Good morning trail friends. This week our featured piece looks at a growing movement of women who FKT. In the Weekend Cooldown, Outside magazine writer Leath Tonino considers slowing down… a lot. And in the DFL, Eliud envisions himself running ultras.
– Matt Hart
THE WEEKEND COOL DOWN
A Snail’s Pace
Andrew Drummond‘s team at Run the Whites hosted their fourth annual Bubba’s Backyard Ultra (?: 1). And for the fourth time the same man was the last one standing: 57-year-old Ed Clifford. In Virginia, the Yeti Runners remind us, “There is no finish like the one you questioned.” (?: 2)
Welcome to The Trailhead, a new UltraSignup podcast featuring Corrine Malcolm and Buzz Burrell — presented by Ultimate Direction and with support this week from Tailwind.
Marta Fisher finished the 2019 Hardrock 100 proud of her accomplishment but also curious why women were so underrepresented at the event. When she later scoured the FastestKnownTimes.com website for interesting challenges, she found the same phenomenon. Droves of FKTs had no women’s finish time.
Eager to mentor others in the sport she loves, Marta started a movement called Women Who FKT. The goals were threefold: 1) Flip the stats of male to female FKTs in Oregon and Washington. 2) Have 50 women set their first FKT. 3) Have 20 FKTs set by women from underrepresented groups. More importantly the project wanted to build a community of women working toward a similar goal without worrying about speed.
Temperatures are dropping, and the summer is fading. What better way to look back on an incredible season than watching John Kelly’s comeback performance at the 2022 Hardrock 100. With one of the most anticipated starts in the ultra-running season, John Kelly of “Barkley Finisher” fame toes the line in the beautiful San Juan mountains.
Ultimate Direction was given unfettered access before the race and follows along with his incredible journey at one of the toughest races in ultrarunning.
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