he was crushing it. I asked him who was in front of him. He told me it was Pete. After some small talk, I informed him I would keep going and picked up the pace again.

My second water fill-up was a lake on South rd. As I popped out, Ted had caught back up to me, and I informed him this was the last easy resupply until we were on Wurtsboro Ridge. He said he was fine, and we stayed together until checkpoint 2. He let me know he was going to stop for 5 minutes at this checkpoint. I stopped to change my batteries and carried on. The split for this section was 1:11:39

Srt 4

This section is 11.5 miles and ends just before checkpoint 3. This section is challenging. It is four steady climbs and descents known as the camel humps. The goal for this split 3 hours even. At this point, I was 7 minutes behind my overall goal. I needed to pick the pace up a little bit. Before departing, I asked the volunteer how far ahead Peter was. He told me about 20 minutes. This section being so demanding, 20 minutes could be just 1 mile, so I wasn’t stressing about it. Just like with everyone else, I had also stalked Peter on Strava and knew he was not someone to take lightly. I knew there was a possibility I wouldn’t see him at all in this section. But I also set a goal to catch him before the climb up to the fire tower.

The first hump went smoothly. I thought I heard a bear growling, but I kept moving. The second hump also went smoothly. Lightning in the distance on the open ridge was amazing as it lit up the sky. As I was starting to descend, I still had yet to see any sign of Peter. I wondered if I was going to catch him at all. But, as soon as I started to climb the third hump, I finally saw his headlamp starting the switch back before you cross over to Ferguson Rd. This was another mental boost, guessing almost perfectly where I thought I would catch up to him. I’ve never run this section in the dark, and it was so amazing to see how high someone was only by their headlight visually. It looked fake. This climb is the second most challenging climb on the entire trail, IMO. It’s 700 feet of vert in .75 of a mile. This was not the part to chase him down. It felt like he had kicked the pace up when he saw me, though, because I didn’t see him until just before the fire tower. He popped out of the woods, coming from the wrong direction. We talked briefly until he told me he had a gear malfunction. I stopped to make sure he was okay before carrying on alone.

At this point, it felt unreal that I was leading the race. This was short-lived because, within a couple of minutes, Peter came flying up behind me. At that exact moment, I heard what I thought was a bear running away from me. The footsteps were super heavy and not jumpy like a deer. I started yelling, “Woah bear!” Peter asked me if I had seen one, and I replied that I only heard it. He also shouted weird words to an animal that couldn’t understand us, and we carried on finishing the third hump. The fourth climb is very gradual but takes forever. It was nice to have company through it. I’ve never run with anyone through this section. Finishing the fourth hump is an extremely steep descent, followed by two miles of easy downhill jeep trails. Just before checkpoint 3, I looked at the time and realized that not only did I make up for the 7 minutes, we were way ahead of schedule. I didn’t want to be the first one at the checkpoint, so I told Peter I had to make a pitstop. I stopped for a minute to comprehend how perfect everything was playing out and carried on to the checkpoint. The split for this section is 2:36:31

Checkpoint 3

Upon arriving at checkpoint 3, I called my wife to fill her in briefly. She was relieved I was okay and excited to hear that I was hitting my splits. We talked for 5 minutes, but then it was time for me to get to work. This checkpoint was not a place of rest for me. I didn’t want to get stiff from sitting there. I took off my socks and shoes. I emptied my vest and plugged my watch in. I swapped all my empty nutrition bags from my side vest pockets with full ones. I lubed up my quads and hamstrings with body glide. I took out the butter knife and used the dull side of the handle to work out tight areas of my muscles. It may seem weird, but I swear by this, especially around the knees. It’s an instant relief for general knee soreness. After that, I began my stretching routine. Lateral and forward leg swings, deep static Asian squats, lunges, and full ankle flexion rotations. I would do this for 20 minutes, take a walk break and go again.

After the first set, I walked over to the table with the check-in sheet. I asked Ken if a line through a person’s name meant they dropped, and he said yes. Going through the list, I get to the bottom, seeing that Russ had dropped. I was shocked to find out he dropped out at checkpoint 1.  I was expecting a grueling back and forth with him for the remainder of the race.

Around 4 am, Zach arrived, and we talked for a bit before he opted to take a nap. Maybe 10 minutes later, Ted’s dad had shown up. He was waiting for him to pass through.  He stated that he was going to slow down for that section. Around 4:50 am, I put my shoes back on and packed up. I started giving Zach 1-minute interval warnings in the last 5 minutes. At 4:59 am, I stood up and waited for the green light to start up again. Ken and the park ranger gave us their blessing, and I crossed over Rt. 52 towards South Gulley. Peter was already over there because he also opted to rest for his 2 hours. I told him we were good to go, and off we went.

Srt 5

This section is 12.75 miles and ends just before Rainbow Falls. This is arguably the most challenging section. Almost 3000ft of vertical gain. 1800ft of it is in the first three miles. South Gulley Trail. It tends to surprise people how difficult it is, even when they know it’s coming. The goal for this split was 3:05. After telling Peter we were good to go, I headed into the woods. I felt strong. Stronger than I thought I would have. It felt like I had just run one of my regular 10-mile runs. I led us into the woods, and at this point, I didn’t want to wait for anyone anymore. After five minutes, I no longer saw headlamps. I didn’t see any other racers for quite a while. The thought of doing so well and feeling so strong kept my morale at an all-time high. I made it to the peak of Sam’s Point before the sun even rose. I was moving so well that by the time the sun did rise, the dwarf pines covered any view I could see of it. This just motivated me even more. From here, I just started making mini-goals for myself instead of thinking about the finish line. I just have to make it to VerKeerderKill Falls, check. Now I need to make it to Mud Pond, check. Then into the cave and up Castle Point, check. Before I knew it, I was already at the trailhead for Rainbow Falls. The split for this is 3:01:43.

Srt 6

This section is 9.78 miles and ends before the start of Undivided Lot Trail. It’s not very difficult, but Jenny Lane Trail always slows me down. There are a lot of rocks protruding from the ground that tend to catch your feet. The goal for this split was 2:25. The first half of this section went smoothly. I kept doing my mini-goals. Make it up Rainbow Falls, check. Make it to the Trailhead of Jenny Lane, check. From here, things started to feel off. My stomach started to turn, and the chafing in my private area became unbearable. I was still able to run, but it was becoming an issue.

My nutrition plan until this point was going perfectly. Every thirty minutes, eat. I think the lack of options, coupled with it being primarily simple sugars, was the issue. I continued through Jenny Lane, my least favorite part of the entire trail. I finally arrive at checkpoint 4 where the volunteers ask me how I’m feeling. I tell them my legs feel strong, but the chafing is getting to me. I crossed 44/55, entering the start of High Peters Kill Trail. HPK is net downhill but has a decent climb in the middle. This would be the last time I ate. After 9 am, if I thought about my food, I would get nauseous. All I could think about was that glorious pizza waiting for me.

While going over my time in relation to where I was, I started to realize I was falling behind on the FKT time. I started overanalyzing the splits on my arm, and when I looked up, things didn’t look familiar. The trail seemed too overgrown for where I was. I looked at my watch first, and it showed I had gone off course. I didn’t hear it beep at me. I open the Avenza map, and I had only gone off course by about .05 of a mile. I felt pretty foolish in doing so, but I had done it to myself. I was on Hidden Pond Trail. I quickly turned around and got back on course. This would be the first and only time I went off course.

I traversed down to the stream and then started to climb up. I noticed that climbing was making me slightly nauseous.  I kept up my fluids and started taking salt caps at hour intervals. But even thinking about those energy chews made my stomach turn. On the downhill section towards checkpoint 5, I finally ran into my first hikers of the event. They gave me some perplexing looks, and I opted not to tell them that in about 45 minutes, hundreds more would be coming this way. I made it to checkpoint 5 around 10:15, and I asked if they knew if Ted had made through to checkpoint 4 yet. They didn’t know, so I continued. I was hoping he was doing well. I started the gradual climb up towards Undivided Lot Trail. Looking at the time, I had fallen behind on this split. I had to take short walk breaks because of my stomach. I finally make it to the trailhead of ULT. The split for this section was around 2:35.

Undivided Lot Trail, and SRT Chapel to Finish

These two sections are split up on Strava. ULT is 2.73 miles, and Chapel to finish is 6.8 miles.  ULT split goal was 35 minutes, C2F split goal was 1:35.

Just like the course from this point being net downhill, the race really went downhill for me. Once you start on ULT, it’s a slightly technical downhill until you reach a short rock scramble. I was okay until I hit that scramble. It felt like it was never-ending. I had to stop every step I took because of my stomach. Once I reached the top, I felt so queasy that I couldn’t run even on the flats for another 5 minutes. That first mile took almost 20 minutes. On a normal day, that mile would be a 10 min/mile, even with the scramble. Seeing that mile split pop up on my watch was frustrating, to say the least. My legs felt so strong, but the nausea stopped me from running. I tried pushing the 2-mile downhill at a blistering pace of 12 min/miles. I got down to the bottom, seeing the chapel to my right, which is the end of ULT. The split was around 40 minutes. Not terrible, but this would mean I would need to run Chapel to Finish in 1 hour flat to hit the FKT. It’s definitely possible because I’ve done it in one of my training runs. But the way my stomach was, it wasn’t in the cards for that day.

I shifted my focus to the course record. After some more mental math, I needed to finish C2F in two and a half hours, 22 min/miles. Even walking, I could do that. No need to stress what I couldn’t control. I would walk when I needed to and run when I could. From the chapel to Spring Farm checkpoint is an easy climb that’s less than a mile. I took short breaks but had to walk the entire section. Exiting the woods, I began running towards the checkpoint. I saw Ken and asked if there would be pizza at the finish. To my delight, he said yes. As nauseous as I was, I could only think about real food.

From here to the downhill after Bonticou Crag sucked. I averaged 19-minute miles for those three miles. Just as I was descending, I finally saw the first half-marathon runner. He was flying. I asked him how long ago he’d seen a 70 miler. He said he saw him back by the beginning of ULT, which was close to 35 minutes ago. He described who I believed to be Peter. I told him he was crushing it, and he could be on course record pace. I wasn’t sure if he was. I was just trying to motivate him. I initially thought when I saw the first runner pass me, it would be demoralizing. It actually reignited my drive. The nausea was still there, but I was able to run again. Albeit slowly, it felt good.

With only three miles left, I was so excited to see my wife and kids finally. From there, down to where you pop out on the rail trail, six other half-marathoners passed me. I cheered them all on as they flew by. As I crossed the bridge, I couldn’t contain my excitement. It felt so strange that I wasn’t just finishing the race but winning it. All those months of training, hours away from my family, they weren’t for nothing. I finally can see what I’ve been waiting to see for 17 plus hours, my family. I  run towards them and wave as my wife points me towards the finish line. My 3-year-old daughter shouts, “I wanna run with you, Daddy!” I turn around to grab her hand and say, “You wanna run? Let’s go!” Crossing the finish line with my daughter was one of the happiest moments of my life. The split for C2F was 1:51.

After we crossed the road, I shouted, “Where’s the pizza?” It turns out I had beaten the pizza there. I felt pretty successful in doing so.  After exchanging some small talk with Ken, Todd, and some other half-marathon runners, I got to meet Ru’s parents. She was running the 30 miler. They were handing out the finisher medals. I can only hope to have the joy and excitement that they have for their daughter when my children get older. They are inspiring.

I walked over to our car with my family. It started raining hard, so my wife put the kids in the car. I lay down on the ground and just let the rain hit me for a couple of minutes. It felt good to stop moving, but I knew I had to get going. I got up and finally grabbed my pizza. I could’ve eaten a whole pie at that point, but I didn’t want to be greedy. I grabbed three slices and some ginger ale. I accepted the best trophy of any race, the tomahawk. I took some pictures for the award ceremony, and then we drove home and filled my wife in on what had just transpired.

Post-race thoughts

The day after the race, it didn’t even feel like I ran 70 miles. My legs felt fine, and my stomach was back to normal. The only remnant of the race was the chafing. It was so bad I had to walk like a cowboy to avoid pain.

On Monday, I was able to run at my regular heart rate and pace with no problem. After two miles, the chafing started to hurt, so I stopped. By Wednesday, it healed well enough that I could do a nine-mile run without a problem. From then on, it was back to normal.

Now for my post-race thoughts. I finished the race in 15:40:05 and the FKT attempt in 17:40:17. I firmly believe sub 15 hours is possible. I wouldn’t change much in my training. I think the 10k+ elevation per week was detrimental to my success. I would use something other than body glide. It works perfectly on dry days, but with rain, it was useless.

Nutrition… I made a colossal mistake with nutrition. I only had two different types of food, both simple sugars. While they worked for the first ten hours, my stomach couldn’t take it after that. A more comprehensive range of food and ginger root would’ve made it smoother.

I would like another shot at the FKT. When they changed the start time to 7:30 instead of 8:00, I had to adjust my second-half splits to be faster. I initially wanted my second half to be slow. If we had started at 8 pm, I would’ve taken the FKT by seven minutes. But as the old saying goes, “If ifs and buts were candy and nuts, we’d all have a Merry Christmas.” I’m more than happy with what transpired on race day. If they change the start time back to 8 pm or even later, I’d have another go at it. If it’s not possible, I would like to have a go at the half-marathon course record.

I’m certainly not done with the SRT. It holds a special place in my heart now. I might try for the FKT on my own. Not being tied down to a specific date and being able to run in good weather would make it easier for sure.  It’s been a month now, and I’m still chasing the runners high from that day that I haven’t been able to recreate. I’ve run a couple of 5k road races where I even set a PR in one. It felt like nothing compared to the SRT.  I will definitely be back in 2024. Thanks again, Ken and Todd.