I completed the FKT attempt leaving from Rilly-la-Montagne at 6:47. It was a good day to go for it as it wasn’t too hot and there was some cloud cover the second half.
It was occasionally tricky to navigate using just the map on my Garmin. At the beginning, I had to stop frequently to double check my route. Things went more smoothly after the first 7 or 8 km.
Luckily I uploaded the GPX file to OpenRunner so I was able to check the map on my phone whenever I had a doubt and, if needed, to backtrack to the point where I went off course and continue ahead on the right path.
That added a bit to my total distance as well as adding additional minutes.
The route itself is quite nice especially up until around 40 km as you have nice views of the vineyards and rolling hills. The straight section through the forest back to Rilly is a bit of a slog as there are no real views and the trail is still quite muddy at this time of year.
One thing to be aware of is that there is nowhere to refill your water bottles along the route so you need to have enough on you. I left with 2 liters and had a bit left at the end.
Overall, I had a great experience. I’ve done similar distances outside of races, but it was the first time in the context of an FKT, and I found it quite fun to add another dimension to the effort.