I went to try for an fkt on this route a couple years back. I realized part way through my warm up that a bridge was out and construction was all over the trail. So I had to bail. Then I saw the fkt became faster and kind of let it go. I thought I was in better shape now, so I figured I owed it to myself to finish what I originally set out to do. My plan was to complete the trail as a warm up, do the fkt as an out and back as the fkt holders have, then cool down back to my vehicle. It would be a 16+ mile day and I was looking forward to it!
I got started at 8:45 am which was later than I wanted due to a traffic jam on the 400. No big deal, now it was a little warmer which was nice. I downed some fuel a bit before the start and carried nothing for the fkt. The effort went well and as expected. I did have a fairly strong head wind on the outbound leg, but enjoyed the tailwind inbounding. Even though the route isn't super hilly, the hills still zapped my legs since I was trying to keep an honest pace. Other than a few hills, the terrain was a very easy rail trail with a few short sections of paved trail. My goal was to go under 54 min which would take over a minute off the current fkt. I pushed extra hard with my tailwind and managed to go under 53 min. I only saw a couple handfuls of people out today. It's funny how long the 4 mile cool down felt. It was a great day overall and I'm very glad I got it done. I realized driving home after that I totally forgot to take a pic at the end, oops. My avg pace was 6:32 per mile with 433 feet of vert. On to the next one, God willing...