FKT Report: Devil’s Path Unsupported by Steven Lange

May 31

Written by Steven Lange
Revised and edited by smiling 100 mile warrior Ryan Thorpe
FKT Date: Wednesday, May 25th, 2022
Adventure: Devil’s Path, 22 miles, 8,300 feet of gain in 4:34:53

These competitive FKTs are coming down to trail conditions, temperature, dew point, humidity, etc. So I tried my best to pick a realistic day to run fast unlike last year’s effort.

I set the alarm for 6 am but woke up at 5:52 out of a weird dream that it had been raining all day as I was driving to race Devil's Path. As I opened my van door, the day was dry, with a feel of relatively low humidity. I fired up the MSR pocket rocket to prepare some oatmeal; this is always my go to morning race breakfast. It consists of oatmeal, peanut butter, dark chocolate and a banana or maple syrup if I have it. This breakfast is a slow burning carbohydrate that has always given me the proper fuel before a long day in the mountains. Shortly after I squeaked out whatever bowel movement I could, for this is also extremely important before a hard long effort let alone any effort.

I then started to do my warm up as my friend Greg Buzulencia drove up the trailhead. He had been kind enough to not only be my weatherman but to also shuttle my van to the finish point for me. After the 12-minute run warm up with a few dynamic movements afterwards, I toed the line. The night before I had walked over to the beginning of the trail and drawn a line in the dirt with a stick with the words start beneath. I had also made a silly cardboard sign that said “I eat Devil's Path for breakfast without any milk”. These little things are comical to me and pump me up for the big day. After all it was a race and I needed to fire up some excitement!

“I eat Devils Path for Breakfast without any milk”
(Spongebob reference)
My goal was to be done before noon.
Typically this trail is broken up into a long day or 2 days backpacking.

I had Greg with me at the start to see me off. Right before I acquired GPS satellite signals a newt squiggled in front of me. Whoa, “good luck” said Greg;, I then immediately ran to the porta john for one last bowel movement. Okay I was now ready to actually start, Greg gave me a proper countdown from 10 and I was off. Official start time: 6:58 a.m. This was an unsupported attempt, with Greg being with me at the start I don’t know if that actually nullifies that. Anyways, it would be silly if it did. FKT rules have been a bit more strict nowadays with its rising popularity.

I went out kind of hard with a bit of an angry, disappointed taste from last year’s effort. The legs were not quite awake yet and I felt slightly stiff and tight. I had only tapered for 10 days, which is on the shorter side for me. Finding the perfect balance between fitness and freshness can be tricky. As my good friend, training buddy, previous coach Josh Reid had once said, “fitness can shine through fatigue”. I totally agree with this statement. I planned to reach the summit of Indian Head in the split (40:00) which I did while feeling smooth. My fuel for the day was mainly going to consist of maurten gels, salt pills, and 2 stroopwafels. The nutrition plan was to eat a gel and take a salt pill every 30-40 minutes.

My legs did not seem to have the power and bounce I desired but maybe that's always the case while racing up steep hills. As the descent to Jimmy Dolan notch approached, my brain automatically turned off and went into downhill autopilot mode. It's interesting what the brain does when moving over extremely technical rocky terrain; it's a moment of complete flow state. I never think about how to navigate rocks, roots or ledges. Gravity just takes me down the path of least resistance as I daydream. If anything the downhills are a blast and too easy to run faster than my quads can handle. That's a topic I'd like to chat about a little later.

I blasted up Twin with massive powerful hiking strides and breathing heavy. Was I going out too fast? Possibly but it felt comfortably hard and I was elated to finally be enroute doing the damn thing! Dolan Notch to Twin Summit according to the strava segment 2.85 miles with 1,017ft of climb. I told myself while racing these mountain events I need to run more hills so that's exactly what I did, it hurt just like it's supposed to. Okay Twin to Pecoy descent 809 ft over .57 of a mile, short with your classic Devil’s Path spice. Big boulders that you literally have to hop from rock to rock in order to move fast. Totally blasted this downhill running a sec behind my last year's PR on this segment. It felt so organic to move fast on this terrain, it was as if I wasn't in my own body. A feeling of complete bliss, this is what I live for!

2 mountains down, 4 to go and up Sugarloaf! I had stuck to my fueling plan so far, hitting a gel and salt pill on the 30 minute marks. I was wearing my ultimate direction running vest with 2 bottles, one with amino acids, the other with just plain water (had the Katadyn filter on top). Sugarloaf Mountain climbs another 1000ft in a mile. Steep! The Devil's Path starts out by totally smashing you with relentless climbs and descents right out the gate. Yes, I'm now at mile 7 and have climbed about 3,000 ft in under an 1hr 20 mins. The trail conditions were perfect and the weather was appropriate. I wouldn't say it was cool, and there was no wind at all which was a bit of a bummer. Sugarloaf to Mink Hollow descent was another doozy.

So much footwork needed, I busted out the dance moves yet again. There is a huge drop down many big boulders almost like a couloir in the middle of the descent. It requires you to lower with hands or to power rock slabs. I didn't see anyone on the trail at this point except for an older man and his dog back on Indian Head. This was important because moving down these sections with human traffic is quite annoying and slightly more dangerous than it already is. Weekday attempts on these routes are a must!

Feeling good, fueling oncue, and approaching my first water stop. 1/3 a way up Plateau's climb I spent about 90 seconds drinking, refilling, and dumping water on my head from the pipe coming out of the mountain. Plateau's ascent has to be one of the worst but it’s early enough in the route where it shouldn’t break you. It’s steep and feels like it never ends. After staring at the ground and pushing my hands into my quads for 20+ minutes I finally got to the runnable section where you can open up for the first time all day. Just about 2 miles of almost flat running was a blessing, it's a small chunk of time where I felt confident and very relaxed running at an 8 minute pace.

You hit a gorgeous view of the Catskills just before you drop down another couloir similar to Cornell's Crack. Just as I dropped off the rock to start the descent I saw some trail workers, yelled “coming through” and received a proper acknowledgement from the one gentleman “yerpppp” he shouted. I always wonder what's going on in other people's heads who see us runners booking down these steep, rock-filled death traps. I started to feel some cramping in my hamstrings as I ran downhill so I eased up a bit and tried to keep my legs from creating less than obtuse angle. Then proceeded to sling rocks all over the place and after zoning out again I was at Devils Tombstone. Coming though the halfway in exactly 2:20 was the split I had in mind, so that was good.

Aftering descending Plateau Mt. over 1.1 miles in 1600ft, weird things can happen to your legs. A smidge more than halfway done. Perfect, now to really let the suffering begin. The climb up Hunter didn’t feel great but I was able to run sections I didn’t last year probably due to better weather. The legs were losing some pep and the climbing started to get noticeably harder. Did I run the first half too fast, did I run the downhills too hard, was my fuelling giving me what I needed? After grinding out the climb, you're back into some higher cadence running for 2 ish miles until you descend to Diamond notch falls.

I passed a big group of hikers who ooooed and applauded as I floated over some rocks. That section literally looks like a washed up riverbed with tons of loose rocks. It's not very steep but extremely engaging. I ran over the bridge and down to the river for more water and a head dunk. The temps were now in the 70’s and it was feeling a bit hot, not gross but not cool. I could tell the wheels were coming off and my climbing was suffering. I needed to make it to Buck point, just below West Kill summit around 3:40-3:50. After an eternity of false summits I finally hit West kill in 3:52. In my head I was literally a minute or 2 ahead of Josh’s Mario Kart ghost.

In addition I picked up a dog from the hiker I had passed a few minutes back. At 1st I worried it was going to bite me but he/she just wanted to run so off we went. I tried a few times to yell for the dog to go back to his owner but it wasn’t my problem or on my mind to return him/her. After about 3 miles running with the dog and being clipped in the ankles by its big head the dog finally turned or maybe I dropped him. On the technical sections, he lost ground then when it was runnable again bam there he was. It was kind of annoying but also entertaining. The running joke is that the dog's name is Pacer (Ross Kirschenheiters comment). FKT might think it’s now supported, but let's hope not.

With about .5 of a mile to go, I fell, started cramping in both my calves and yelling in pain. I lost about 30 seconds prying myself off the ground trying not to seize anymore. I was pissed and not going to miss the effort by seconds. I fucking ran the last stupid hill absolutely disheveled. Once I hit the smooth piney 400-500 meters to the finish I was dropping what felt like sub 6 min pace while letting out a barbaric roar. I finished panting, gasping for air and saw my time was just under 4:35. I knew I had it, that fucking hurt so bad! It was a battle the whole way and not a single second to let off the gas. I had Phil Vondra meet me at the finish, he tried to snap a few photos. He had said I was moving so fast that I might not stop until Albany. I spoke with Phil for 5-10 minutes sharing my experience as I tried to stand normal and be coherent. That didn't work so well. Hell of a day, sure I didn't hit my goal time of sub 4:20 but I beat Josh and that's all that needed to be done! A win is a win.

Strava Data: https://www.strava.com/activities/7201069509/overview

Things I think I could have done better to prepare for this route:

Higher volume (currently only doing 9-12hours a week) preferred 12-18hr weeks.
Longer long runs with more vert.
Put in more speedwork on flat terrain, I believe I did too much uphill treadmill work and neglected flat tempo, interval work. Running economy helps even in mountain racing, I truly believe that!
Dial in my nutrition, still trying to figure out how to perfect fueling over 3-4 hour races.

Positives:

Did not die or explode into a million pieces.
Beat the unsupported FKT.
Ran Devil's Path with a broken pinky finger and did not damage it anymore.

Shoe of choice:

I went with the VJ Maxx shoe for this route due to its absolutely bomber grip. The rubber is so sticky it's like glue on rocks, even when they are relatively wet. A rock plate in your shoe is a must when traveling over this terrain. VJ is an orienteering company originally so you know it's built to be tough.

A major shout out to Ben Nephew the OG FKT crusher. Another big thanks to Greg Buzulencia for being my weatherman and dropping my van off to the finish. Of course I love my best buddy Josh, so proud of him for running such an impressive time on this course, it was a pleasure chasing it. The true record holder in my eyes Jack Kuenzle ran it in 4:13 supported making it technically a separate category. He should not go unnoticed, for this young stallion is a world-class mountain running legend. Last but not least, Ross Kirschenheiter for the post FKT burritos and beer! So grateful! I am totally smashed, need some time to recover and look forward to building towards Manitous Revenge ;).

3 Days later I am still very sore, but may try running today on flat soft terrain to test out the legs. Thanks all if you stayed with me this far!