FKT: Emily Brain, Bryndis Ingimarsdottir - Thrilla (WA) - 2024-02-19

Bryndis and I started and stopped our watches at the blue Sammamish River Trail sign by the Northshore Athletic Fields parking lot. We followed the classic Thrilla mountain bike route via the Pipeline Trail (as per Keith Laverty's FKT), rather than following Nikki's route on Siler's Mill Trail. This was the direction we were given from the FKT team, and they have updated the official route to reflect Keith's route. This route may be just slightly shorter than Nikki's route, but our average pace was under hers as well, so we feel confident in declaring this as a new women's FKT. We were self-supported by carrying our own food and water and did not stop at any water sources along the way.

The weather was dry and in the low to mid 40s. The trails were generally mud-free. We briefly missed the turn off from the Sammamish River Trail onto the Tolt Pipeline Trail (despite having done this part of the route many times! but it was dark!) and had to backtrack for about 30 seconds. Then we were quickly onto the first climb, Heartbreak Hill, which we mostly hiked to keep our pace sustainable and not burn ourselves out too early. The TPT felt very chill and cruisy for the most part, and we continued to pick up the pace into Redmond Watershed. Getting onto the long downhill of the Puget Sound Energy trail felt nice, although my right hip/outer leg started feeling tight on the descent. This section of the loop was new to us and we had a lot of fun on the nontechnical downhill. The one climb in this section of trail was broken up enough that it did not feel strenuous. By the time we reconnected with the Sammamish River Trail, we were starting to feel a bit fatigued, and while this section is flat, the pavement was not a fun feeling at this point in the run. I was not surprised by this, but I did expect to feel a little fresher for the final push, given the training I've been doing lately. However, my recent training also meant that this run brought my mileage for the week to over 55 miles, which is the most I've done in a few months and probably explains some of the fatigue! The last few miles felt hard for both of us, but that told me that we really had given pretty much our best for the day. I'm certain our time could be lowered easily, but I am proud of what we did in the context of where we are with our training at this point in the year. I also had to stop to pee three (!!) times during this, so there's that. But I was well hydrated?

Thanks to Nikki for taking this mountain bike route and turning it into running FKT route! This is a very fun loop that we are "thrilled" to have discovered and will enjoy running again in the future.