Francois D'Haene JMT

This is nice and easy to read.

” After 60 hours of race, Francois just passed 300 miles on this route. Here’s a point on his chronos vs the previous record at km254 at red meadrows.”

Wow.. Just checked facebook and the time they have quoted there is 2D 19 H 26 MN

Amazing!

I’d be curious to know what the next 24 hours look like for him. Peter, can you offer any insight? Is it burgers and sleep? Deep tissue massages and hydration?

Wow. I always wondered what it would look like when a truly elite mountain runner tackled an FKT.  I guess now we know.  The negative to this is that mere mortals like myself don’t have much of a shot once the heavy hitters get interested.

Every time I hike in darkness, I find it difficult to hike fast because of the reduced visibility and shadows.  I can’t imagine running it, much less being highly fatigued, and what’s even more amazing this is mid Oct where there’s almost 4 hours less daylight per day than late June.  I wondering what he’d be able to do with increased daylight.  Amazing run.

In 2003 I finished at 3am, got right into a vehicle & fell asleep on the 15min drive to our friend’s house in the Valley. The next thing I know I open my eyes and see only trees and sky (my head was on the open gate of the truck) & I feel incredibly peaceful. I have no idea where I am or even who I am… Sleep deprivation is the big deal here. Francois made the interesting choice to start at 10am, which meant that he finished at 5am instead of say midnight. Much harder to go through that 3rd night! It is also of note that Francois seems to have had the best support of anyone who has chased this record. In his pics you see pacers with large packs, while Francois carries very little. It seems they had a good plan & executed it extremely well!

I wondering what he’d be able to do with increased daylight.

In contrast, I wonder how much slower he would have been in July with increased daytime high temperatures. Everyone is different, but my endurance always feels better in moderately cool weather, and water requirements are noticeably lower too.

Everything is slower in the dark, but I agree about the temps. I really struggled with heat & hydration both times I ran the JMT. More recently people have had issues with smoke as well.

I read once that running in high temps takes 20% more energy than in cooler weather due to the body’s need to sweat. Seems about right.

do we know how Francois’s effort ended yet ?

uh … never mind, went over to FKT web site,

2 days 19 hours 26 minutes

It was also on this page, second post.

But yeah that is an amazing time. And some next level support.

Amazing! I was traveling in Europe for the last couple weeks, so I didn’t follow this one until the very end. Like many others, I wondered what was possible for an elite runner truly putting it all out there on the JMT, and that question has been answered authoritatively, at least for now. I thought Leor’s time was stout, but this is a whole new level of stoutness. Well done, and this one should stand for a while I think.

Updated the table through Francois’ (remarkable) finish.

Really, a job extremely well done by both Francois and his team.