Coal and Coke FKT
Both one way and out and back.
I am submitting both FKTs. Ran them the same day and got both.
Ran this on March 4th 2025. Today as I submit this is the day I ran them. It was the first day of the year above 65 degrees. Wanted to get away from my hometown and run a trail I have not been on in probably 1.5 years. Saw this FKT pop up a couple months ago and have been chomping at the bit to attempt it. Finally today it was warm and I figured the snow and ice would finally be off the trail as well so perfect conditions. Even with me being out of shape I wanted to attempt it today. It takes about 48 minutes to drive there from home. There were a few other cars at the trailhead.
Since the guys who submitted the FKT didn’t announce an official starting marker I walked to end of the road after warming up and picked out the most logical starting spot for all future use. A white line on the asphalt by the stop sign, the type of white line that cars stay behind till they pull out onto the road, this is the Mount Pleasant trailhead. It’s a good marker for any future attempts. So please start there with foot on it as you start your watch or device that records your run. The turn around is the yellow gate at the Kendi Park trailhead, please touch the yellow gate before turning around.
I felt pretty good on the drive there. As I started to run my legs did feel a little heavy probably due to the pace I was running its been a while since I ran that fast and even more so for this long of a duration its been id say since October.
Did see about 40-50 other people on the trail 4 other runners, 5 bikers, rest were people walking and about 10 dogs on top of the people I encountered. It was such a beautiful day and it was nice to see so many people enjoying the trail.
The conditions of the trail were good. It was very solid on the right hand side on the way out. I did hit about 3 short soft sports on the right hand side as I headed back. The trail is a mix of rail trail and asphalt. With about a half of a mile through a couple neighborhoods. The rest of the asphalt is part of trail. There was 4 road crossing I believe it was 4 not 3. So 8 crossings total. I got really lucky, only had to slow down for one on the way back as I timed a car coming so I didn’t have to completely stop.
I was very sweaty and salty. About a mile in I had to take my shirt off and put it in my waistbelt. By the time I was done my face was burning form the salt buildup along with my chest and chaffed a little under my arm pit. O took 18 ox of liquid i.v. with me just to use it up, drank maybe 6 oz. Wish I took water because it would have been nice to wash face off during the run for the salt building up. Also wore my saucony hybrid road/trail shoes should have worn normal road shoes but again didn’t expect the trail to be as solid as it was. I did pee once along the trail on the way back you see a dip in pace there id say 6.5 into run. No I did not stop watch when i peed I know the rules. The other time my pace dips is when I reached the turn around as I took some pics showing I was there and no I did not stop my watch there but stopped my phone there. I used mapmyrun for the one way so stopped that at the turn around and I used my watch to record the whole out and back. So that’s why there are two files under two seperate applications.
The one way I have 31:40 as my official time knowing off over 9 mins previous record. For the out and back I have 1:06:26 which is over 19 minutes off previous record. So very successful day. I was shocked at my pace wasn’t expecting it at all. It was a 6:43 overall pace. I did set a pace pro plan on my watch for 8 minutes flat which is what I expected id be able to do so yes, I was pleasantly surprised I never hit a wall of fell off. After the turn around seeing how much time I was ahead I was relieved it took a lot of pressure off me which I believe made me run better on the way back then expected.
The trail was clean but a little grey feeling since it is still winter there isn’t any greenness yet but it still looks good. Other than that I got it done and I very happy with how it went today.
I do have a video of the trail up online on my youtube from when I biked it two years ago. So check it out if your interested in the trail along with other trails in the area.