The idea for this attempt was to enjoy a great morning with friends on my birthday. I had the previous record (53min 21 sec) on this route from a year back in ideal conditions. Knowing that it has been a year since I did a hard attempt on this climb, I was aware that there is a significant scope of improvement from the previous time. But how much time exactly can I shave off, that I was unsure of.
So to make sure that I actually do the hardest effort my body was capable of on that particular day, I put a bandage on my watch so as to not be aware of time, pace, HR or any other metric. This would allow me to - 1. Go as hard as I can based on effort. 2. Enjoy the effort rather than just being driven/obsessed about metrics. I had friends who would meet me at the 4 road-trail intersections, to cheer me on and pass some water as it was a hot summer morning.
Without any information about the pace and completely guided by feel, I managed to cut more than 7.5 minutes off previous best on the route. The trail passes almost entirely through the forest and is full of loose rocks and heaps of dry leaves throughout the year. For anyone trying the FKT, it is recommended to do a couple of reconnaissance trips to identify the shortest or most suited way up the mountain as there are multiple trails going up parallel to each other, that are not clearly defined.