I thought that running 138 km in one shot sounded like a good idea until I realized that it was only 22 km short of 100 miles. Having run 100 miles before, I’m fully aware of the pain that accompanies this distance. I’ll have to remember professional ultra runner, Karl Meltzer’s motto – 100 miles isn’t that far.
I first heard of the 138 km, Guelph to Goderich (G2G) Rail Trail last summer, when I was researching local fastest known times (FKTs). I was surprised that I had never heard of the trail before since I live in Georgetown, Ontario which is only a short drive away from Guelph. The G2G trail travels is a relatively straight line from the heart of downtown Guelph all the way to the shore of Lake Huron in downtown Goderich. It appears that there is very little elevation on the trail, less than 1,000m.
I plan on making my attempt for the FKT of the G2G trail on Saturday, May 29th. I’ll be starting early in the morning with the hopes of beating the current speed record of 15 h 40 m, which was set by Jeremiah Sommer on October 5th, 2019. I’m very impressed by Sommer’s time and I know that I’ll need to set an aggressive pace to beat his record. To make things more interesting, I’ll be attempting to set the FKT unsupported which means that I’ll carry all of my own food and will filter water from rivers and streams. I don’t know the full details of Sommer’s FKT however his speed record is listed as supported, which means that he had outside help. Supported efforts typically mean that runners are assisted by friends who bring food and water along the way.
Although I would be thrilled to beat the current FKT, I would be very happy to hold the unsupported speed record for this route. My stretch goal is to set the overall FKT while my main goal is to finish. I’m looking forward to running over 100 km as it has been a long time since I’ve attempted this distance. I’ll be posting a full recap of this weekend’s adventure, next week.
