On December 7, 2025, I attempted the Supported Fastest Known Time for the Mauna Kea ascent and round trip via the Humu'ula Trail on a beautiful sunny day. This run was dedicated to the memory of my running partner and friend, Jeff Young, who recently passed away.
The run was supported because I had 3 friends along the course who cheered for me, took photos, and one took a few of my gel wrappers and ran behind me on the ascent to give me some encouragement for portions of the uphill. Having the encouragement while working hard in such thin air was huge for me. I carried my own bottles and gels, plus extra layers for the cool temps up high and my phone. The altitude on this route hits you hard, especially when coming from sea level earlier in the morning.
Unfortunately, I made an error regarding the official start and end points for the full FKT route. I originally mistook the Humu’ula trailhead as the required start/finish, which caused confusion, as the previous uphill record holder's Strava segment time seemed to imply the route began and ended there.
The established FKT route includes the approximately 0.2-mile road section between the Visitor Center (official start/finish) and the actual Humu'ula Trailhead.
- My actual run: I started from the Visitor Center, walked/jogged to the trailhead, ran the full trail to the summit sign, ran about halfway back toward the Visitor Center, and then walked the rest of the way.
- Segment Times (Trail Only): My Strava times for the trail section alone indicate I beat the existing records:
- Uphill (Trail Only): Beat previous FKT by 5:19
- Round Trip (Trail Only): Beat previous FKT by 6:01
To accurately reflect the full FKT route (Visitor Center to Summit to Visitor Center), and based on typical segment times for the road section (approx. 2 minutes uphill, 1 minute downhill), I propose the following adjustments to my actual trail-only times to account for the untimed road sections:
Proposed FKT Times:
Uphill FKT: Trail Time + 3 minutes (for road section) = 1:40:09
Round Trip FKT: Trail Time + 5 minutes (3 up + 2 down) = 2:28:40
Hopefully my mistake makes it so nobody else does this in the future!