Self Supported FKT Ice Age Trail, Dane County

After completing the previous FKT I wanted to find an other challenge to do, and as I really like running on the Ice Age Trail in Wisconsin I wanted to help promote and highlight this trail and what it has to offer and of course to help raise awareness for BTTT (Bigger Than The Trail), and all the great work that this organization does with helping shine a light on Mental Health, and providing support for people.

Now what you will notice from the details above, to the details below is the distance. Yes, that's correct about an extra 10 miles! I will explain more through this blog.....

As I mentioned earlier after doing my first FKT I wanted to see what else I could do to push myself, and see what distance I could do, and how I can push through and complete the attempt. What I find it that you plan, plan, and plan and things never go according to plan and I think this is part of the challenge of how you adapt, and move forward and never quit. So starting off this I did not plan for the extreme heat, and humidity including storms (Note to self "Do not plan these types of events for the end of August). The next challenge was starting off at 4.30am, and have my wife Andria drive with me to the end point, and leave my car and then take me to the starting point. We eventually got there at 6am and ready to go.

All I can say is THANKS to my wife with supporting me through these types of events I like to be involved with. Now that I got dropped off, and ready to go, off I went and was going well for the first 4, or 5 miles. Then I got to a junction, and turned left and was running for 5 miles, and then from looking at my map seemed to be going in the wrong direction. Well yes I was, and had to turn back and after 5 miles was back to plan and going in the right direction. So, from the beginning I was already 10 miles off and needed to pick up the pace. This is something that really bothered me during the run, and would come back to haunt me when things were getting tough.

What I really enjoyed was seeing new places of the Ice Age Trail, and get to use the water filtration system I have and worked really well especially where it was hot, and humid and being able to fill up my water supplies when coming across streams.

This was the first time to Indian Lake, and really enjoyed running this segment and looking forward to going back. What was great through this run was knocking off the different segments and seeing the end.

Now with the storming coming and raining, lightening was a little bit scary it was great to have this as it helped clear the air and drop the temperature.

It really helped cool the body temperature, and felt the energy come back and was looking forward to getting to Cross Plains to replenish the nutrition supplies and carry on with this adventure.

It was great to see the Ice Age Trail Organization HQ -

Now with making it this far, as I say looking forward to fueling up and getting ready for the rest of the adventure. From now on I was seeing finial places, and soon I will be near home but still have many miles to go.

Here we go through the Madison, and Verona segments which are regular segments for me.

This is where I get a renewed level of energy knowing that I feel that I have not go too long to go!

What we see now if that it is starting to get darker, and soon I will be running in the dark and late into the evening. As we have seen I have already done an extra 10 miles, and should have been finishing earlier. This is were it was playing on my mind that I should have been along further than I was.

Now I am at the Montrose section, and it is now dark, and I am getting tired and really need to concentrate and make sure I do not miss the next turns.

This was great to see this sign, as I kept thinking I had missed the entrance to this segment. Now from here it felt like I was on the home stretch, and just needed to keep moving forward. While I did have a hiccup last the end with going a bit off track to where I had parked the car, but I finally got it done. Really enjoyed the attempt, and completing it. Now looking forward to what I will be planning next. Stay tuned...............