FKTs: Your Questions + Our Recaps

“Fastest Known Time” (FKT) has become a more common term in 2020 than ever before.

With a year full of changes, FKT’s have been a way that many people have continued to challenge themselves on the trails. Here is our guide to FKT’s with all of your questions answered in one place. We have included both an explanation around FKTs with the need to know questions answered and a highlight of local FKT’s. This blog post got a little lengthy, so the recap of our personal adventures is coming up next - stay tuned!

FKT’s - All Your Questions Answered

1) Where to find FKT’s: Here! This is the official website for FKTs and all of the verified routes are posted on the site. ‘Verified’ means that the FKT team has reviewed and confirmed the legitimacy of the route and of any posted times.

2) How do these routes get here? You can submit a route OR choose a previously posted route. FKT routes are designed to create a bucket list of running routes around the world. So, if you have a route that everyone needs to see then you can submit it to the website at anytime. Submitting a route does not require that you have ran it, but you do have to have a GPX file. This can typically be made from Strava or map making websites like Gaia.

3) New routes = new FKTs: If you submit a route that gets approved, you can then submit your data from running it and (yes even if you are the only person who has done it) it will be the FKT! However, we recommend doing a little background research to make sure there is not another faster time on Strava or elsewhere as the list is designed to truly be the fastest times routes are completed, even if done long before it was posted as an FKT route. Also of note, typically Race courses are not used as FKT courses, because instead the race is the preferred opportunity for a ‘course record’ however in 2020, well there’s certainly more flexibility around this!

4) How do I track and submit my FKT? So you have done it! You ran an FKT route and have a new time, amazing! What you should do: first, prior to running typically it is considered ideal to comment on the route on the website and announce your intention to run the route, then run it with your watch tracking, take pictures or videos as ‘proof’ from along the way, then once you are home and refuelled, head to the FKT website and submit your run. You just need to load your GPX directly from Strava, add any pictures, and provide a brief recap of your day. Commenting in advance is not required, after all not everyone ends up running the FKT route on the day they set out (foreshadowing to stories below…).

5) Types of FKT’s: These are well explained on the website but essentially you can complete an FKT as:

Unsupported - running alone, no help along the way.

Supported - a pacer OR crew...or tag along…any form of planned support or someone running with you for any part creates a supported FKT.

Self Supported - you are going alone, without planned support but end up filling water on route or begging for a snack from a stranger. Or in longer adventures you have stashed or mailed food you will pick up along the way.

Teams: You can submit with more than 1 athlete and this can make the effort be supported OR unsupported. If you both list your names for the FKT then it can still be an unsupported OR supported effort depending on if anyone else helps or comes along. If you only submit one persons name but do the entire thing together, then it is a supported FKT (and that person is a really nice friend).

*Worth noting and where it can get technical is that, technically, to set an FKT that is supported or self supported you have to also beat the unsupported time. Again this year, many things go so don’t let this stop you from putting yourself out there!

6) Choosing your route: This is highly individualized and probably depends on many factors. We need a flow chart, you know like those teenage magazines, ‘whats your style? is it true love?...ok …but in the meantime, start with looking at FKT routes in your area, do any of them get you really excited? Ask yourself, do you want to challenge someone else’s time or share a new route that highlights amazing trails in your area? Both are amazingly rewarding and challenging! If what you are looking for in your area doesn’t exist - we say go for it, create it! If it does, well then game on trail blazer!

Local Fastest Known Times

The Lower Mainland does not have the huge abundance of FKT’s as some areas of the world, yet! But here are some of the amazing trails that people have posted. Let’s go from East to West, roughly.

1) Three Brothers Trail: 21km, 800m gain, Female - Unsupported: Jenny Quilty: 2hrs, 6mins, 38 seconds. No male times submitted (yet!)

2) Hudson’s Bay Company Heritage Trail: 80km, 4000m gain, Male - Supported: Mike Sidic, 9hrs, 12mins, 20 sec, Female Unsupported: Katie Mills & Hilary Spires: 11hrs, 35 min ,30 seconds, Female Supported: Marina Striker 12 hrs, 44 mins, 17 seconds

3) Lindeman Greendrop Flora Lakes Loop: 18.5km, 1523m gain, Female Unsupported: Jenny Quilty & Kathryn Drew: 3hrs, 32mins, 44 seconds

4) Mount MacFarlane: 16.5km, 1887m gain, Female Unsupported: Jenny Quilty, 3 hrs, 32mins, 59 seconds, Male Unsupported: Mike Baker 4hrs, 12 mins, 33 seconds

5) Stein Valley Traverse: 91km, 3672m gain, Male Unsupported: Nick Elson 13hrs, 30 min, 53 seconds, Mixed Gender Team: Nicole Gildersleeve & Peter Watson 23hrs 37 mins

6) Mount Seymour: 23.7km, 1494m gain, Male Unsupported: Carl-Eric Blancet 3hrs, 21mins, 45 seconds

7) Hanes Valley Loop: 24.3km, 1200m gain, Male Unsupported: Brandon Gardiner 2hrs, 34mins, 15seconds, Female Unsupported Aisling O’Shea 2hrs, 51mins, 45seconds, Female Supported: Keri McKenzie 3hrs, 38mins, 29seconds

8) Cove to Cove: 64km, 3966m gain, Male Unsupported: Nick Leach 10hrs, 57mins, 26 seconds, Male Supported: Chris Jones & Adam Harris 11hrs, 12mins, 42seconds

9) Mt. Harvey: 11.5km, 1436m gain, Male Unsupported: Mike Murphy 1hr 38mins 45 seconds, Female Unsupported: Tara Berry 2hrs, 1min, 8 seconds

10) Mt. Brunswick: 13km, 1560m gain, Male Unsupported Nick Duff: 1hrs 53 mins, 15seconds, Female Unsupported: Katherine Short 2 hrs, 21mins, 39 seconds

11) Wreck Beach Stair repeats: 12 hours of Repeats: Male Unsupported: Lukas Chrostowksi 91 laps, Female Self Supported: Kim Bessler & Jordanne Stahl 56 laps

Stay tuned - more to come on the personal experience of planning and running FKT’s.

Until then, thanks for being here with us!