Blue Hills Skyline Trail (MA) « Thread Started on Oct 19, 2009, 12:38pm »
Ben Nephew has reported the fastest time for the out & back, 2h45m35s, on September 27, 2009. NEW: Ben Nephew crushed his own FKT, running 2h29m10s on June 16, 2012.
The Blue Hills Skyline Trail is located in the Blue Hills Reservation, in Milton, MA, just minutes from downtown Boston. The Reservation covers 7,000 acres of rugged, forested landscape. There are an amazing 125 miles of trails in the Reservation. A 2-page brochure with trail map is here. The classic trail in the park is the 9-mile, blue blazed Skyline Trail. The trail has a total of roughly 2500 vertical feet of altitude gain. Some other hikes and information are located on this site.
On September 27, 2009, Ben Nephew ran the Skyline out & back in 2h45m3s. He started at the Shea Rink and ran from east to west. In the western section, Nephew chose to go out on the Skyline South and return on the Skyline North. "My turn around spot was the random guard rail in the trees where the trail seems to stop, both on the map, and in reality," he said. He reached the turn around at 1h17m30s.
You might think that anything a few miles from downtown Boston can’t be too difficult, but the Skyline has surprised many runners. I have a hard time saying this, but this run was the most technically challenging run I’ve ever done. It is amazing how much climbing they fit into a nine mile trail in this part of the state that is so very flat. There are 6-7 stone staircases in both directions, and the footing is straight out treacherous over about 16 of the 18 miles. The feeling of crunching a foot between two rocks is all too common on the Skyline Trail, and there are few good places to fall. You will usually end up in a pile of very sharp rocks. It didn’t help that it rained all day, but that probably kept me from trying to run too fast on the descents. -- Ben Nephew
Nephew crushed his own FKT on June 16, 2012, running the trail in 2h29m10s. A link to his GPS track is posted below.
« Last Edit: Jun 17, 2012, 2:32pm by Peter Bakwin »
Re: Blue Hills Skyline Trail (MA) « Reply #1 on Apr 1, 2010, 1:00pm »
Nephew lowers his FKT to 2h37m36s on March 28, 2010!
Ben Nephew sent the following report:
"When I ran the Skyline out and back last fall, the trail was very wet, which probably slowed me down. I never got back to the trail on a dry day last fall due a busy racing schedule, so I had to wait all winter to give it another shot. I had perfect weather this past weekend, 40’s and dry. I went east to west again for this run, although I was surprised by a small permanent re-routing of the trail due to erosion from the 15 inches of rain we have gotten in March. The short detour is just east of Big Blue on the Skyline South trail, and I don’t think it affects the length of the run. It is a longer detour, but the footing is much better than the original section of trail.
It took me a while to get going, and I had been running for 40 minutes by the time I reached route 28. I felt better over the hills in the middle part of the trail, and reached Big Blue in 1:03. There were a few puddles on the far western section, but most of the route was dry. After hitting the end guard rail at 1:15:31, I returned to the top of Big Blue at 1:29. The next half hour on the Skyline North and back to route 28 was very challenging, but it seemed like I was surviving better than on my attempt last fall. I hit route 28 at right around 2 hours, and figured I’d have to work to beat my time of 2:45. Looking at profile now, this section has a lot of nice downhill running, and ends up with a net loss of 100’. This surely helped me run 37 minutes on the return trip to Shea Rink parking lot, which was a pleasant surprise.
Comparing my time this year to last year’s effort, the biggest difference was in the 2nd half of the run. I ran the first half 2 minutes faster, but picked up 6 minutes in the second half. This is partially due to the dry conditions making the steep climbs and descents more manageable, especially on the Skyline North section. The only thing I carried was a bottle of concentrated Gatorade, which ran dry a bit too early. I was very pleased with my Inov-8 Flyroc 310’s, which provided excellent traction and stability, and kept my feet intact. I managed to avoid falling, which is a very good thing on the Skyline."
« Last Edit: Apr 1, 2010, 1:01pm by Peter Bakwin »
Re: Blue Hills Skyline Trail (MA) « Reply #2 on Jun 3, 2012, 10:08pm »
I went for a long run on the Skyline with Josh Katzman this morning, and I got a GPS track for anyone interested. The distance and elevation data don't seem very consistent or accurate, but at least it is a track of the full trail. We started at Blue Hill and did the western section last. I'd like to suggest that watches can be stopped due to traffic when crossing major roads for Skyline Trail FKT's. The times should be about the running, not traffic.
Re: Blue Hills Skyline Trail (MA) « Reply #3 on Jun 16, 2012, 11:30pm »
I ran the Skyline in 2:29:10 on 6/16/12. The weather was ideal. I wore Inov-8 Terrafly 313's, which were great on both the technical and runnable sections. Compared to the Flyrocs I wore for the previous FKT, the 313's are an advantage on the easier sections.
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