As the grey skies suddenly ripped open and the sun came out, I spontaneously decided to do my 3h weekend long run on this FKT route. With temps around 2°C (35°F) I packed 2 liters of water and some gels in my Salomon running vest and off I went, all by myself.
The route is a mix of asphalt roads, paved bike paths and forest trails. Running the roads and bike paths was easy as there was no snow on the ground. Running the forest trails in contrast was challenging, as we had quite some rain and no frost round here the past weeks, so the ground was muddy and deep.
The same goes for the navigation: This FKT route is not a marked trail, so you must follow the GPS track. It was easy following the roads and bike paths, but the route’s gpx file was sometimes inaccurate in the woods. (But knowing the area, I had no problems getting around.) For safety reasons I decided to run on the bike path running next to the road in the eastern section of the route – I really do not understand why the creator of this FKT route was not using them (or the gpx file was again inaccurate?).
After 25k into the run, I “bonked” as my stomach suddenly went south. Maybe I got a bit cold as the opposing wind starts to increase … but I pushed through, knowing that I was well ahead of the existing FKT splits. Consequently, I raised the bar only a notch ;-) so maybe some more runners feel motivated to go for an FKT attempt.
As written on Strava, only run this route if you aim to beat the FKT. For many road sections there are better off-road alternatives, making the route more scenic and safer.