Our good friend and big Suunto fan, Adventure Racer Matt Hart just finished running the historic Colorado Trail. He regularly trains with his Suunto t6d and we were excited to hear how his ambitious journey went.
Matt says, "Hey gang! Well two days ago I finished an epic journey… an attempt at the Colorado Trail speed record. Although I did not break the record, which is insanely tight. I did run the 3rd fastest time for the 484 miles with 75,000 feet of elevation gain. I wore my Suunto t6d and foot pod each and every day. The foot pod was awesome and gave me a very close approximation of my pace and how close to being done with each section I was. The altimeter as always was spot on, and with the massive amounts of vert each day it was great to see it tick off as I climbed, and climbed and climbed. There were extended sections above 13,000 feet!! I was also on the trail for 15-24 hours at a time, and we all know the 7 hour battery life of a forerunner just wouldn’t have cut it out there. So with all that said – THANK YOU."
Also from Matt’s website –
484 miles and 75,000 ft of vertical gain later.. and somehow life really is that much sweeter. I finished the Colorado Trail on July 23rd at 12:18pm. I ran the 484 miles as fast as I could, which was 9 days, 7 hours, 48 minutes. I believe this is the 3rd fastest time anyone has ever covered this beautiful and awe inspiring piece of trail. I knew from speaking iwht very fast ultrarunners who do this sort of thing that the record was super tight. I found that out. After 3days I had run 180 miles and was 10 miles ahead of the record pace. But I paid for it the following day where I only logged 38 miles and couldn’t stay awake. And so it goes, I made a lot of mistakes, didn’t plan well enough for some sections, was stranded a few times and hypothermic once. None of that matters or tarnishes the experience because that is the experience. All of these things are expected when the goal is something this huge ~ the crap that happens becomes the deepest burned memories. It’s how you respond to that crap that really matters. All things considered the adventure went amazingly well on 3 days of planning.
Way to go Matt--that is an awesome accomplishment!
To see video segments of the run visit Matt’s website here.
In an interview with National Parks Traveler, Jennifer said: "... I believe that by pushing our limits we are able to refine ourselves and learn about ourselves in a positive manner, despite the outcome. We can never accomplish anything excellent or new unless we are willing to try new things and test our boundaries."
