Runner completes 3-day FKT across Missouri

Mid-afternoon on March 4, a runner from Kansas named Clinton Straughen set out on a multi-day trek across most of the state of Missouri. Three days and one hour later, he finished his 381K run on Missouri’s Katy Trail, beating the fastest known time (FKT) on the route by eight hours. This is the first FKT Straughen has run, and it’s on a route so long that few people would consider running it in one shot. 

The Katy Trail 

As Straughen wrote in his post-run report on the fastestknowntime.com, he “took a different approach to this FKT than the previous runners.” He said he is “not the strongest runner,” but he considers himself to be “a grinder,” and so he committed to gritting his teeth and toughing it out on the journey. Part of the plan, which he executed well, was to sleep as little as possible over the days-long trip. 

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Straughen started at 2 p.m. and ran straight through the first night, not stopping for sleep once (although he periodically met up with friends and family along the route to get food and water). He wrote that, while the days were sunny and warm, the temperatures got close to freezing at night. Even so, he spent most nights outside, slowly ticking off kilometres one by one. 

By the second night on the trail, Straughen said his pace “began to slow, and running became more and more difficult.” At 8 p.m., he stopped to eat and then slept for an hour before setting off once again. The short nap wasn’t anywhere near long enough boost him back to 100 per cent energy, though, and Straughen wrote that he “struggled to make progress” through the next few towns. Further on down the trail, he took another 30-minute nap early in the morning. 

After two nights and just 90 minutes of sleep, Straughen said he began to “lose steam,” but he was reinvigorated when his mom met him on the trail and paced him for a stretch. On the third and final night of his adventure, Straughen allowed himself to take two more quick sleeps (one was an hour long and the second was only 15 minutes). He carried on, at this point still winning the battle against fatigue, and eventually made it to the route’s finish line, where he was met by his entire crew. 

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Straughen wrote that he donated one of his kidneys to an uncle of his a couple of years ago. That was an arduous experience, he said, and he promised himself that he would never take his mind or body for granted again, nor would he doubt himself in physical pursuits. “This adventure confirmed what I already knew,” he wrote. “Never under estimate your mind and body — there are no limits.”