Racing the future

In one of his videos, Seth James DeMoor talked about setting Fastest Known Times (FKTs) and how you are not only racing history (as in everyone who has attempted the course before you) but also the future as others are likely to come after you and attempt the same thing.

This year, the Golden Trail Series has been replaced by a number of “Golden Segments” on Strava. For each segment, the best man and woman gets a ticket to the Azores in November to race the FKT-holders of all the other segments. One of these segments is the “Boulder Skyline Traverse” which is 26 km long with 1,739 m of elevation gain and I was not surprised when Seth, after winning the Pikes Peak Marathon back in August, was able to set a new FKT of 2 hours and 38 minutes. Yet, true to Seth's words about “racing the future”, Joseph Grey snagged the same course record only a few days later with a margin of six minutes. With the competition closing in five days, I wonder if Seth (or some other elite runner) will make another attempt or if Grey will be the one who gets to go to the Azores.

For our own miniature version, Elin and I went racing along the river this morning, both setting new CRs for the 300 meter segment “Bildmuséet” which has been inaccessible during the construction of Katamarankajen.