Ran the unsupported Victory-Cheeseboro Loop FKT in Los Angeles, CA on 10/21/2023 (Saturday) with a time of 1:19:36. Former FKT was 1:24:12. I tried to get there early to avoid heat and crowds. I arrived at the trailhead just before sunrise. It turns out the gates had just opened (park is closed during dark) so I'm glad I didn't try to go any earlier. Note it costs $3 cash to park there but there is also free street parking on the roads. Did a 3 mile warm up on the first part of the course which is a gradual downhill on a fire road. I've run the adjacent Cheeseboro Canyon loop many times, but this was my first time here and it was quite nice.
For the FKT effort, I wore a pack with one 17mL soft flask filled with water and one gel. I wasn't sure if I'd need either but I figured it would be better to have in case I bonked. With minimal materials, it really doesn't add any burden to carry either. My goal was to run an effort close to 6:00 GAP and hopefully have a few minutes cushion on the FKT. I had downloaded the gpx file from the previous FKT holder Alexander Parker 's strava and monitored that on my watch closely as this route was entirely new to me.
Got out comfortably for the downhill miles with sub-6s and feeling pretty good. Throughout the run, there were groups of hikers but generally didn't get in the way. Mile 3 was more rolling but still felt pretty comfortable. Mile 4 ascends the ridge into Cheeseboro Canyon and is a tough 300' climb. Did well on this but it felt brutal. A couple easy downhill miles again before another 300' climb in Mile 6 which wasn't quite as hard. There are more intersections for the rest of the run and navigation is more important here. I took my gel just before Mile 7. There are some switchback up and downs for a few miles, then the remainder of the route is quite difficult as you're at a net downhill at this point and have to climb back up. There was about 500' of climbing from mile 8.8 to 10.2 and this felt really hard. Felt pretty tired after that but just tried to hang on. Started and finished at the beginning of the trail where the gate is.
This was a really cool loop and had many scenic spots. It's challenging without being too hard for inexperienced runners.
A few notes on route variations. 1) At Mile 6.1, I made a wrong turn in the switchback sections. This is probably easy to do in this area. Quickly turned around and only cost me 10 seconds or so. 2) At Mile 8.2, the FKT route has you turn left onto Las Virgenes Road. I did so and I had to awkwardly run through construction. At the end of the road where the trail picks up, the gate/fence was locked up and I had to go left and around, adding some extra distance. There was a left turn just before the road that would have avoided the construction/locked gate, and I think it should be acceptable for future FKT runners to take that (it would cut off probably 30s or so) rather than run through the construction zone. Again, I stayed on the standard route and only ran extra distance. 3) At Mile 9.6 while climbing, I took a spur adjacent to the route which goes straight here. This is technically a route deviation, but I only followed it because the former FKT holder Alexander Parker ran this. It adds .15 miles (.29 mile spur or .14 mile straightaway) although is slightly less steep. I do not think taking this route variation matters as the previous FKT holder did so, and it only adds more time.
Advice to future attempts or runs on this route. Start early- it gets very hot here, and was somewhat crowded for me despite a 7:40AM start. Hikers aren't too difficult to get around, but bikers or horses could certainly cause issues. Gates are supposed to be locked sunrise-sunset so a dark run is probably not advisable. In terms of the route structure, there's a lot of downhill early and a lot of uphill late. Basically don't count on coasting in easy the last 3-4 miles as those will likely feel the hardest. I think starting this from Cheeseboro Canyon or Las Virgenes road would be a little easier as you run uphill first and get to finish with a significant downhill. Although this would be harder from a logistical standpoint as neither point on the route has a trailhead (meaning you'd need to run in from somewhere) and you'd have to run the victory trailhead part out and back.