CO Man Runs 36 Miles Without Water, Sets FKT on Tahoe Rim

Running 165 miles gets even harder when you run out of water.

Durango native Kyle Curtin spent last weekend running the 165-mile Tahoe Rim Trail. The Colorado ultrarunner is no stranger to long distances — he currently holds the course record for the Tahoe 200. So, of course, he was running the rim on a time crunch and with an FKT record in mind.

On Saturday, he completed the Tahoe Rim Trail in 41 hours and 9 minutes, setting a new unsupported FKT and the second-fastest trail time ever, behind ultra-athlete Kilian Jornet. (You can view his race and route details on Strava.)

Curtin departed from the Echo Summit area at 6 a.m. on Friday, running the route clockwise. Because his FKT would be unsupported, his running pack was loaded with a whopping 10,000 calories of nutrition, as well as a water filtration system for resupplies in streams along the way.

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However, about 93 miles in, Curtin made a miscalculation on hydration and ended up running a 36-mile stretch of trail without water. After suffering through water rationing and a few low points, the ultrarunner pushed through the night to finish the Tahoe Rim Trail as soon as possible.

While he may not have beaten Jornet’s overall record (which he set back in 2009), Curtin still set an unsupported one. His Tahoe Rim Trail record is in the process of being verified and will be confirmed on FastestKnownTime.com.

Interestingly enough, another athlete, Logan Williams, is planning to go for the overall supported FKT on the same trail later this week. You can follow his attempt on FastestKnownTime.com.