Jeff Garmire Starts FKT Attempt on Colorado Trail Today

“I mean, there is nothing athletic about sleep deprivation. “

(Not sure this is the place for a meta discussion FKTs etc but…..)

There’s an argument to be made that there is nothing athletic about FKTs or for that matter most ultra races in the sense of a 100 m or a 5 k track race (to stay within the realm of running). FKTs etc are their own thing………

FKTs can be for any configuration you desire.

I, for one, am very impressed by someone who can complete this effort “unsupported”.

I am no less impressed by someone with a small logistics team competing (informally) against others with similar support.

When the “logistics team” includes a helicopter, IVs, masseur, and cook, I begin to lose interest.

I mean, there is nothing athletic about sleep deprivation.

I’d disagree.  If you’re not sleeping, that means you’re moving.  Moving 50 miles at a chunk is athletic in my book.  Getting 8 hours of sleep a night is not a viable option for covering lots of country.

I’d love to feel what Jeff is feeling right now. He’s entered a whole other realm, one where he’s on a hypnotic adrenaline high that doesn’t allow him to feel much pain. His feet will hurt for weeks afterwards, but right now Jeff is running in a semi hallucinogenic altered state that feels better than any drink or drug ever could (not that a little caffeine or ephedra would be bad along the way). Man I wish I had the youth and legs to do what Jeff is doing right now.

Keep pushing Jeff, not long to go now.

Jeff is pretty incredible (afterall, his nickname apparently is “the legend” :) and I sincerely hope he accomplishes what he’s set out to do and without any harm to himself.  It will be a testament to the capability of people, Jeff, in particular.

I have to say, though, to me hiking in the mountains isn’t and never will be about records–how fast I can fly by the beautiful views, flowers, interesting scenery, etc.  It will always be about those beautful views, flowers, interesting scenery and that I made the sacrifice necessary to witness them, and taking the time to savor them.

We keep records for people who do things faster than anyone else and we put them on a pedastol.  Hours and minutes and days are things we can measure and so it’s easy to do that.  What isn’t so easy but is much more laudatory to me is measuring the deep appreciation someone has for the experience of being in the mountains (or sea or desert or jungle).  If we could measure that in the same way, I’d much rather highlight the guy who has the deepest appreciation.  However, it isn’t even about that.  Each one of us appreciates the experience in his or her own way.  That’s enough.  Maybe speeding through the mountains is the way Jeff appreciates them the most.  Who knows.

Jeff passed the North Fork Swan River a few hours ago. At that time he was about 7d 13h in and had covered 394 miles.

He has 91 miles to go in about 48 hours to beat the current unsupported FKT.

Right now he’s still on pace to beat the FKT by about 4 hours, he’s holding strong.

The next day and a half will be interesting as “horse sees the barn” syndrome kicks in!

Down to the last 40 miles…

Is he still on pace to break the record?

Yes!

Excellent!

Jeff had about 22 miles to go as of a little over an hour ago. Looks like he was able to get a few hours of sleep last night based on his tracking info, which bodes well for a strong finish.

He hit the 9d mark at 6:30 this morning and has until 7:02 pm today to beat John’s FKT.

I’m sure by now he’s hobbling on pretty mangled feet but barring any wrong turns, things are looking pretty good!

amazing effort.  Go Jeff!

One more mile.

Jeff did it!

Best I can tell from his tracker the new Unsupported Colorado FKT is 9d 8h 22m 53s.

Great work Jeff. What an unreal accomplishment.

I wonder if he had any food left…

I wanna know how much weight he lost!

most excellent!  will be looking forward to hear the story :)

Official: 9d 8h 18m!

2.16 miles per hour average or 51.9 miles per 24 hour day at 75,000 ft elevation gain? Wow! Jeff’s The Daddy. I know he was bummed about not being able to go for the PCT/AT FKT’s this year, but I believe the CT is at least a top 5 American FKT (correct me if I’m wrong).

that is incredible; there are a few (very few actually) people that could do that for a couple of days, 9 days straight- superhuman!

Here’s my post-trek video interview with Jeff from earlier today.

Very interesting the tactic of aiming to finish his food with 12 hours to go. 12hrs is a long time… I guess he weighs up the slightly reduced pace from having to run off burning muscle and body fat, for that period, over the lighter pack for the duration of the attempt. Certainly finishing food before finishing is probably optimum, though I would have thought that aiming for only a few hours would make more sense. He’s certainly a tough cookie especially with how it panned out!

NUTS I tell ya!!! Hahahaaaaa. I am amazed by this. When I am trudging a 10 mile day.. The Legend will burn thru my head and give me motivation to continue on and finish what I started.

Amazing accomplishment! It shows what a human  body is capable of.

Some may not understand why people do FKT’s. But, do we really need to understand everything? or judge? Just know that what was accomplished was extremely hard and superhuman.

Everything in life it relative. To the person who is doing 10 miles a day, 20 miles seems crazy. To the person doing 20 miles a day, 40 to 50 miles a day seems crazy.

I for one, love these hard efforts and the people who seek out such efforts. Takes a special kind of person to set out and accomplish these seemingly impossible tasks.

Congrats Jeff!