In this week’s episode, host Heather Anderson is joined by ultrarunner and body positivity activist Callie Vinson to discuss her supported Maricopa Loop FKT. The Maricopa Loop is an urban trail system connecting all the major and municipal parks that ring the city of Phoenix, Arizona. Despite its accessibility, it is chock full of wild and remote trails and hits many incredible viewpoints along the way. Vinson shares her journey from someone who struggled to walk a mile a decade ago to losing...

There’s only one FKT that is over 7,000 miles long and takes seven and a half months to complete and in 2023 Billy Meredith crushed the self-supported record on it. The Triple Crown of Thru-Hiking consists of the Appalachian, Pacific Crest, and Continental Divide National Scenic Trail. Each of these is over 2,000 miles long. Attempting to complete them in one year is a rare feat known as the Calendar Year Triple Crown, or CYTC. Billy took the CYTC to the next level by setting out to establish...

This week we’re traveling to Alabama to retrace Martin Luther King Junior’s march from Selma to Montgomery with Sika Henry. 59 years ago nonviolent activists marched between these two cities to protest segregation. Earlier this month Sika, the first Black female professional triathlete, ran this 51-mile historic route in 7 hours 6 minutes.  The granddaughter of a footballer denied admittance to the professional leagues due to race, Sika shares her remarkable and inspiring journey to...

Host Heather Anderson delves into Kristian Morgan's epic Appalachian Trail FKT, an endeavor filled with grit, determination, and unexpected challenges. Join us as we uncover the remarkable story of Kristian, who embarked on this daunting journey supported by an unlikely ally – his own mother, serving as his dedicated crew. Through numerous setbacks and restarts, listeners will be captivated by Kristian's unwavering resolve amidst one of the wettest years in the Northeast. Tune in as we...

Join host Heather Anderson on the latest FKT Podcast as she sits down with Ivey Smith. Despite battling injuries, Smith tackled the rugged 300 mile Benton MacKaye Trail, setting an unsupported Fastest Known Time. Along the way, she encountered unexpected wildlife and resisted the allure of trail angels, relying solely on her own determination. In this captivating interview, Smith shares her insights into overcoming challenges, staying focused, and embracing the solitude of this Appalachian...

In this episode of the FKT Podcast, host Heather Anderson sits down with trail runner Suzanne "Sunny" Stroeer to dive into her remarkable achievement of setting the Fastest Known Time (FKT) for the Grand Canyon Rim-to-Rim-to-Rim alt route. Sunny shares her journey, detailing the physical and mental challenges she faced along the way, and the strategies she employed to conquer one of America's most iconic trails which included swimming across the Colorado River. Listeners will be inspired...

This week we’re traveling to the thin air and high alpine peaks of Colorado for a very special episode of the FKT Podcast. Last summer, not one, not two, not three, but four FKTs went down on the Colorado Trail within weeks of each other. All four women—Claire Bannwarth, Tara Dower, Nina Bridges, and Melinda McCaw—join host Heather Anderson to break down their incredible efforts.  The Colorado Trail snakes 500 miles from Denver to Durango, traveling through some of the most spectacular...

This week we’re thrilled to be joined by our two FKT athletes of 2023: Jenny Hoffman and Karel Sabbe. From not one but three Pacific Crest Trail records, to new FKTs on classics like Nolan’s 14 and the Paddy Buckley Round, to new mountaineering benchmarks on Mount Denali and Mount Blanc, 2023 was one for the history books. (Or more specifically, the record boards at fastestknowntime.com.) Our has jury voted, and this year Karel and Jenny were named FKT athletes of the year for their...

Ah Iceland, that magical polar island covered in glaciers, hot springs, lava fields, and…mosquitos. Christof Teuscher learned that the hard way this August when he traversed the island north to south on foot, without any aid, covering the 375-mile route in eight days, 11 hours, and four minutes. That was good enough for a new unsupported fastest known time, as Teuscher shaved an astonishing four and a half days off the benchmark set by Eli Burakian the year before.  Born in the alps of...

The Pacific Crest Trail was on fire this year, and not in the usual way. Records fell left and right on this iconic 2,592.6-mile long trail. And etching her name on the illustrious FKT holder list is Jessica Pekari, who set the women’s south-bound supported record in 63 days, seven hours, and 31 minutes. This record was a long-time coming for the veteran mother of three with Blackfeet and Mexican heritage. After completing the Triple Crown of 200-mile ultras in 2018, the former U.S. military...

Jenny Hoffman has dreamed about running across the United States since she was a child. Spacing out in the car, she’d stare at the open road and think about how she could be running down it instead. The goal loomed over her life as she earned a bachelor’s degree in Physics from Harvard University in 1991, a Ph.D. in Physics from the University of California, Berkeley in 2003, and back in Boston as a professor of Physics and Applied Physics at Harvard, where the mom of three and three-time...

For some FKTs, the beauty lies in the solitary nature of human and landscape. Other FKTs derive meaning from the collective effort needed for safe and successful passage. Hillary Geradi married the two on June 6, 2023, when she set the FKT on Mont Blanc, the 4,805-meter (15,766-foot) glaciated massif that looms above Western Europe. Gerardi, an American living just downvalley from Chamonix, France, and the fabled peak, dreamed of going fast on this mountain for years. The snowpack and weather...

On August 26, Karel Sabbe reached the U.S.-Canadian border, officially smashing the supported record on the Pacific Crest Trail. The 33-year-old dentist from Belgium covered the 2,600-mile-plus trail in just 46 days, 12 hours, and 50 minutes—which was five days and four hours ahead of Timothy Olson’s mark of 51 days, 16 hours, and 55 minutes.  His secret to success? Not thinking about the old record.  “If you go into an FKT attempt with the current FKT in mind, you’re limiting yourself,”...

In 2019, Nick Fowler started touring national parks. He tricked himself into going on a 32-mile hike—his longest by far—when he wanted to touch a glacier with his hand in Glacier National Park. “The next day I couldn’t walk I was so sore,” Fowler says. “The day after that I thought, ‘That was awesome!” Just four years later Fowler set the self-supported record on the Pacific Crest Trail. Fowler joins FKT Podcast host Heather Anderson to connect the dots and explore what it took for Fowler to...

America’s oldest long trail has been a hotbed for FKT action this summer, and record setters John Kelly and Will Peterson are here to dish all about it. On July 3, 2032, John Kelly established a new supported mark on the trail that traces the 249-mile length of Vermont. Just 24 days later, Will “Sisyphus” Peterson smashed the unsupported FKT. His time of four days, 11 hours and 34 minutes was only seven hours shy of Kelly’s incredibly stout supported mark. Today they join host and thru-hiking...

Escape the summer swelter for half an hour with Chris Fisher, who set the fastest known time on the Colorado Fourterneers—winter edition.  Completing Colorado’s 58 14,000-foot peaks in one push is a massive feat in itself. Taking on this challenge in winter adds a whole new level of daunting difficulty and complexity. Weather, avalanche risk, frostbite—the list of hurdles is endless. That’s probably why no one had even completed the feat in one winter until 2018, when Andrew Hamilton...

While the trail running world fixated on the Hardrock Hundred Mile Endurance Run in southwestern Colorado, David Hedges put down a performance for the ages a few hundred miles to the northwest in Colorado’s Sawatch Range. At only age 25, David completed the largely off-trail open route across the 14 14,000-foot peaks in 39 hours, six minutes, and 40 seconds. It’s the fastest time ever recorded on this strenuous 100-ish mile route with about 40,000 feet of climbing. David joins host Heather...

The 2023 Hardrock Hundred Mile Endurance Run starts today. While three-time winner Darcy Piceu attempts her 10th loop around the San Juans, what better time than to listen to her and Trail Sisters founder and Hardrock board member Gina Lucrezi talk about the gender issues this sport faces. Thanks to the work of these two and other rockstars in the sport, this is the second running of this iconic 100-mile event in which the percentage of women’s entrants will be no less than the percentage of...

Let's try this again. Buckle up, fan favorite and FKT legend Jack Kuenzle returns to the pod to bring you behind the scenes on his recent Denali FKT. Kuenzle went on a skiing record tear this year, taking down FKTs on the volcanic 14ers Mount Shasta and Mount Rainier in America’s lower 48 before making the trek out to Alaska. And he’s here to dish about it all in his characteristically humorous fashion.  On June 5, 2023, Kuenzle skied up and down 20,310-foot Denali in 10 hours, 14 minutes,...

Fresh off their Presidential Picnic FKT, highly accomplished hiker, backpacker, and ultra runner Aubri Drake joins the FKT podcast today. While Aubri, who uses they/them pronouns, says they’re not the fastest athlete, they’re certainly one of the toughest. Aubri has 20 FKTs to their name—none over easy terrain. Hailing from the east coast, Aubri gravitates towards grueling routes in the Whites and various mountain ranges in New York. As part of their ongoing New Hampshire 48 Grid project,...

Running legend Mike Wardian joins the FKT Podcast to give the inside scoop on his recent FKT across Panama—and much more. Clocking in at nine hours even, Wardian’s record across Panama doubles as the fastest run across any continent! From getting chased by dogs to running neck-in-neck with buses, Wardian chronicles the glory and the gory of traversing this route highly trafficked…by vehicles.  As evidenced by his Run Across Panama FKT, Wardian does not shy away from a physically, mentally,...

Living “wilderness running” legend Doug McKeever joins the podcast this week to reflect on his nearly four decades in the sport. A geology professor and mountain guide in addition to a storied ultrarunner, McKeever’s tackled nearly every iconic 100-mile race in the world and recorded three FKTs in the ‘80s and ‘90s, including a speed record on Washington’s Glacier Peak. But he’s best known for serving as a groundbreaking persona and immutable fixture in the Washington trail running scene. He...

Washington has the Bulgers. Colorado has the Centennials. California has the Sierra Peaks Section List—and it has a new FKT. Established in 1955, the Sierra Peaks Section List may not have the snazziest name but it may be one of the oldest, largest, and most compelling peak bagging objectives in the lower-48. Spanning 247 mountains across California and Nevada, the SPS is not for the faint of heart. It requires the motivation needed to speed-hike a long trail combined with deep backcountry...