A Duathlon and River Plunge: To warm up, I mountain biked up Sugarloaf Trail and down Baughman Trail, the five-mile loop with 831 feet of elevation gain, in 49 minutes, making this a duathlon. Once off the bike, I changed shoes and shorts, grabbed my handheld bottle and took off. After the bike/run, I jumped in the Yough River to cool off and rinse the dirt from my legs. It had rained all night the night before, so the trails were muddy and slick. Water temperature was 65 degrees that day, the warmest it gets in the summertime. The air temperature was about 75 degrees with high humidity.
The first mile felt great, by mile two, my belly was churning, and miles three to six felt great again. It was a 10:32 average pace.
Mile splits:
11:05
12:07
11:02
10:51
9:25
8:53
Note: On the day of the FKT, my watch clocked 6.09 miles. When I run at slower paces, my watch clocks a bit more distance, closer to 6.5. Just something to be aware of - not all sport watches give the same distance on any given day/ pace.