We took a family vacation to one of my favorite places, Red River Gorge Kentucky, and it was also a perfect way to kick off the FKT season. It was a cool morning, but much better than the snow we still had back home. I scoped out the route the night before and had planned on waking early next morning to get this done. It is a popular route, so beating the crowd is a good thing.
I started my watch at 7:35 and got going. It did't take long to get hard as it is a decent climb to the top. Where I live, there's lots of hills. We do not have anything super long though so I love getting to do something more sustained like this. I tried to pace myself, but run the entire thing and not do any hiking. That gets tough when you approach the natural bridge at the top. I couldn't have been breathing any harder, but eventually made my way up and climbing the gazebo stairs. Sweet. Now I just need to make it down to the starting sign and not get hurt. Did that too. Success! Great effort and lots of fun.
Hopefully others will see this route and give it a go. This is such an amazing area with lots of route options and there were only a couple dots in the area on the FKT routes page. When I travel, I always look at the site and check out any FKT's in the area. So I hope others do the same...