What. A. Day. Storm-grade winds left a great deal of WNC in a "falling limb advisory," which made traipsing atop Blackrock in the snow at 5:00 AM a very cold endeavor. I don't have very much to say that wasn't said in the creation of this FKT. Around the mile 17 mark, my friend and founder of Adventure Grown Guides, James Perkins, met me for about a half-marathon's effort. We were so captivated by the pillar of ice that Greenland Falls had become, we missed the turnoff and had to backtrack a little over a mile to ensure we covered that dirt. For anyone looking to improve upon this effort, be sure to use the Route GPX and not the one from my actual activity. I added probably four miles throughout the day in silliness, though I did modify my route by taking the climber's trail off Big Green Mtn, and this saved a bit of unnecessary backtracking.
After returning James to his truck at the Cold Mtn parking area, my roommate met us with burritos and bone broth ("chicken tea," as James calls it). I pressed back down into the valley by myself and picked up another recruit at the overlook on Blackrock. It was Friends of Panthertown's own Kara McMullen, and she joined for about ten miles until the finish.
I think by utilizing more hunter's trails a future FKT aspirant could improve upon my route, but only marginally. There is not a significant amount of backtracking to be had (if you don't miss any turns), and I accomplished the largest reduction in this by taking Rock Bridge Rd from one trail terminus to the next.