I am a slow runner. This is not a complaint, and it’s not a critique. It’s just a plain statement of the truth. I can hold a 12-minute/mile pace for about 10 kilometers, and a 15-minute/mile pace for 20 miles, but that’s about it. After giving it absolutely everything, I was able to finish my first 50-mile race in just under 25 hours. Yes, I did spend roughly four hours in aid stations and getting my foot iced and taped so that I could keep moving, but still, this is SLOW.

And so it might come as a bit of a surprise that I do, in fact, enjoy seeing people chase FKTs (fastest known times), even though I know that nothing like that will ever be possible for me. (Well, unless I establish a route and keep my snail-paced FKT until someone comes to take a stroll and beats it.)

Today, I wanted to share with you two of my favourite FKT documentaries (oh wow, saying I’ve got a favourite FKT documentary feels like choosing a favourite child), both of them from the wonderful Wonderland Trail (most up-to-date FKTs can be found on this link).

The first Wonderland Trail FKT film I ever saw was about Gary Robbins who got his FKT in 2015, made by Ethan Newberry, also knows as The Ginger Runner. I re-watched it several times since. Gary is a beyond-inspiring runner (seriously, watch “Where Dreams Go to Die” to see what real grit is).

The second film I’m going to recommend today is also by Ethan Newberry, and follows Kaytlyn Gerbin, the current holder of the female supported FKT, and Dylan Bowman, who held the male supported FKT on the Wonderland Trail for just five days.

I hope you’ll enjoy these, I hope they’ll motivate you, and I’ll be back next week, hopefully back from the dead so I can tell you all about my Cool Moon 50-mile race which I haven’t recovered from yet. Just a little teaser: I totally got my money’s worth, having experienced it all; hallucinations, chafing, unstoppable nosebleed, nausea and throwing up, ridiculous heat, being stripped naked at an aid station to be brought back from the dead, and having to walk downhill backwards because legs gave up on me.