Fastest Known Time (FKT)
The Hume & Hovell Track is lucky to have some fantastic contenders with the Fastest Known Time records with three records being broken in the last year in both the supported and unsupported categories. The following information is correct as of October 2025.
The FKT Self-supported female is Meredith Quinlan with a time of 5days, 18hrs, 16minutes and 41 seconds. Completed on the 19 July 2024. Link to details here: Meredith Quinlan - Hume & Hovell Walking Track - 2024-07-19 | Fastest Known Time
The FKT Supported female is Julie Brock with a time of 4days, 16hrs, 50minutes, 5seconds. Completed on the 21 February 2025. Link to details here: Julie Brock - Hume & Hovell Walking Track - 2025-02-21 | Fastest Known Time.
See Julies story shared on our socials page here: https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1Cm2SDiN8X/
The FKT Self-supported male is Luke Barrett with a time of 3days, 18hrs, 38minutes, 0seconds. Completed on the 17 October 2019. Luke created a video of his journey here: https://youtu.be/f2sZGtXIHCg?si=FXN7XnixtQxF2Yw0
The FKT Supported male is Ryan Skien with a time of 3days, 14hrs, 33minutes, 18seconds. Completed on the 24 April 2025.
Ryan has shared his story with us below:
Ryan crossing Burrinjuck Dam
Hume and Hovell Track Fastest Known Time
In 2023, I first had the thought pop into my head when signing up to the Hume and Hovell 100km ultra, imagine running the whole trail. It was only a fleeting thought at the time as I had just starting my running journey that year, only having completed one marathon and one 50k. It wasn’t until the end of 2024 when I really started to consider it as a goal I could achieve. Here is my experience leading in, during and after getting it done.
Training
Training was a solid three months of build up with multiple runs on the course to check out the track. Dad and I spent a full day driving and exploring access points so we could plan out all of our pit stops along the way. After plenty of planning with my wife and dad we had a full list of 30 aid stations and overnight camp spots. The list is as follows:
Start - Cooma cottage
1. Common Road intersection
2. Woolgarlo Road intersection
3. Top of Water View Road
4. Burrinjuck Ramp
5. Wee Jasper dump
6. Wee Jasper station
7. Log Bridge Creek Road
8. Four Tree Road
9. Brindabella Road (sleep)
10. Goobarragandera Reserve
11. Snowy Mountains Highway
12. Blowering Wall
13. Foreshore/Blowering Camp Road intersection
14. Top of Foreshore/Blowering Camp Road
15. Yellowin Access Road
16. Buddong Falls car park
17. Buddong Hut (sleep)
18. Bullongra Road intersection
19. Henry Angel Trackhead
20. Mannus Lake Campground
21. Blue Hill/Munderoo Road intersection
22. Clear Springs Road
23. Tipperary/Jingellic Road intersection (sleep)
24. Tin Mines Campsite
25. North’s Lookout
26. Hanel/Tunnel Road intersection
27. Wymah Road
28. Burma Road Weir Crossing
29. Eastern Hill Lookout
30. Hovell Tree
For this run, my dad had offered to come along with me for the entire run which was a help in more ways than one. This was a first for him as he hadn’t been to any of my other big runs as Caitlin, my wife usually helped out but because this one was planning to be over a few days, she was going to stay home with kids and dad and I would go out and get it done together. I took dads offer to help as a way of saying he believed I could do it without him verbally saying those words. I knew it was going to be a big challenge and I was extremely happy to have everyone around me on board. We had to set a date for the run - picking the week between Easter and ANZAC day. I trained as much as I thought I should/could and before too long we were heading up to Yass on Easter Sunday the 20th of April to stay at a hotel the night before I started my journey the next morning.
Day 1 - 106km - 3050m gain
We set alarms for 3am to make sure we got underway by 4am. This was to make sure we made it to my ferry boat ride across Burrinjuck dam that was booked for 11am. A special thanks to the reflections caravan park at Burrinjuck as they couldn’t have been more helpful. Dad and I got to Cooma cottage early and I was officially started at 3.47am. During training I would run 3 times a week starting at 4am so it was not uncomfortable or unusual for me at all. I actually really enjoy waking up early and getting a good chunk of my run done before the suns even up.
After dropping me off dad took off down the road to go get us breakfast from maccas and then wait for me at the first aid station. My high heart rate over the first hour or so was odd so I was putting it down to shear excitement as I was pumped! I had a random chocolate coloured labrador run with me along the main road. He had clearly escaped from his yard. He was so friendly and I wanted him to stay with me longer but I felt I was leading him away from where he should be. He ended up peeling off and heading back the way we had came (hopefully heading home).
A couple of hours went by and I got to watch my first sunrise for the trip. I took a few photos, but the photos never seem to do it justice for the way I feel about them when I’m there in the moment. Wasn’t much longer after this I got to dad at the first aid station at the intersection of Black Range and Common Road. Thinking dad would be as pumped as me, I was surprised to not see him out of the car waiting with canopy open ready for me to get any supplies. When I got to the car I found that the canopy was locked. I thought that was odd and I wondered where dad would of gone. I was 20 minutes early so I thought he’s wandered off for his own morning stroll! I made my way to the front of the car to find dad fast asleep in the drivers seat. In my head I was thinking, obviously not a great start to our running/crewing career together but certainly a relaxed way of going about it. I grabbed a bit of hydration and went on my way.
I saw dad in another couple hours and this time he was up and ready to get into it. I sat down and changed shoes as I knew the majority of the rest of the day was on dirt roads and trails. I had some hot cakes and syrup and I was off. I was not keen on hanging around aid stations too long, I just wanted to be out on the trail. I was ahead of schedule for the boat ride so dad let them know and they had the boat launched in the water ready for me to jump in when I got there at 10:12am. A quick 5 minute boat trip across the lake went well and I was happy to have this done as I was nervous about it not working out for any random reason that might come up.
Next, I was cruising along the road towards Wee Jasper when I came across a lady also running down the road. Her name was Jennifer Kellett and she was very easy to talk to. We ran together for half an hour or so and it was very enjoyable to have some company and being a very accomplished runner herself, we had a lot to talk about in that short time together.
I loaded up with gels, lollies and fluid at aid station 5, which was at Wee Jasper dump. Dad had a big drive around to get to there and got stuck behind a slow moving caravan, so it ended up I arrived only 2 minutes behind him when he got there. Then I headed up and over the ridge to meet dad on the other side a little under 4km later at Wee Jasper Station.
I took a phone call from Caitlin at 2.50pm just as I was summiting Mount Wee Jasper. It was nice to talk to her and the kids. I told her how much fun I was having and how I felt so lucky to be doing what I was doing. It didn’t take too long and the sun was setting on day one. I settled in for a little bit of night time running turning my music on my phone to have a bit of a sing to make the time pass a little quicker. It rained for around the last 2 hours of the evening but it wasn’t cold at all, it was actually refreshing. I got to the camp spot on Brindabella Road and got a fire going with dad. I had a container of home made spaghetti for dinner and some chocolate biscuits for dessert and made it into my swag by 10pm.
Day 2 - 114km - 3215m gain
Up at 3am and moving again at 3.30am. Never having run back to back big days like this, I was nervous how this morning would feel. It did not take long to realise I was moving completely fine and I was trying to contain my excitement about it. I was happy with my pacing the day before and that I hadn’t beaten myself up too early in the piece. Scooting along the track in the early morning, I spooked a couple of fallow deer and plenty of kangaroos.
The first aid station of the day was 24kms away at Goobarragandera Road. I had done this section during training so I knew it well enough to know where I had to slow down and where I could speed up the pace and tick over some cruisy Kilometers.
My wife had come up to meet me today and I got to see her at aid station 11 Snowy Mountains Highway. I had a Vegemite sandwich there with her and dad and she caught up on how I was going and how my night went. A short little 6km section on bitumen up to Blowering Dam Wall to give Caitlin a hug goodbye because I wouldn’t see her again now utill tomorrow. I saw her for a total of 15-20 minutes that day. She had driven a 4 hour round trip from Albury to cheer me on - what a woman!
Blowering Dam was a bit of a slog as I had a strong headwind making things feel harder than they had to be. Even though this section dragged a bit, I still had such a positive mind set that it didn’t phase me too much.
I got to dad at Yellowin Access Road (aid station 15) right on dark. We had a quick discussion about where he would meet me because he thought he would just go straight to camp from this point but I wanted him to meet me at Buddong Car Park just because I knew it was a fair climb to get there and seeing him would pick my spirits up even though it was only 3.5 km to camp from there.
We parted ways and I made the decent down to Jounama Pondage, slow and steady. This section was so much harder than I expected it to be. The paddocks had been freshly plowed and there was absolutely no chance of me running. With massive ankle rolling clods of dirt under foot, it made even walking tough. I was definitely cursing this section because I hadn’t even got to the climb out yet and I was walking at what felt like an extremely slow pace. When I made it to the stile at bottom of Buddong Creek, I made a conscious decision to sit there for 5 minutes for a reset and to get my mind back on track to make the slog up the hill. The first few kms I felt the reset had done nothing and I was still having negative thoughts but the more I pushed on the better I became mentally and was good as gold by the time I got to dad at the car park. A quick chat to tell dad how good I was feeling and knowing I only had 3.5km to the hut where we were camping for the night, we quickly parted ways.
1.5km after leaving Buddong Falls car park, the Hume and Hovell track jumps on the fire trial that dad would be driving on to get to the hut. I passed two big mud puddles that I was concerned that dad’s truck wouldn’t get through without getting bogged and I thought I was in front of him so I started waiting at the first puddle for him to arrive. 20 minutes went by and he still hadn’t turned up and I couldn’t see his fresh tyre marks on the other side of the puddles so I decided to follow the track the whole way back to where I had seen him last as my brain had me convinced that something was wrong and I needed to walk the track back to find him. I walked the 1.5km down the track and got all the way back to the Buddong Falls car park only to find dad was not there. I realised I must have made a mistake and dad had already got past me, I headed back up the hill adding probably close to an extra hour on to my day that was not necessary. Dad was driving down the road looking for me when I got close to the hut. I told him what happened and I explained I made a mistake but it only cost us a bit of time and I tried my best not to dwell on it. 3km doesn’t sound like much but at the end of a big couple of days it was certainly not ideal.
Dad cooked me some two minute noodles and we got to bed around midnight. I actually had a strange experience when laying in bed trying to go to sleep. I felt like I was dreaming but my eyes were open. I was seeing visions of images and they were just morphing from one imagine to the next. I looked at dad a few times to see if he was seeing what I was seeing but he was asleep. Maybe I was too? It was quite the experience that I don’t have the words to explain but I will remember clearly myself.
Day 3 - 128km - 2865m gain
I had 3 hours of uncomfortable sleep and woke up before the alarm so I started re-taping my feet for blisters. Getting out of bed and dressed was a chore I dragged out more than usual. Dad rolled the swags and we did a quick organise of the Ute. It took nearly a full hour today to be ready to get back on the trail.
Dad had to head all the way out nearly to Batlow and then back in to meet me along Bullongra Road for the first aid station of the day. I only had 8.5km to get there so we loaded on gear in case I beat him there and I kept going. He ended up being there before me anyways so it didn’t matter. I did ask him to have noodles ready for my breakfast there which he did but I didn’t end up eating them as I just had just eaten a cliff bar out on the trail.
From here it was a long 30km leg down to Henry Angel Trackhead aid station. I had done this section in training and also in the Hume and Hovell 100km I ran two years prior. I knew majority of it was downhill and I was hopeful I could make up some good time here. I started to run where the track allowed me to, but it was tough on my body. This was the first time my knees had hurt during a run. I hadn’t dealt with knee pain before so I wasn’t quite sure what to do. I had a compression bandage in my first aid kit so stopped and cut it in half and pulled them over my knees. Certainly seemed to help so I was happy with that.
30km at this stage of the game was a long time between seeing anyone and I certainly was starting to be less mentally strong about the whole thing. Dad, Caitlin and my son Lucas were waiting for me at Henry Angel Trackhead which was nice to see them and vent on how that section had been for me, physically and mentally. Caitlin wanted to focus on helping me so she left Matilda, our daughter, at home with my mum for the day.
Next leg was over to Mannus Lake which I knew had a bit of climbing and was roughly 16km. Everyone helped me load up my vest and Lucas ran with me out to the main road and then we parted ways again for a couple hours.
The sun had fully come out by this stage and it was well and truly warming up. I sweated a lot climbing up and out of there and it felt like I was getting baked in the sun. I rang Caitlin, about 11-12km in, when I had a bit of service. This was the first time I spoke to her negatively about what I was doing. I used a lot more water than I expected so dad ended up walking up the trail a Kilometre or so to meet me with an extra flask. With the help of Caitlin’s positive talk and messages from friends and family, Over the 3km I had to cover to get to dad with the re-supplies, I had been able to turn my mindset around from negative to positive. By the time I got down to the main road at Mannus Lake I was fully happy again.
Because Caitlin knew I was feeling lonely out there, where it was possible from here utill she ended up leaving that day, she drove next to me with Lucas in the back seat cheering me on. Lucas even walked and ran with me in some sections and I loved that he was so keen to be apart of this with me. After a shaky first half of the day, I could not believe how I got stronger and stronger as the day went on. With this new system of having someone drive next to me while I was running on dirt roads was an absolute game changer. It felt like the burden of being out there alone was fully gone and it felt almost effortless to be running when Caitlin and Lucas or Dad was driving next to me.
Caitlin had anticipated a short day like she had the day before but she saw how much I was enjoying having them there, so she stayed right up until dark which was at aid station 21. This was at the intersection of Blue Hill and Munderoo Road.
My knees were still hurting on the downhills. I did actually have to walk backwards down a steep 1.5km section because it hurt less and wasn’t that much slower. Caitlin had brought me some better knee braces from a chemist at Tumbarumba and they seemed to really help. Things really started to come together in the evening and I had found a second wind and was making great time while fully enjoying myself out there. I was expected to get to the designated camp spot for the evening by 9.30-10pm. Before I got there I rang dad and told him how good I was feeling and that instead of camping at where we planned we should have some dinner, change clothes and keep on going for as long as we could while I felt good. We did exactly that and ended up running till 2am, a further 24km past where we thought we would be this deep in the run.
Dad was driving next to me the entire time through the Woomargama National Park. Running along to road, all I said to dad was “I think I might have a rest now” and in one swift manoeuvre he pulled off the road and had the swags on the ground in what felt like 30 seconds. I knew sleeping wasn’t going to be great, but I was happy to lay down.
Day 4 - 95km - 1883m gain
I had one hour of sleep and I woke up determined to get up and into the final day. I got nearly another 20km done before first light which was at Samuel Bollard Campsite. There was a sign here saying 74km to Hovell Tree and I really started to get excited. I met up with dad at the top of Hanel’s Road for some noodles and a can of coke for breakfast at 6.40am.
Only one more section in the bush and I was out on the road for majority of the rest of the run. I had done this section in training and was aware that it was going to be slow as there were steep sections, rocky sections and a fair few fences to get over. I got attacked by wasps getting over two of the fences during training so I was really hoping they were gone because I didn’t need that inconvenience at this point. Three hours went by and I was out on Wymah Road met by dad, Caitlin and Lucas and a couple other mates who came to support me. I did express to dad how tough that section was and I was glad it was over. He has later said to me that he thought I looked terrible coming in to this aid station and it was the only time during the whole 4 days where he felt there was a chance I may not finish.
From here I had my first pacer on foot with me, Tessa Walsh. I was so pumped saying to everyone there “I only have 50km to go” and I remember thinking in my brain for some reason that would be easy. With adrenaline high, Tessa and I took off down the road and averaged 5:40min/k for 8k along the road. I was certainly letting my guard down and this was way too quick and too soon to be making a burst like this. Reality set in and I realised I had used more energy reserves than I should have. I tried my best to verbalise this with the crew and I needed to try regather myself as I still had a marathon distance to go.
Tess jumped in the car with Caitlin and I was back out there ticking over the kms by myself. Obviously I had aches and pains all over my body by this point but a pain in my left shin was getting increasingly worse. I had been taking Panadol for the pain and I also took some anti-inflammatory medicine a few hours before to try help start ease some swelling. During this section on the bitumen heading towards Burma Road I had a really sharp pain shoot up my lower left shin. I had more Panadol at Burma Road and needed more pacing with Caitlin driving next to me with music blaring to try keep me motivated.
This is another hard one for me to explain in words how hard these last few hours were, I felt like I couldn’t even keep my eyes open. I was so tired and was needing the crew to meet me nearly every 4-5 km because I couldn’t go to long without having a break. I was dunking my head in the icy water in the esky to try wake myself up. I was struggling to not be negative even though we were so close to being done. I think up until this point we, as a team, had been so focused and methodical about everything we did but I had subconsciously let my guard down and my brain was starting to realise it would be over soon which allowed room for the negativity and instead of ignoring the pain and fatigue, I started to let it get to me. The last 20kms of the track is close to my house and I had run around this area minimum once a week over the last year of training so I knew the area extremely well. Even with this advantage I struggled so much. At the base of Eastern Hill Lookout I had an uncontrollable outburst of screaming and yelling at the air exclaiming how hard it was for me to keep going. Just trying to find one last push within myself, two mates hiked with me to the top of the lookout and I was finally able to get going again.
The roll down from here to Hovell tree was surreal. I wanted to wave to anyone and everyone who looked at me even though they had no idea what I had just been doing for the last 4 days. A runners high and self-gratification that will be hard to be topped.
Coming around the corner and seeing 35-40 of my friends and family at the Hovell Tree was something special too. Caitlin had told everyone when I was planning on finishing and organised everyone to support me. Caitlin had music and a finishing line ribbon for me to run through which I crossed at 6.20pm. After hugging Caitlin and the kids I turned to dad to shake his hand to thank him for what he had done but I didn’t feel like that was enough so I hugged him as well. We stood around for a while having a couple of beers and talking about the journey. I could not have asked for a better way to finish. I had just set the fastest known time - supported on the Hume and Hovell Track. This is what I was aiming for when I first set the plan to do it and I had just achieved it.
Total 443km - 11013m gain - 3 days 14hrs 33min 18sec
Ryan at Hovell Tree
After The Run
Caitlin drove me and the kids home and I attempted to have an ice bath but couldn’t bring myself to get in. I sat on the edge of the bath and finished my beer and then had a shower and laid down in my bed trying to relax. It was a rough night with pain and swelling in my legs and feet keeping me up for most the night.
I was concerned about the pain in my shin and after the swelling went down we got scans on it showing a stress fracture in my lower left tibia so I was on crutches and in a boot for a while.
It has taken a long time for the whole thing to sink in as it was a lot to absorb but there is no doubt I have come away stronger from the experience. I struggle to believe this is something I could recreate as I feel like it was a once in a lifetime experience and to be able to have my dad there for the 4 days is something special we will share forever too.
I have to thank my wife who supports me even if she doesn’t agree with what I’m doing or planning.
To my kids, Lucas and Matilda, I wanted to get this experience written down so one day we can talk about it when your older and you can set your own dreams and goals and I can support you as much as my parents have supported me. I want you to know that I’m not special or unique but I had a goal and truely believed I could do it and I think that belief is ultimately the main thing that got me to the finish line. I am sure one day soon someone will beat my FKT but I will not look at my time any differently. I am proud to have done it. I will do long runs again and maybe even one day longer than this but at this point I am content.
Ryan Skien.