Write up from my Strava feed day of the run (Note: Eric submitted this on 6/8/2020):
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Pushed it on the way up, but I’m not a great climber. Made up time on the downs and realized I could go for the CR for the whole loop when I hit the WRT. Felt good, but cut the run short because I wanted to go fast and didn’t want to do a second loop. Time to find some easy miles for the afternoon.
Total time car to car was 1:50:51.
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At the time I ran this, the route had not yet been established as an FKT. However, I have a verifiable time from this past summer under the posted male unsupported FKT time. At the time, I was going for the Strava segment that was the whole loop, so I was indeed giving a solid effort solely for this route. A slight variation is that I left form the Elk trailhead instead of the King trailhead, but this connector trail is LONGER and HARDER than the King Mt. trailhead connector. It is 0.2 miles with ~135 ft of climbing instead of 0.1 miles with ~70 ft of climbing as it is from the Kings Mt. trailhead, so it certainly added time. Reviewing the connector trail times for me (on garmin) vs the current FKT holder data (on starva) - I posted 1:56 on the up and 1:11 on the down from the Elk trailhead, and the current FKT data from the Kings trailhead was 1:19 on the up and 0:32 on the down. This makes my time for the actual King/Elk loop a full 3:14 under the current FKT time (1:58 total faster + 1:16 connector trail difference). This should well corroborate that the connector trail is longer/harder from Elk and show that this effort is indeed the FKT. Loop FKT routes can be run in either direction, and can also start/end any point along the loop, so there should be no need to start from one particular entry point and and run in a particular direction. With that I submit this FKT after the fact, but as soon an I learned the route around Elk and King was established as an FKT.
Someone should surely be able to best my time soon!