With almost no races happening, running FKTs, or Fastest Known Times, has become a really big deal during the pandemic.  Today’s visitor to the Hive, Tyler Andrews, is a Hoka-sponsored athlete, a 2:15 marathoner, and 50-mile national champion, who I first met in 2017 in Peru when he led a group of us on a magical journey running on the Inca Trail up the beautiful Sacred Valley to Machu Picchu, one of the Seven Modern Wonders of the World.  Tyler’s running career has bounced through many precipitous ups and downs, but he always has managed to find a way to quickly rebound from the lows to hit new highs, literally.  Immediately after running a disappointing race in the 2020 Olympic marathon trials, he headed to Nepal and set the FKT for running up and down the Everest Base Camp trail, which tops out at about 17,900 feet.  He became the first ever to cover the approximately 65 miles in less than 24 hours.  It certainly helps that Tyler bases himself in high-altitude locales like Flagstaff, AZ, and Quito, Ecuador.  

In 2018, Tyler set the world record for 50K, running 125 mind-numbing laps on a track in 2:46:06, breaking by two minutes a record that had stood for 38 years.  And listen you high school and newbie runners, this comes from a guy who didn’t break 18 minutes in high school cross country, a time achieved by most of the women runners at the Olympic trials.  

Earlier this year, Tyler teamed with other runners to attempt to break the world record for 100K.  Tyler’s day didn’t go as well as hoped as Jim Walmsley came within a mere 9 seconds of the mark.  So Tyler headed back down to South America to set several FKTs on some of the highest Andean peaks, higher than 5000 meters, and in some cases active volcanoes, in an ongoing project he is calling the Los10FKT.  It’s definitely worth a follow as he conquers those challenges.

Tyler has also founded the Chaski Endurance Collective, an online community with coaches from around the world empowering athletes to reach new heights in their training.  They have a running retreat coming up in Flagstaff in June, and Tyler will also be leading a trip in late summer on the famous UTMB race route in Europe.  We had a great chat, so please enjoy!

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Tyler Andrews:
Facebook Tyler Andres Andrews
Instagram and Twitter: @tylercandrews

Chaski Endurance Collective:
www.chaski.run/linktree
Instagram: @chaski.endurance