On Sunday, July 29th, 2018, I started out at the Crawford Path Trailhead at Rt. 302 at 5:51 AM. I ascended via Crawford Path, Mizpah Cutoff, and Webster Cliff Trail from the hut to the summit of Pierce. From there, I followed the ridge over all summits, including Clay, to Madison, where I descended to Appalachia via Valley Way. Split for S-N Presi was 5:46.
After a short pause at Appalachia, I re-climbed Madison via Watson Path, summited Adams via Star Lake (non-traditional, but not any shorter or less difficult than Gulfside-Airline route of ascent), and then again followed the ridge over Jefferson, Clay, Washington, and down Crawford Path to the Pierce. From Pierce, I descended Crawford path to the trailhead with a split of 6:18.
I will admit, I had no idea what the FKT was for this route until after I finished the run. My intention for the day was to complete the route at a decent time so I could still pick up my dog and be home at a reasonable time for a Sunday. Once I finished I realized that I had done it in a time that I considered "fairly quick," so I looked it up and saw Adam Wilcox's old FKT of 13:04 from September 2016. My bad, Adam, for not letting you know..but if you had told me I was going to go out and beat your time by an hour I would've laughed in your face.
I carried all of my food and refilled water from the Madison Springs Hut and the MW Summit Building three times. I did buy a Snickers on my way back across, though, so I guess that makes this a "self-supported" effort. I took a bunch of pictures (included in this submission), but I ran this route alone. Lots and lots of people out that day--ran into a few I knew along the way.
I know this isn't the exact route that Adam took when he set the previous FKT, but given that I shaved an hour off of his time I believe that it is still valid (descending Valley Way instead of Watson definitely does not add an hour to the day). Hopefully that's enough for this to be considered an official FKT.
Adam Wilcox provided some comments on the route differences: "It's close enough in my opinion. Nate added minor difficulty early in the outbound leg by approaching Mt. Pierce from Mitzpah Hut, then subtracted minor difficulty by descending the Valley Way from Mount Madison to the turn-around. On the inbound leg he added some difficulty (and and aesthetic improvement in my opinion) by going up Star Lake Trail to the summit of Adams."