Barrie, Ont., ultrarunner Chantal Demers has had a stable couple of months chasing FKTs (quickest identified occasions), and all on Ontario’s Bruce Path. In March, she broke the document on the 83 km Niagara part of the path that stretches from Queenston to Grimsby, following that up a month later with an FKT on the 117 km Iroquoia part between Grimsby and Milton. On April 23, she picked up from Milton and carried on one other 48 km to Caledon Hills, setting yet one more document alongside the best way. Her purpose is to interrupt the FKTs on all 9 sections of the Bruce Path in 2023.
These are usually not the primary FKTs of Demers’s resume. In actual fact, she has greater than 20 others to her title, and she or he owned your entire Bruce Path FKT for 4 years after working the almost 900 km route in 12 days in 2017. She began her present Bruce Path sections undertaking on March 9, embarking on the 83 km route from Queenston, the beginning of the Bruce Path. This part options greater than 1,300m of elevation achieve, however that didn’t sluggish Demers down an excessive amount of, as she navigated the powerful, difficult path at just below 9 minutes per kilometre.
This was the hardest FKT of the three on the Bruce Path for Demers, as she truly tried it a few weeks earlier however failed to finish the route. That was in late February, and poor path circumstances compelled her to cease after 60 km. On her second try, she made it to the end line, simply squeaking beneath the earlier document by two minutes. The FKT had stood at 11 hours and 45 minutes since 2021, and Demers managed to submit a ultimate time of 11 hours and 43 minutes.
Subsequent up was the Iroquoia part on April 9, and this time, Demers didn’t want a trial run. Choosing up the place she left off on her earlier FKT, she set out on the 113 km route. This part shouldn’t be solely longer than the primary, however it additionally options far more elevation achieve, with the grand whole hovering above 2,100m.
The document for this part was greater than 28 hours, and in contrast to the Niagara part, Demers had no hassle beating this one. She smashed the 28-hour mark, working sub-20 with a ultimate time of 19 hours, 47 minutes.
Lastly, the Toronto part, spanning from Milton to Caledon Hills virtually 50 km up the path. As soon as once more, Demers had no points beating the earlier FKT, which was set at 9 hours, 38 minutes in July 2022. In her post-run report on the FKT web site, she wrote that rain made the rocks and boards alongside the route fairly slippery, and though she ran cautiously, she completed “two hours sooner than deliberate” in six hours, seven minutes.
There’s no phrase on when Demers’s subsequent assault on a Bruce Path FKT will come, however one factor is for certain: whoever owns the document in the mean time in all probability received’t have it for for much longer.
