Day 2 has been another technical day with varying weather, trail conditions and lot of selfies with strangers!
For those of you who are not familiar with the Bruce Trail, please check out the website to read about this incredible trail. This year marks the 50th anniversary that it has been a formal end-to-end trail. Did you know the Bruce Trail is Canadas oldest and longest footpath (brucetrail.org)? The trail is managed by 9 clubs and a board of directors. The official length is approx 895km (due to detours this changes from year to year), and runs through both public and private land. 51.5% of the trail is safe and secure from future development, so please consider supporting the Bruce Trail conservancy to ensure the trail will always be available to future generations.
As I mentioned yesterday, there have been many people who have done the trail end-to-end. Lots of hikers make it a goal to complete the whole trail over their lifetime and there are groups that go out to help people achieve this. The FKT record for the Bruce Trail had stood for a full 10 years until 2010 when Charlotte Vasarhelyi beat the record by over 23hrs, bringing the record down to 13 days 10 hrs 51 mins. Charlotte was the first ultrarunner to attempt a FKT of this magnitude in Canada, just as ultrarunning was starting to gain more recognition. Since then, the record has been broken by Cody Gillies became the new record holder in 12 days, 7 hours and 39 minutes (2012)m then Jim Willett broke that record in 2014 in 10 days 13hrs 57min.
Now, here is where FKT records get interesting. By the very nature of the name, FKTs are sometimes listed only by the fastest PERSON- regardless of gender. There are differences of opinion on whether there should be one FKT per trail or two- one per gender. The current womens' FKT was set by Virginia Gringas in 2015 (13 days, 6 hrs, 28min). For the record, Chantal is hoping to set a new womens FKT on the Bruce.
Chantal hopes to inspire other girls to be active. When asked what inspires her: Honestly - everyone who balances life, kids, work and their sport. I love their focus and it drives me to keep my goals in mind and to continue to be consistent in training. Also, inspired by the many end-2-end athletes before me. Not to mention the 17 women I ran the Bruce with last summer - Wild Bruce Chase!!
Chantal has already shown to be quite an inspiration on the trails. Just look at the selfies and pics we have been receiving so far!
Highlights from today include meeting so many new friends on the trail, using a real restroom (what luxury!), and for lunch she enjoyed a quesadilla with chicken avocado cheese and salsa, as well as watermelon and ice cream (side note- maybe I should do this too if I get to eat all those delicious things... but alas I cannot run that far haha).
Fun Facts:
1 wardrobe change today
4 pacers (Keith, Oliver, Tien and Craig)
63km (approx) km completed
Finished about 8:30pm tonight and was in bed before 9pm!
Back on the trails for 6am tomorrow. See you then!