First attempt at an FKT on the website. My understanding and feeling about this FKT was:
Reach the following summits: Box Hill (summit on the field just behind the viewpoint), Leith Hill tower, and Holmbury Hill summit by your own choice of route. I'm not sure if we would have beaten Eddie's time on the exact same route, but it felt like part of the fun was planning a route which tried to minimize distance and elevation to give us a shot. Mostly planned on maps, but I recce'd a small section on my MTB and made some tweaks, which included some bushwhacking and running down the MTB trail 'Telegraph Flow'. I added a small amount (~2k) of tarmac compared to the previous route.
On the day, we set off from the top of Ashcombe Road and headed down to cross the stepping stones. We averaged 4 min/km and felt strong. Upon reaching the stepping stones, we found the river was in flood and they couldn't be seen. Obviously, we couldn't let the FKT go, so shoes off and I was wading in. Quickly the water was up to my waist and with a phone in the bag, I turned back. While having a good laugh, Matt and Simon spotted a bridge 30m away. We set off again but had wasted about 4 minutes. FKT probably gone.
Up and down Box, through Dorking, and onto Cold Harbour Lane, we were feeling alright thanks in some part to some quality road crossing for me. We lost Simon partway who put his family ahead of the record. After lots of rain this winter, it was muddy in the fields but through the forest, it wasn't too bad. A poor bit of nav from me led to some of us off the path, bashing through heather before the last stretch up to Leith Hill tower. The weather today though was incredible, sunny and crisp.
The run down to Holmbury was glorious, and the soft ground might have helped, though Matt flying ahead. Then up to Holmbury summit via a very steep section about 100m at near 40%. At the top of the final summit, we thought we were on good time, but the descent down to Dorking had more uphills, steep downs, gates, mud, and obstacles than expected. On flat ground back in Dorking, I was flagging, but Matt was kindly pacing and checking the nav. We knew we'd be close, but we'd hatched a plan. Getting to the start 17 seconds late, we opted to run back to the stepping stones, thereby starting and finishing our attempt after the first swim of the day. The run down felt harder at the end, but nonetheless, we got there with an elapsed time of 2:27:50. It was also a nice place to finish, and we were happier this time to get our shoes off and have a celebratory dip in the water, well, legs at least.
Quality adventure, and I hope it generates more interest.