"F.K.T."

October 5, 2024

“F.T.K.”

On September 21, 2024 Tara Dower completed a F.K.T (Fastest Known Time) in her run on the Appalachian Trail. Her record breaking time was 40 days, 18 hours, and 6 minutes. Congratulations to Tara Dower!

A Fastest Known Time (F.K.T) is the speed record for a running, hiking or cycling route.

As I write this, my youngest granddaughter (who is two years old) thinks she can run faster than anyone else. She yells, “I fasta than you” and proceeds to run and looks back to see if she’s still in “first place.”

What I have discovered, over several decades, is that the majority of successful people do not worry about their F.K.T. They worry, more, about consistently making progress on a daily basis, leveraging good habits and systems to keep them motivated, inspired and focused to stay on-track.

In “Runner’s World” Taylor Dutch writes: “Her (Tara Dower) days began with a 3 a.m. alarm (usually from a tent close to the trail) followed by a quick breakfast. After taping blisters and sores on her feet, she set off in the dark around 3:30 a.m. For the next 17 hours or so, Dower only stopped for a couple of short breaks for meals, 90-second “dirt naps,” and pacers rotating in and out until 8:30-9:30 pm…

In the last 129 miles, with the FKT well within reach, Dower didn’t even stop to sleep. That last stretch proved to be the hardest physically and mentally. “I had this huge crew that was with me that was putting everything into this, their time and money, and bodies into this effort. I was nervous I would fall and mess it up,” Dower said while describing how she bounced back from several tumbles on the trail. “I didn’t believe [the FKT] would happen until the last three miles…

“This isn’t my FKT,” Dower told Runner’s World on a phone call in between naps on Monday morning. “It’s not just mine because without the crew, I would not have done it.”

I think that many of us think of life as a “sprint” instead of a marathon. We see the “shiny” things in other people’s lives and have no idea what it took to acquire those “shiny” things.

One of the biggest challenges, in every “marathon,” is getting discouraged with how long it is taking to reach the finish line. Most people quit long before the reach the finish line. You cannot afford to be like most people.

Success, in any form, does not happen without a wise “tribe/crew” around you, an intense commitment and verifiable systems that you follow every-hour-of-every-day in order to guarantee that you won’t stop until you reach your goal/goals.

What I have discovered, on my “marathon,” is that you can meet (and read about) people who will change your life. I would not have met those people if I had not chosen to commit to changing my life for the better, developing excellent daily habits, surrounding myself with amazing people and creating systems in my life to become extraordinary.

What’s interesting is that, as a result of your daily habit, you just might achieve the FKT (Fastest Known Time) of anyone in your life by being consistent every-single-day. As a result, you will surpass a lot of people in your lifetime.

I Believe in YOU!

John W. Carver, LUTCF

john@johnwcarver.com