A five hour push across Boulder’s Flatirons sounds like a hard trail run until you add exposed scrambling, solo climbing up to 5.7, and the kind of off trail linkups where every boulder wants your ankles. We sit down with Caleb Hardaway, a new La Sportiva mountain running athlete, to unpack how he set the FKT on Jerry Roach’s Top 10 Flatirons linkup and why that time was built months before the clock ever started.
Caleb walks us through the route’s moving parts: choosing a clean style, climbing and downclimbing efficiently in running shoes, and treating navigation between formations as its own technical discipline. We get into the projection process that makes serious Fastest Known Time efforts possible, including rehearsing cruxes, studying video beta move by move, comparing GPS tracks, and learning when “fast” starts to feel unsafe. It’s a conversation about performance, but also about judgment, restraint, and earning confidence on steep terrain.
We also zoom out to the bigger mountain athlete picture: why Caleb isn’t motivated by racing, how van life and bartending shifts create training freedom, and what he’s eyeing next around Longs Peak and Rocky Mountain National Park. Plus, we nerd out on gear details that actually matter on rock, from sticky rubber to resoling shoes for better traction on the Flatirons.
If you’re into mountain running, scrambling, FKTs, Boulder climbing culture, and the messy human side of big goals, you’ll want this one. Subscribe, share the episode with a friend who loves steep terrain, and leave a review so more mountain athletes can find the show.
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