Backbone trail fkt full#

Originally, Amy was just going to help us train (i.e. Lynne also recruited the help of ultra-runner extraordinaire Amy Chavez who has completed many 100 milers and other long-distance runs including having run the BBT once before in the opposite direction. Pat is a strong trail runner and has a couple 50 milers under her belt. Thanks Lynne.Ī few weeks into training, fellow Biscay Coaching athlete Patricia (Pat) Lorenzi finds out one of her trail races is cancelled so she joins our BBT challenge.

I am pretty sure you can finish but it is going to hurt”. “You probably already know this but you’re doing the Backbone Trail. Later that week I received an email from my coach, Mary Knott. The third time we meet up for a trail run, my third one ever, Lynne told me that I needed to run the BBT with her and that she would email her coach, Hillary Biscay, who is also my coach’s coach. I replied that maybe someday but probably not right now (I was really enjoying my shorter workouts for once).

Backbone trail fkt full#

The next time we met up to run, she asks if I would ever consider doing the full thing. Stoked to be a part of something so huge I agreed without any hesitation. After our first run together (together is a loose term here, Lynne is much faster than me), she asks if I would be interested in pacing her for a section or two of the BBT. She had invited me to do some trail runs with her and, as I had never run trails, I figured it would be good to go with someone who knew what they were doing. I first spoke with Lynne about her big, scary goal during a trail run as part of the LA Tri Club’s 50 Segment challenge. With COVID cancelling all races her races for the 2020 season, this seemed like the perfect year to do so. Running the BBT from start to finish had been on LA native, Lynne Fiedler’s to-do list for several years. Over the 68 miles, the scenery changes from view of downtown LA, breath taking ocean vistas, heavily forested canyons, and rocky peaks (an Earth scientist’s dream). Some of the 12 trailheads are popular spots for day hikes and others are more remote and lack parking lots or cell service. The total gain along the BBT is somewhere around 13,000 ft of gain (13,570 by my watch). If you are not familiar, the Backbone Trail (BBT) is an approximately 68 mile trail that winds through the Santa Monica Mountains from Will Rogers State Park in west Los Angeles towards Point Mugu and ends at the Ray Miller Trailhead in La Jolla Canyon.

It is a story of achieving a lifelong dream, of getting out of your own way, of gaining the courage to keep pursuing big, scary goals, and of catching a glimmer of hope. The story of the Backbone Trail is more than just the story of four women running for 21 hours. Team SFQ'er Jess Zaiss was kind enough to share the story of this adventure from its inception with us in today's Smashfest Diary. For 3 of these 4 women, it was their lifetime longest run. Two weeks ago, two of our Team SFQ'ers-along with two of their powerhouse training partners-together took on the traverse of LA's famous 68-mile Backbone Trail.