Tahoe Rim Trail

Kilian Jornet holds the record, 38h32m, September 28-29, 2009.

The Tahoe Rim Trail (TRT) is a 165-mile long loop trail around Lake Tahoe. The trail was only completed over the last several years, and its "grand opening" celebration was in September 2001. Nevertheless, the TRT has already seen several speed record attempts -- a testament to the quality of the trail as well as its location near to the hub of ultrarunning in North America. An interesting feature of the trail is that, since it is a loop, one can choose basically any starting/finishing point, and can run in either direction (clockwise or counter-clockwise). No doubt different runners will have different ideas on the most efficient approach.

The first speed run of the TRT took place before the trail was completely finished. Robert Sobsey, Rolland Martin and Joe Braninburg ran the route in 66h20m on September 13-15, 2000. For an article in the Tahoe Daily Tribune, Braninburg said this:

To me it's just amazing to have something like that so close to us. It's so accessible. I can't compliment the people enough who have worked on it. It's just a dynamite trail. The view from Freel Peak is the most spectacular view I've ever seen in my life. You look down the center of the Sierra and I swear you can see Mount Whitney. The vistas and scenery up there are incredible, and hell, you can run in chest-high wildflowers and on the west side you run by lake after lake.

According to this site Betsy Nye did the TRT in 55h22m in 2004, which would have been the FKT at the time, and remains the fastest time by a woman. We have not been able to find any details on this trip, so if anyone has Betsy's email address I would like to get in touch with her on that.

Previous to Jornet, the TRT record was held by ultrarunning legend Tim Twietmeyer, 45h58m, set August 27-29, 2005. Among his many accomplishments, Twietmeyer has finished the Western States 100 mile an astonishing 25 times all under 24 hours, and won the race 5 times. An interview with Twietmeyer on his TRT record is here. Twietmeyer's trip was fully supported, including pacers much of the way. He ran the route clockwise, starting at the Truckee River in Tahoe City.

In the summer of 2009, Spanish ultra/mountain running phenom Kilian Jornet announced that he would attempt to break the record on the John Muir Trail. However, his permit request was refused because "the administration doesn't want the JMT to become a performance playground" (according to Jean-Yves Couput of Solomon), so he switched to taking on the TRT record. Jornet ran the 165-mile loop in 38h32m, taking over 6 hours off Tim Twietmeyer's already outstanding time. Jornet's trip was fully supported & paced. The Tahoe Daily Tribune has a brief account of Jornet's run. Jornet ran the loop clockwise starting in Tahoe City, as did Twietmeyer. He slept about 2 hours, and lost about an hour - and ran an extra 5 miles - due to getting lost. A 3-minute YouTube video shows Jornet running well after 120 km. A slick preview video is on Solomon's website, complete with helicopter footage of the TRT, and a telephone interview with Twietmeyer. Jornet, who is sponsored by Salomon, exploded onto the European mountain running scene in 2007, at age 19, winning every race he entered and the World Series. In 2008 he again won every race he ran, including the 165 km Ultra-Trail du Mont Blanc (UTMB) in course record time (he repeated the UTMB win in 2009). Jornet also holds the FKT for the GR20 in Corsica.

“Kilian’s goal is to inspire people to experience the joy of the trails and the great outdoors -- and in the process he is reinventing the sport of trail running.” -- Jean-Yves Couput, Director of Marketing for Salomon USA

Peter Lubbers attempted to better the TRT speed record on August 15-18, 2008, but was unable to match Twietmeyer's time. Lubbers completed the route in 57h54m. Details are on his blog.

Aaron Sorenson made an attempt at the unsupported FKT on the TRT in July 2009. He ran counter-clockwise from Tahoe City, and covered 64 miles in the first 24 hours, but stopped at mile 67 at Big Meadows.