Fastest Known Time
Inspiring athletic achievement & exploration
Co-founded Fastest Known Time with Buzz Burrell and Peter Bakwin — the crowd-sourced authority for fastest known times (FKTs) on foot on notable trails worldwide. As the sole technical founder, designed and built the Drupal site end to end: map experiences, user-generated route and FKT submission flows, and a custom CMS content architecture for routes and records (logo with Brian Bornhoeft). Also designed podcast episode art and annual Fastest Known Time of the Year award graphics, and early on recorded and edited podcast episodes before that production work was handed off.
Contributors submit routes (typically with GPX) and performances backed by evidence suited to the adventure — Strava links, GPS tracks, witnesses, photos — from short peaks to long trails like the Appalachian, John Muir, and Pacific Crest. Founder vetting grew into hired staff and a network of regional editors; the site also live-tracked notable attempts and helped popularize "FKT" as part of the endurance lexicon, especially as races shut down during COVID.
By May 2021: about 13,400 user accounts, 3,600 routes across 100 countries, 8,900 published FKTs, and 5,700 athlete profiles. Sold the business to Outside Interactive Inc. in March 2022.
- Drupal 8
- PHP
- JavaScript
- MySQL
- Apache
- Linux VPS
Visit: fastestknowntime.com