Last year, as coronavirus spread and marathons and other long-distance events were cancelled, runners pivoted to a different type of challenge — racing against the clock rather than elbow-to-elbow with rivals, a virtual contest yet completed in a very real world of rain-lashed hillsides and knee-jarring trails. More than 4,500 such records, known as “fastest known times”, were set around the world in 2020. According to fastestknowntime.com, the data-rich US website that has become the biggest register for these niche feats, it was a 350 per cent increase from 2019.
Tom Wilson - FT
The race for the ‘fastest known time’
