Sabrina Stanley Sets Women’s Fastest Known Time (FKT) on Nolan’s 14
by Chase Parnell — August 11, 2020 — Sabrina’s finish photo: iRunFar
**Article updated 8/11/2020 (see bottom for Q&A with Sabrina)**
2020 is clearly the year of the FKT! With no competitive races in sight, the stars of the sport are taking their fitness to objectives they’ve been eyeing but couldn’t fit in due to busy racing schedules. There have been a string of attacks on the existing Nolan’s 14 FKTs over the last few weeks, many proving successful. This last weekend it was Sabrina Stanley who lowered the women’s supported* record almost exactly 2 hours to a truly incredible time of 51 hours and 15 minutes.
*”supported” means she had assistance from crew along the way. If someone gives you food or refills your water bottles, you were supported. See full definitions and guidelines.
What is Nolan’s 14?
To put this route into context, here is Matt Mahoney’s precise description of the route from his blog, “Nolan’s 14 is a run over the 14 summits over 14,000 ft. in Colorado’s Sawatch Range, from Mt. Massive to Mt. Shavano in either direction. You can choose your own route between summits, but the most practical routes have been estimated to be 88 to 106 miles with 44,000 ft. of climb. Cutoff is 60 hours to the last summit.”
It seems the hype is always around those going for the FKTs, but really, to complete Nolan’s 14 at all, even if done in 59 hours and 59 minutes, is a massive accomplishment. This route has seen many many A-list elites come, try their luck, and walk away with their tails between their legs.
It’s difficult to imagine the scale of Nolan’s. You follow someone’s Garmin or Spot tracker online and the mountains don’t look all that big. Sure, you see the contour lines on the map and you know the stats, but it’s hard to actually place yourself there and fully wrap your head around the landscape.
The best visual I’ve found that translates the scale is this Black Diamond film following Joe Grant’s unsupported southbound FKT that he completed on June 29, 2018 in a time of 49 hours 38 minutes. If you haven’t seen this, you’re in for a treat.
Okay, is it sinking in? Can you even imagine how intense this experience might be? It’s easy to forget that these are elite level athletes and even they are getting put through the ringer. Now let’s talk about the woman who did it faster than any other.
Who is Sabrina Stanley?
Sabrina runs for Adidas Terrex, Muir Energy, Leki, and OS1st. She lives in Silverton, Colorado, which sits at 9,318 feet of elevation. I can hardly think of a better training spot to prepare for Nolan’s.
Sabrina catapaulted onto the elite ultrarunning scene with her surprise win at the 2018 Hardrock 100. She’s developed a name for herself as one who performs well on some of the toughest courses on the planet. She went on to win a huge race on the international circuit in 2019, Diagonale des Fous, which I covered in this article entitled, Sabrina Stanley Against the World at the 2019 Grand Raid, Diagonale des Fous.
So it makes sense that Sabrina would go for something as gnarly as Nolan’s. This is squarely in her wheelhouse. She also has a pretty solid training partner in Avery Collins. Avery has similar strengths and has done well in tough objectives as well. Together, they own Power Couple Coaching, so if you’re looking for a coach and you like their style, check them out, especially if you are thinking about taking a crack at Nolan’s!
So What Happened Out There?!
Sabrina’s Garmin inReach tracker data
First of all, I’d like to say that these last few days were some of the most exciting of the summer for me. Courtney Dauwalter on the Colorado Trail and then Sabrina on Nolan’s, both blasting out the gates; fearless. At one point, they were just a handful of miles apart. On Saturday evening, as Sabrina was summiting her 12th peak (La Plata), Courtney was in the peak’s shadow in the valley floor below.
Early on, in an instagram story, Avery said Sabrina went out in 44 hour pace! She obviously slowed but to go out at that pace speaks volumes about how she approached this objective. She’s definitely a go big or go home type, her outspoken competitive nature is something that anyone who follows her knows about. How else are you going to get an FKT on Nolan’s? In some sense, you have to be super confident–almost brash–to get this thing done. In fact, after listening to Dylan Bowman’s interview with the men’s new FKT holder, Joey Campanelli, I’d have to say Sabrina and Joey have a lot in common.
While there weren’t a lot of updates along the way, Sabrina proved her mettle, holding tough on those final peaks. Avery posted the photo below of the two of them on the final peak, saying, “She’s going to kill me for sharing this (without asking) but today @sabrinaleannstanley set the new women’s FKT on the Nolan’s 14 traverse in 51:15. Hands down one of my own proudest moments in life. I was lucky enough to get to join her for a large portion of the course as she summited fourteen 14,000+ ft peaks. I took this photo on her final summit of Mt. Massive this morning. Although it was smoky out it was one of the most beautiful experiences I’ve ever had. Love you Sabrina! Side note, it took everything in me not to cry when she finished. That woman is hands down the toughest human on earth.”
What Sabrina had to say about it.
I reached out to Sabrina for some comments about her day. As of this writing, we’re only 24 hours out from her finish so she’s probably still comatose, but if I hear back from her, I’ll update this article (Update below: 8/11/2020) with any gory details she’d like to share. No matter what though, this has to be one of the greatest accomplishments of 2020. My prediction is that a woman will definitely go sub-50 hours on this route someday but my guess is that Sabrina’s record is safe… for awhile.
A huge congrats to Sabrina, to Colorado for having such a a fine line of peaks, and to mountain runners everywhere for being part of a sport where fantasies like these are revered. Now let’s get out there and make the most of these dwindling months of summer!
**Update!**
I heard back from Sabrina. Her responses were excellent to I’m including the full Q&A. Enjoy!
Q. How did it go?! Any major highlights you’d like to share?
A. It went better than expected, but also much worse at times. Overall, I am really happy with the outcome. I feel like I did when I finished my first 100, it was a success, but I learned so much from mistakes that shouldn’t have been made. The biggest highlight for me was my crew and pacers. They dropped everything on the drop of a dime to come support me for over 50-hours!
Q. From the tracker, to me, it looked like the climb up Elbert was the beast of the route. What was the toughest section for you?
A. You interpreted the tracker correctly; Elbert was a nightmare for me. I was struggling with sleep deprivation, it was nighttime, my body wasn’t holding heat well, and I got fooled by two false summits. That peak was never ending.
Another tough section was the top of Columbia to the top of Belford. This was also during the night. I struggled a bit at route finding, and didn’t foresee that being an issue, so I was really beating myself up. I wanted to do Nolan’s once, and do it perfectly. Things were coming off the rails and I was disappointed for letting that happen. I knew once the sun came up, I’d be fine, so I kept moving forward, with the blind faith that a great run was still in the cards as long as I believed it was.
Q. Did you stay pretty mentally strong out there?
A. Not to the standards I’d like to hold myself to. Did I ever consider dropping? No. Did I sit down to eat longer than I needed…maybe? Did I take a nap, yes. Is that being mentally weak? A part of me would argue yes. There is also a more reasonable side of me that argues those things made my time faster because I was taking care of my body.
Q. Lastly, I’m sure you heard Courtney had to pull the plug on the CT, but you were super close to her out there for a few hours. Did you pull any inspiration or good vibes from what she was doing in the valleys and passes below? Have you considered the CT yourself?
A. I was aware that she was on the CT but I wasn’t aware of where she was. There is roughly a 4-mile section off of Princeton where I am on the CT, and I mentioned to Avery my pacer/boyfriend how cool it would be if we crossed paths with Courtney, but I didn’t know what direction she was running in. Even though we run for different companies, I think of Courtney like a teammate, and love hearing about her feats. I was so bummed to hear she was in the hospital, but I’m sure she has some adventures up her sleeve for when she recovers.
No. No. No. I have never considered the CT. There are a few longer runs I’ve been interested in, but I’d like to slowly build up to them. Grand Raid was the longest I had been on my feet until Nolan’s and that was just shy of 31-hours. With 51-hours under my belt now, I’m not sure what is next. TOR sounds fun, but if we are talking FKT specifically, that’s yet to be determined.
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