Long Island Greenbelt Trail

[barneyf]

Barney Fortunato has the FKT for this 32 mile trail, 4h41m15s, July 25, 2015.
Evolution of the FKT is documented in this thread.
Here's a link to the Long Island Green Belt Trail Conference (maps & information).

I'd like to announce my intention to run the entire Long Island Greenbelt Trail from Heckscher State Park to Sunken Meadow State Park tomorrow (Saturday, April 6, 2013). I plan to start at Field 7 trailhead at Hecksher around 6-6:30am and finish at the Field 3 trailhead at Sunken Meadow in an estimated 5-6 hours later.

I have found no accounts online of the entire trail being completed in one effort. The trail is somewhere between 31-34 miles total depending on the resources I have read. I will be attempting it unsupported. I will document the run with a Garmin file and by documenting it with twitter updates and pictures along the way with the handle @barneyfortunato and #LIGreenbeltTrail.

I will announce a completion time sometime this weekend after I complete it.

[barneyf]

I completed the run on Saturday in 6 hours 9 minutes and 52 seconds. Again as far as I know this was the first time the trail was completed in a single effort. Below is the link to the Garmin file. Overall I was happy just to finish, however there is plenty of opportunity for this time to be dropped significantly. My main problem was navigating the trail. There are many sections that were poorly marked so there was a lot of time spent taking out the map and trail description and standing around and looking for more white blazes. Also stopping and taking pictures, tweeting and trying to see if there was enough service for them to get out took a good chunk of time. I believe a second attempt would yield a time around 5 hours possibly even less. I plan to do a more detailed write up with pictures and will post a link or copy of it here when it is complete. My twitter account struggled to have service in some areas but several of the en route tweets still made it out so that can offer further evidence.

connect.garmin.com/activity/294494525

[1quest2thenext]

This is terrific. I haven't ever even run a full marathon (about to run 4th 1/2) but I'm starting to learn the LI Greenbelt trail starting from Sunken Meadow. I've run to the back entrance to Caleb Smith St Park, but when I'm inside I get lost trying to work my way through the route in CS that will eventually come out on Jericho Turnpike to move towards Blydenburgh.



1quest2thenext.com

[1quest2thenext]

ok, so now I've run the Greenbelt from Sunken Meadow trailhead for about 20 miles where it comes out of Hunts Pond Preserve on Timeline Road in Hauppauge. I lost the trail at that point and just ran a mile towards Hauppauge High School to get picked up. Anyone know what the next part of the route is going South from there?

[1quest2thenext]

Disregard post above :-)  I've made it to Lakeland County Park.  Ready to finish at Heckscher State Park.  Don't know if I'll ever be able to run the full 32 miles like OP but I'd like to keep dreaming!

[jberry]

On Sunday November 10, 2013 I intend to run the LI Greenbelt from sunken meadow state park to heckscher. I will start my self supported run at 7 a.m. at field 3 with 20 oz of water on my fuel belt, 16 oz disposable bottle in hand, 2 gu's and a hand full of gummy bears. It should come out to a little over 30 miles and I estimate my time to be 4:45.

Hopefully I'll see some of you out there!


P.s. my over under for falls is 2.5

[jberry]

I Finished my run this morning from Sunkeen meadow to Hechscher state park with an elapsed time of 5:05:47 so i'll use that as my official time.  I started and stopped my watch at the end a couple times because i thought i was done at feild 8 until i saw a white blaze on the ground and continued to feild 7.  Attached is the file from my Garmin Forerunner 110.  The weather could not have been much better.  The temperature started out at about 45 and rose to 55 throughout the day.  The leaves hid the roots with chameleon like skill but overall i couldn't have asked for a better day.

connect.garmin.com/activity/402603164


I only fell twice!

Attachments:

2013-11-10-06-51-22.fit (126.16 KB)

[barneyf]

jberry awesome job. I knew a lot of time could be knocked off the my FKT for this trail. You were smart to scout out a majority of this route beforehand. I only knew the section from Sunken Meadow to about 347 on my attempt. Keep up the great work!

[barneyf]

Tomorrow, Saturday July 25, 2015 I intend to run the LI Greenbelt trail again. I will be starting around 6:00AM at Field 3 at Sunken Meadow State Park by the big board describing the trail and ending at Field 7 at Hecksher Park. It will be a self supported run. All the food and liquid I will need for the trip will be in my camelback bag when I start. I will try and post back tomorrow or Sunday with a link to a garmin connect file. I'm hoping to take back the FKT and finish under 5 hours. This is serving as my long training run for a likely 50 mile race in a couple months. Sorry for the last minute announcement I only decided Wednesday night , then rolled my ankle Thursday morning and then decided I was good to go this afternoon.

[barneyf]

I completed the LI Greenbelt Trail from Field 3 at Sunken Meadow to Field 7 at Heckscher yesterday in a FKT of 4:41:15. Below is the link to the garmin connect file. The weather was great but was certainly a little hot by the end. Trail was in great shape except for a couple sections in the first few miles that required some bushwhacking. It seems that a little loop that the Greenbelt Trail takes off the main trail on the ridge above Sunken Meadow park has been largely abandoned. This was the last 1/4 mile of the first mile of the run. It was totally overgrown with raspberry bushes which left my legs all scratched up and hence the 12 minute split for the first mile. Otherwise, great day and great run. If there are any problems with the link, let me know.

connect.garmin.com/activity/844965028

[Chris67]

I did not know this website exited until I saw it in the NYtimes therefore. Here is what I believe to be the FKT for the northern route (ie. Heckscher to sunken meadow)

www.strava.com/activities/332673676

[newzealandish]

Barney, Great run! How was it crossing 347? Were those orange net fences still there or are they gone now?

[barneyf]

Nice Run Chris! Both directions have their own challenges so a FKT for each direction is definitely worthy of having. Newzealandish, I live right off the trail in that area and they have done a decent job of giving trail runners a short detour that adds no more than a 1/4 mile. Crossing 347 is always a waiting game for the lights to turn in your favor on the trail.

[Surfx]

Does anyone have a gpx file for the trail? Thanks

[elf]

Hi Group. I saw this once before a few years ago and am impressed by your tenacity in going for the records. You guys rock. I know that this won't "count" on this page because it was done before the page was started and was never "announced," but the first single crossings in each direction were definitely completed before 2005. I have these in an older training log (which could be anywhere) and so for now, it is just a guess that they were in the summer of 2000. If I find the info, I'll post it here. I'm not sure if either one was faster than Chris's 5:27 or not, but I know I made a mileage chart and was planning on running 10:00 per mile, so it would be close. I am pretty sure it wasn't as fast as JBerry's 5:05. I've never run it with support, so I join you all in not knowing anyone crazy enough to spend 6 hours driving all over the place giving me food and drinks!! Maybe we could find someone! ) I have a torn tendon in my ankle that I'm trying to rehab (and that might need surgery), but was thinking it would be really cool if we all got together to run it one day this summer or fall. I've never run it for time--going fast on purpose--so this would be a great goal once I'm healed.