Pemi Loop FKT by Ben Nephew

Pemi Loop FKT
9/11/11
30 miles
9500 feet of ascent
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/113691035

I wish I had more time. I wish I could have raced the Curley’s half marathon in Western Massachusetts and taken a run on the Pemi Loop in the White Mountains. I wish I had the time to hang out on the Bonds during my Pemi run and run a fast time. The problem is that I enjoy both relaxed hikes and hard mountain running. Since my family spent a good amount of time doing relaxed hiking around Seattle this summer, I decided on a hard run of the Pemi. The FKT had been dropped quite a bit since Kevin Tilton and I ran it, and I was curious to see what I could run after a good summer of training and racing. Here is the FKT history right from the site run by Peter Bakwin:

Ryan Welts scorched the route in 7h05m32s on August 9, 2009. He had support on Mt. Lafayette and had made a food drop at Galehead Hut the day before. Slightly more information is available at this thread.

Less than a month later, on September 4, 2009, Ben Nephew (9 time Escarpment Trail winner) and Kevin Tilton ran the Pemi in a new FKT of 7h04m47s, taking just 45 seconds off of Welts' record! Their report with splits is here.

Jan Wellford beat Nephew & Tilton's time on September 8, 2010, running the loop in 6h47m04s. His report is here. Wellford provided some splits for the run below.

Finally, on June 19, 2011, Adam Wilcox did the Pemi in 6h46m10s, less than 1 minute faster than Wellford. This is the current FKT. Links to Wilcox's report and GPS track are below.

As best I can tell, prior to Welts the FKT for the Pemi Loop was held by Alex Kahl, at "about 7h25m" in (August?) 2005. Charles Dona reported doing 7h26m31s in September 2008, which seems to be close enough to "about 7h25m" to be considered a tie.


I woke up at 4am on 9/11, got in the car at about 4:30 and made to the Lincoln Woods trailhead just before 7. I was on the trail by 7:13. I had Jan’s splits, as I was running clockwise, and made it to the top of Flume about 4 minutes faster than Jan, in 1:05. It was warm enough to pack my shirt on the ascent, but the Franconia Ridge was a bit breezy, with winds at 30-40 mph. I was a little cold in just shorts, and did hang out on the summit of Liberty which I reached in 1:24. I had been running for 2:01 as I crested Mt. Lincoln, and was about 6 minutes ahead of Jan’s pace by the time I topped Lafayette. I was glad to get out of the cold wind, and the decent down to the Garfield Ridge was nice and dry. My 318’s didn’t let me down on the technical ridge, and my legs were still in good shape as I climbed Mt. Garfield (3:04). I took my time on the descent ledges, and made it to the Galehead hut in 3:50.

I refilled my water bottles and took out a Cliff Mojo bar. I was thinking I could eat it while climbing South Twin, but I just can’t swallow solid food while moving even remotely quickly. I managed to get down most of it with lots of Gatorade, and then pushed the rest of the way up the steep 1000’ climb to the summit (4:13). My legs were still in good shape, and I was looking forward to the easier running on the rest of the loop. It is easier, but it is still very technical in spots, and I took one good spill that resulted in blood running down my right shin and into my shoe. I crossed the summit of Bond at 4:55 with tired legs, but still managed to run most of the small final climb up Bondcliff. The last nine miles consist of about 4.5 miles of singletrack followed by 4.5 miles of mostly flat rail trail. Usually the singletrack is very runnable, but there was a good amount of damage from recent storms, and had a hard time keeping my toes about the rocks and roots. It was hard to maintain any sort of momentum.

I was able to crank the pace down below 7 minute pace when I finally reached the Lincoln Woods trail, but I was too tired to get it down to 6 minute pace. There was more damage on this trail, and I too tired to compensate for the slower sections. I pushed the last two miles, and finished the loop in 6:27:47. Since the Pemi Bridge is closed, I started and finished about 30 meters past the bridge towards the road. I had hoped to gain a bit more time in over the last 9 miles, but I was happy with the time considering the trail conditions.

My 318’s were perfect for this route. You really need a shoe with a solid midsole and good upper protection to allow you to push the steep descents and rough rocky sections, and the 318’s get the job done. I had no blisters, hot spots, or nail issues at all during the run. The roclite sole worked well on both dry and wet rocks, even with hundreds of miles already on my pair.