I thought I should go ahead and take at least one of the two FKTs around my current hometown of Wichita, KS, and this trail out and back sounded great! The morning was quite cold (-3 C, warming to -1 over the time I was running). I started around 6 or 6:30 AM at the Wichita end of the trail in the dark, with a belt to carry a couple 10 oz waters with Liquid IV, my phone, my keys, and an array of Gu gels. I knew to get the time I would have to average 7 minute pace or so, so I tried to start around 6:40 pace and see where that got me. I was bummed around mile 6 because I was excited to get some sun on my, but when the sun rose I found an overcast sky. I made it to about a marathon with no real problems and was able to hold my pace within the 6:30 - 6:40 range. Then, as usual on any ultra, I started to feel the fatigue around mile 25-26. At that point however, my body was so stuck into 6:35 pace that nothing I did would change that; so I knew then that I would certainly get the time as long as I finished. The only other notable thing that happened was around mile 28 when the water in one of my bottles froze so I could no longer drink the remaining water I was saving for the last couple miles.
Overall, as good of a morning as you could expect from a solo ultramarathon in below freezing, misty conditions! It helps that it is such a nice trail. Overall, pretty tiring, but not too much effort was required. Now maybe I need to set my sights on the other FKT in Wichita... though I think running in the floodway is illegal, so not exactly sure why it is an FKT; I'll probably try it anyway.