Darcy Piceu – JMT Supported FKT attempt (NOBO)

(edit: table updated through Sunrise HSC)

(original post below)
So far, she is FLYING! Average speed through the Baxter Pass Trail of 3.39 mph. Looks like she took one brief stop just after Forester, but no other noticeable breaks.

I don’t have Sue’s splits, so I’m comparing to Leor (if she beats his time, of course, she’ll have the supported FKT, not *just* the women’s supported FKT). But keep in mind, to best Sue’s time, she can afford to lose about 12h 24m against Leor’s time. Through mile 50, she’s only about 1h 17m behind Leor, so well ahead of pace to break Sue’s record.

Caveated, by the fact of course, that a lot can change between miles 50 and 224…

Anyway, looking great so far. Did she post intended splits anywhere?

It looks like Darcy’s crew met her at the Taboose Pass trail junction, and she took a short rest, not much more than an hour.    She is pushing on, signalled from Mather at 4:07, and she’s heading down lower Palisade Creek.    I think she’s at least an hour up on Leor’s time here, moving very quickly,  but she has had little rest yet.    Perhaps support will come in over Bishop Pass.

Perfect weather ahead, as good as you could hope for in September – clear skies & little wind, just a bit cold.

if anyone can beat Sue Johnston’s amazing record its Darcy. Darcy is an extremely seasoned mountain runner with many 1st and 2nd place ultra finishes in tough races.

She was supposed to have crew enter at Kearsarge pass, and possible pacer from there towards Leconte Canyon (Jeff Kozak, who is fresh off of running the Run Rabbit Run 100 last weekend – so he wasn’t sure how far or fast he would be able to go with her). I am not sure if that plan has changed as Jeff has not posted any updates so far. I have not seen any planned splits posted anywhere, and I don’t know what other plans she has for crew/pacers etc. Looks like she is doing great regardless!

Holy cow she’s moving fast.

I updated the table above through the Bishop Pass Trail.

Through the Bishop Pass Trail junction, she’s ahead of Leor’s time by around 2h 11m, but that’s largely a consequence of her short stop last night (Leor stopped for several hours compared to Darcy’s ~1-1.5 hours).

Still, she’s moving great, and her lead over Leor’s time has been GROWING since the break (I added a column to the table to show the difference between her time and Leor’s; negative times means she’s ahead, positive times means she’s behind).

The question I have is: When will she rest? Or won’t she?

Looking phenomenal so far.

It will be amazing to reach the Muir Hut with only an hour or so’s rest.   Aside from the purely physical aspect, I suspect that people’s tolerance for sleep deprivation is quite variable.  Do we know how much John Tidd slept on his run?

Hey Ralph, apparently John Tidd did not get any sleep, although he did rest for about 3 hours near the Bishop Pass trail junction and maybe 45 min-1 hour at Red’s. I think others have reached Muir pass without sleep in the past but things went downhill after that, so to speak. Darcy clearly has the experience to know how she manages lack of sleep etc so I would expect that she will rest when she needs to and avoid a severe implosion, especially with the huge cushion she has over Sue’s supported time. I think she may even give Leor a run for his money.

I don’t think it’s unusual to go thru the first night on the JMT w/o much sleep. Darcy will be very familiar with this from running 100 milers. But, I’m not aware that she’s tried to get thru 2 or 3 nights. That’s a whole different ball game & very individual. Go Darcy!

She reached Muir Pass around 1pm.   Still flying.   She’s now about to get her feet wet at the Evolution crossing.

Updated the table above through Goddard Creek. Yep, still flying! She’s still averaging above 3 mph, and is maintaining a pretty steady 1h 37m lead over Leor’s time.

Wowza!

Darcy took a reasonably long (for her!) 2ish hour break at the north MTR cut-off, and is now atop Selden. When on the move, she’s making outstanding time–she was doing >3 mph ascending Selden.

She’s still ahead of Leor, now by about 55 minutes.

I’m going to bed, but good luck tonight Darcy!

Tomorrow will be exciting.

Mono Creek bridge at 4:30 am, still ahead of Leor’s time.

She is now over Silver Pass as of 6:37 AM!!!

From Jeff on facebook:

“A few photos from running/hiking with Darcy from Kearsarge jcn to LeConte. Much more GoPro footage to come, possibly, at some point…if my videographer skills pass scrutiny.
As I expected it would be, it was a blast. If you want to go from never having met someone to feeling like good friends in 24 hours, do some backcountry FKT pacing.

Here are some numbers:
4:09am Portal start
7:51am Whitney summit (3h 42m)
appx 4:15pm (12h 6m) arrival to Kearsarge jcn (appx 42mi)
appx midnight (19h 51m) arrival to Taboose Pass jcn (appx 64mi)
appx 8:30am (28h 21m) arrival to LeConte Cyn (84.1mi)
appx 6:30pm (38h 21m) arrival (based on GPS pings) to northernmost Florence Lk tr jcn where she had a resupply/sleep planned (appx 111mi)
currently ascending Selden Pass…

She is moving! I was more than a little in awe of how smoothly and fluidly she was cruising through the highest part of the JMT, even when the trail was basically a pile of rocks. The Hardrock pedigree is definitely playing a positive role here. Nothing more serious than the occasional sleep monster wobbles, then right back to flow. Of course, in this JMT FKT game it is still very early…”

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Allen, can you post a link to the Facebook page?  The link under “Darcy” above doesn’t work for me.

https://www.facebook.com/jeff.kozak.94/posts/10156109804167439

(It is on Jeff Kozak’s FB page – I’m not sure if you need to be friends with Jeff in order to view his posts.)

Cool to see pics in (near) real time!

I updated the table through Silver Pass. Still moving great, which is probably the most promising indication to glean from SPOT/Delorme pings.

Her lead over Leor has shrunk to around 25 minutes. Leor moved pretty quickly from Red’s to HI. If I were her, and I were thinking about his time, I’d want a nice, big fat margin leaving Red’s.

She’s starting to get quite a bit of breathing room over Sue’s time.

I think Leor took a pretty long break at Red’s, right?

I think Leor took a pretty long break at Red’s, right?

Yes, I have him stopped for about 5h 15m there.

Leor took 15h 10m between Red’s and Happy Isles, averaging about 3.80 mph.

If Darcy thinks she can go 3.0 mph over the same stretch, it’ll take her 19h 15m.

In that case, she’d want to leave Red’s with 4h of headroom over Leor. Obviously, if she thinks she can go faster, she can reduce that; if she thinks she’ll go slower, she’ll need a bit more.

All that said, if I were Darcy, I would try to avoid *needing* to breathe too hard in Yosemite, if such a thing were possible:

I wonder if her support crew have thought about getting her a mask for the last section?   I don’t know if there’s anything that would filter smoke particles but still let you breathe well enough.

I think respirators are really the only effective means to filter the small particulate size present in wildfire smoke. I’ve never tried to jog in a respirator, but I bet it would be an unwelcome hindrance, particularly this close to the finish. I’d just power through. Hopefully the air above the valley isn’t too bad.

Darcy is still moving incredibly fast! Her last few splits have been faster than 3.5 mph! If she can keep this up, she can take a long break at Red’s AND take the supported FKT. She’s about 1h 18m ahead of Leor at Deer Creek.

This is going to be good!

So, it looks like Darcy will reach Red’s by 1:15pm.

She will have 58.6 miles remaining, and once she gets over Donohue it’s relatively easy terrain, most of it runnable and flat or descending.

Leor’s record is a finish at 11:45 am tomorrow, 22.5 hours away.

So, Darcy could afford to rest 3 hours somewhere, and still only need to average 3.0 mph for the rest of the course – normally well within her ability.    The weather is fine.   If she’s in good shape, the only questions here are managing sleep deprivation and the smoke in Yosemite Valley.

That’s what I’m seeing too, Ralph.

Also, that rest could be anywhere along the way. She’s moving so well right now (and it’s the middle of the day). If she was going unsupported, I think that Red’s would be an odd place to stop. But being supported means she may have to stop where she’ll have crew access, and so Red’s it may be.

The price of being ~12 hours ahead of schedule!

It’s easy for her crew to move around from Red’s to Tuolumne, but that’s another 35 miles.    Rush Creek is a long hike in, so if they haven’t planned that in advance, I don’t think it’s possible.    If she’s feeling as good as her pace suggests, I’m guessing she might just take a short break at Red’s and push on for Tuolumne.