With no races on the horizon and not much else going on, I was looking for a challenge to keep me on track and give me some motivation for my training. While I think they’re great if you’re into them, virtual races just don’t appeal to me, so they were off the list and I needed something to work towards. I had been looking at FKTs a while back, so I decided to take a look and see if there were any local to me and I got lucky!

What is an FKT?
FKT or ‘Fastest Known Time’ is a term I had read about in a number of running books (I think I own most books about running now) but from how many people didn’t know what I was talking about when I talked about the attempt it clearly hasn’t reached the mainstream.
According to a quick bit of research, the first FKT attempt was in 1998 across a 500-mile trail in Colorado but it has really grown in popularity and there’s now a website dedicated to setting and recording these FKT attempts. The website has 3285 routes currently recorded worldwide and you can search by the country you’re in. Lots of the routes are long, multi-day attempts like the Appalachian Trail but there are shorter, more achievable routes you can check out.
Currently, the FKT website is dedicated to running and hiking. Anyone can add a route but they have a few stipulations when it comes to approving a new route. In their words, an FKT route must be: notable and distinct enough so that others will be interested in repeating it. It must be a minimum of 5 miles or have at least 500 feet of climb.
If you want to read a first-hand journey of a much more impressive FKT attempt I would highly recommend the book North by Scott Jurek - it’s a great read of his and his wife’s journey of his attempt to beat the FKT on the Appalachian Trail.

The Route
I had been looking at the FKT website for a while, just out of interest for what would be on offer to me in the UK, but having moved to a new area I decided to see which ones I could do in the local area to stay within our COVID guidelines. I had two options, an 80km route in Telford that was mostly road (the road convinced me out of this one) and the one I chose, the Oswestry Round (pictured below).

The route is a 54km loop, starting and finishing along the river in Oswestry. Once I had decided to attempt the route I wanted to make sure I checked out the route to make sure it was at least semi-familiar on the day. I split the route in half and planned two long runs to check out the two halves of the route. This was really insightful and I would recommend this to anyone who is planning an FKT attempt. It meant that on the day I made less wrong turns and silly mistakes, which was important for the first half in particular as there were a number of turns and trails that were easily missed.

I actually added 3kms to the first half route just by getting lost loads so it was a valuable reccie. It also let me get a general feel for the route. This route is interesting as the first half features a number of gradual hills, nothing too steep but they add up to about 840m in total. Then, once you hit the halfway point, you hit the river and it is basically totally flat from then on. I think I gained about an extra 30ms in the final 25kms. This really helped with a pacing plan and meant that I could come up with a rough strategy for the day. I also think ultras are taxing enough as it is so anyway in which you can save brainpower is a good idea to me so being semi-familiar with the route was really reassuring.

Flying Solo
There are different levels of attempt that you can go for with an FKT: supported, self-supported and unsupported. Full details of these can be found here: https://fastestknowntime.com/fkt-guidelines I decided it was just about short enough that I could attempt it unsupported so I figured it was worth giving it a go; if I failed I could always attempt it again with support. This meant that I would need to carry all my fuel from start to finish, and other than finding a tap or a stream along the way (which I didn’t do) I would have to use only what I could carry on me. This initially left me with some questions about if I would have enough water but luckily I need way less water here than in Singapore. I started taking more water than I needed on my longer runs and practising getting used to carrying the extra weight and I would make sure I always left at least one bottle untouched. I decided I could probably get away with an unsupported attempt.

My Gear
Outfit: Leggings with side pockets (I find these really handy for easy access to my phone), sports bra, base layer. Junk headband & buff. I also ran in a light waterproof, rain was due but I like it too as a windbreaker -it was about 2 degrees during my attempt. I think it’s worth pointing out that I did not run with anything that I had not worn for a long run already - there’s nothing worse than new gear not working when you’ve got hours of running ahead of you.
Pack: I used the Instinct Trail 12litre pack and this left me with plenty of room.
Shoes: I used the VJ XTRM’s (https://vjshoesusa.com/collections/shoe/products/extrm) I was torn with these when they first arrived as they are very narrow and they took a bit of breaking in (and some black toenails in the process) but they really are the best grip shoes I own and knowing it would be muddy and potentially icy I decided to wear them. Once they were broken in they’ve been fine and they’re now pretty comfy. I would really recommend them to anyone looking for a shoe with good grip but beware if you’ve got wide feet.

Fuel: I was totally fuelled by Tailwind. I have been using Tailwind for a few years now as solid food and gels really don’t sit well with me and this kept me fuelled throughout and feeling good. I messed around with the strengths of it in my long runs beforehand (mainly because I am still adapting to the less humid climate and wasn’t sure on how much I would need) and settled on 1 stick pack (200 calories) for each hour and planned for 7 hours of fuel. I went Colorado Cola flavour because it’s the best and as always it did the job and kept me running strong. (You can check it out here: https://www.tailwindnutrition.co.uk/ if you want to know more).

The one issue I did have is that I wanted the option of fuel and plain water. So I loaded up 2 x 600ml soft bottles which I carried in the front of my pack and then had a 1litre bladder on my back which I filled with a super-concentrated Tailwind solution. I had tested this in my training but this had obviously been less concentrated. This meant that I actually had too much tailwind to water and it didn’t dissolve fully. This issue became apparent 2kms in when I took a sip and realised my bladder pipe was blocked. After a bit of messing around, I worked out that if I jumped up and down a bit it would mix it back up and I could take a drink - less than ideal. I stopped at the halfway point and filled my bladder back to the top with one of the water bottles and this stopped it from being an issue but if I was attempting it again I would use a bigger bladder and really if it had been a race I would have been using aid stations along the way anyway.

The Run
It was weird taking myself to the start point and setting off on my own. It felt so far from the pre-race vibes I have grown to love but I was excited to be heading out on an adventure and many will call me weird, but a day of running and exploring gorgeous trails seems pretty exciting to me! I set my Garmin to record and my Strava on my phone and off I went (One of my biggest worries was the battery lasting on my Garmin, the UltraTrack didn’t work well enough when I tested it out and it’s old and isn’t responding so well to the cold, plus the map tracking really drains the battery so I decided to track on Garmin and on my phone using Strava then hope that one of them made it to the end with me - in the end, they both did!) on my journey!

I headed out at a sensible pace to give my body some time to warm into it. I was pretty confident that I could beat the time that currently stood but I wanted to make sure I challenged myself while still getting to the finish line. I had planned for a number of different paces and I knew that the first half would be slower than the second due to the terrain so I kept it steady and just kept one foot in front of the other. The day was kind to me, it was cold but dry when I set off and it stayed that way until the last 5km when the rain joined me. The views were gorgeous and I felt very lucky to have the trails to myself, I barely saw another soul on my whole run.

The KM’s ticked away and I was pleased with the pace I was able to maintain for the first half. Hitting the final climb after the halfway point was a nice point to reach and knowing that it was flat from then on was good - I knew I could turn the pace up a little and not have to save anything for future hills. When I hit the route the first time it was snowy and the ground was hard-packed. This had its own issues with the icy uphills but on FKT day this had been replaced with melted snow and FAR too much muddy trail, (See the picture bel0w) I did not love the muddy trail.

The rest of the run proceeded without too much event (if still too much mud) and I was feeling pretty happy with my body and the pace that was popping up every km. I didn’t stick to a certain pace, I knew I was ahead of the current record comfortably so I settled into running by feel and was happy to be hitting roughly 5.15 - 5.45kms.

In true Ultra fashion, I was feeling great, until I wasn’t, and the pain arrived about 50kms in. It turns out the sticky mud had been taking a toll and once I hit the river it was non stop mud, at a slight angle along the river. This made my left hamstring sad and it really started to get mad at me at the 50km mark. I still managed to keep running, but it turned from a run to a stiff-legged shuffle. This was one of those moments where in-the-moment I felt like I was barely moving forwards, I felt I was crawling towards the finish line but looking back it really wasn’t that bad at all - I had dropped to a 6.20 / 6.30 pace for a couple of km but managed to speed back up as the final km ticked over. I knew when I was done Sean would be at the finish line and that kept me going. I picked up the speed and crossed the imaginary finish line with a time of 6 hours, 2 minutes and 12 seconds.

I was awarded a chocolate medal (the best kind of medal!) and a commemorative FKT unicorn by the best husband ever and had a slightly wobbly moment where my legs decided they didn’t want to walk anymore and I nearly finished the run with an unplanned dip in the canal. Luckily Sean was there to direct me back to my car and post-Tailwind Refuel I managed to get myself home where I spent the rest of the day in my Recovery Systems eating pizza.

I submitted my attempt to the FKT website and it was verified the next day. So now my attempt will be recorded here: https://fastestknowntime.com/route/oswestry-round-united-kingdom until someone comes along and beats it! It’s fun to have a record and I’m glad I took on the challenge. I have had a number of people reach out to me since saying they’re planning their own FKT routes so I thought I would put this blog together to hopefully further inspire.

If you have an FKT planned, you're now thinking about it, or you want to take on this route and have any questions feel free to find me on IG (@smiley_spartan_racer) or leave a comment below! Records are made to beaten and I’m always happy to talk strategy! Either way, I am looking forward to having another crack at this route when it’s dry and there isn’t so much mud to contend with!