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...

One hundred and ninety-eight episodes later, Alyssa Godesky returns to discuss her most recent mind-bending beat: setting the overall supported FKT on the New Hampshire 4,000 Footers.  That sneaky northern New England state boasts 48 peaks above 4,000 feet, and speed trips for tagging them all in one push go back to at least the 1970s. With the Adirondack 46 and the Long Trail supported FKTs under her belt, Godesky realized the NH 48 was the last big northern east coast challenge left for her...

What’s it like to set an FKT on the heels of a six month thru-hike? Cal Swartzentruber joins the FKT Podcast to dish it out. Fresh off completing the Pacific Crest Trail—Cal’s first of thru-hike of a Triple Crown trail—Cal returned to his local trails of the south last October. That thru-hiking fitness paid off. Completing the Sheltowee Trace in an unsupported style, Cal broke not only the unsupported record, but also the supported record (by 32 minutes!) on the 319-mile trail.   Climbing...

For our 200th (!) episode, we’re jumping across the pond to catch up with Finlay Wild, Scottish resident and recent Paddy Buckley record-setter. A doctor with a passion for painting, Finlay shares his vast insight and skill on all things fell running, UK rounds, and the UK at large. With nine FKTs to his name, Finlay’s most iconic feats include the Cuillin Ridge Traverse on the Isle of Sky, the Tranter variant of the Ramsay Round, and his most recent feat: setting the unsupported record on...

Jeff Garmire dreamed about going after the unsupported John Muir Trail FKT for three years. In fact, he got three permits for the trail just this summer. Each time, self doubt led him to cancel the next day. But then Joe “Stringbean” McConaughy shaved three hours off of four-year-old record in the beginning of August. “[Stringbean] setting the record was really the push I needed to go give it a shot,” Garmire says. “[The record] just seemed untouchable since it hadn't been broken since 2018....

Fresh off her course record at Bandera, Courtney Dauwalter returns to shed insight into yet another of her outstanding performances of late: setting the overall FKT on the Collegiate Peak Loop.  Many have tried to throw down on this 160-mile link up of the Colorado Trail’s east and west alts through the Sawatch mountains. And many have failed. Armed with the power of familiarity—she can essentially access the Collegiate Peak loop from her front door in Leadville—a stellar crew, and a spirit...

For the first time ever, we put FKT of the Year nominations in your hands. You, the community, decided which athletes put down efforts on routes of all lengths and with all degrees of support that deserve to be in contention for FKT of the Year. Our panel voted from that list, and host Heather Anderson is here to announce the top 10 winners. While we awarded honors to five men and five women, we took efforts from athletes of all genders into consideration, as well as efforts by...

There may be no better way to celebrate 2022 than through the eyes of Andrea Sansone. Smashing records on Nolan’s 14, 24 hours of Colorado 14ers, and the Manitou Incline—on paper, Sansone’s year could not have gone better. But the year did not start auspiciously. Tune in to learn how Sansone went from dealing with a broken foot to breaking records. Read Sansone's FKT write-ups on fastestknowntime.com, and follow her and her partner Andrew Hamilton’s adventures on their joint Instagram account.

Just before 9 pm on Sunday, August 7, a 27-year-old British hiker with no fixed home arrived at his destination. The destination was the Canadian border, a stone pillar he walked 2,600 miles in 55 days, 16 hours, and 54 minutes to reach. His name was Josh Perry, and he had just smashed the male self-supported PCT.  Perry shaved by nearly 10 days off of Scott Williamson’s FKT set in 2009. Even more impressively, Perry cut five days off the overall self-supported record set by the legendary...

Last spring, Katie Brown notched her first FKT—the self-supported record on the Arizona Trail. She broke the long-standing record of Heather Anderson, who Katie joins today on the FKT Podcast to break down all things AZT.  The emergency room nurse from Utah first attempted the notoriously challenging trail in 2019. Storms scared her away. She returned for redemption in May 2022. Graced with good weather, some well-timed trail magic, and most importantly an indomitable spirit, Katie hiked the...

In July, Jack Kuenzle flew to the UK and bought a camper van. The 27-year-old didn’t want to squander the mandatory three months of car insurance. It’s safe to say he did not. In case you lived under a rock (or simply in a camper van) all summer, Jack set FKTs on a variant of the Ramsay Round and the Bob Graham Round—two of the most iconic routes not only in the UK, but on the planet. Etching his name on the Bob Graham required Jack besting the GOAT of ultra and trail running Kilian Jornet....

What better way to explore a new place than by foot? After moving from Oregon to Asheville, North Carolina, at the beginning of the year, Julie Wallace started learning about her new home by scouring fastestknowntime.com. Her objective was simple – find local FKTs that don’t have a woman’s time. And then get after it and put a time down! This strategy led Julie to setting the first woman’s known time on the Shining Rock Wilderness Ridge, a 17-mile out-and-back that traverses a spine of the...