“One FKT attempt per month.” Despite knowing the megalomaniac ideas and goals of my partner (and coach) Steffi, I often wonder how I end up beside her when she is pursuing her sportive endeavours. This was also the case on 23 April, when we ventured out on another run in the woods close to Karlsruhe on the Burbacher Rundweg, a 15k loop around the small village of Burbach.
We started in the even smaller village of Fischweier for a 2k warm up on our beloved Graf Rena Weg before starting on the actual official trail after some uphill kilometres in the woods. The gravelly forest path directly led us into Burbach, where the steepest ascents were already waiting for us. We were enjoying the mild and slightly sunny weather when another runner overtook us and easily sped past us on the steep climb in the center of the village. Turns out, we had just been outrun by local running legend Volker “FKT machine” Buschka, who himself was trying to beat the time for male runners, as he told us shortly after that when we met him during his cool down. We had a quick chat and then, Godspeed!, we were on our way again.
The path then went up pretty steep again, before turning on to the Schafsweg (sheep path), which was easily runnable and went slightly downhill. Unfortunately it had no sheep, though. The next kilometres meander through the beautiful woods and fields before going past the Wiesenhof with its ponies and Saturday morning horseback riders galore. From there, the loop circles around the northern part of Burbach back into the woods. There is a pretty traily part with lots of mud holes and broken off logs and branches, but it is slowly descending and running was especially fun on this part. After that we had two minor navigation cockups due to weak GPS signal and spontaneous but assertive decision-making on my part. But in the end, our navigation app Komoot saved us (not for the first time).
We finished the route after 1 hour and 31 minutes. While Steffi was already planning the next run on our cool down jog back to the car, I was more open for easier reachable goals myself, like a second breakfast. Different strokes for different folks, I guess... ?