How David Hedges broke Nolan's 14 FKT with Pep Nutrition

On September 14th, 2025, David Hedges completed the legendary Nolan's 14 route in the Colorado's Sawatch range in record time of 35hrs, 23 minutes and 15 seconds.

He broke the previous record, set earlier in 2025 by Francois d'Haene, by about 10 minutes. 

David is a proponent of real-food nutrition. He's as deeply scientific about his training approach, as he is about his nutrition. When we got connected to David via a mutual friend, we were thrilled to support his effort. 

David's FKT attempt was marked by months of diligent preparation, training, and practically living en-route. The execution came down to a small support team of David's friends, and one heck of an authentic, visceral effort. 

The weather was cold, windy and several inches of fresh snow on the ridges made for slow, challenging conditions. David felt the severe cold altered his usual nutrition needs and ability to chew. He also missed a critical crew replenishment meet-up due to poor visibility and bad driving conditions. In the end, keeping the effort up was a matter of sheer will and perseverance. 

You can read the whole break-down of David's thrilling and historic performance in this Run magazine article. 

 

We wanted to share some interesting details from David's fueling plan and philosophy.

Below is a complete break-down of David's re-fueling pit stops at each crew meet-up point:

• Start: Egg sandwich, Baouw Pineapple Coconut pouch, waffle, Spring Energy Hil Aid
• Hour 3: Two bottles with 1.5scoop Pep Race each + Pep Electrolytes (500mg Sodium total), 1 bottle Pep Train, Neversecond bar, Olives
• Hour 7: Sandwich, blueberries, 1 bottle Pep Train with caffeine, 1 bottle Pep Race, Neversecond bar, Olives, Waffle, 2x Spring Energy gels
• Hour 17: Two bottles Pep Race and Train, Baouw Pineapple Coconut pouch
• Hour 21: Baouw Sweet potato pouch, 2x waffle, Spring energy Gel
• Hour 24: Sandwich and blueberries, 1 bottle of Pep Race with caffeine, Baouw pineapple pouch
• Hour 29: 1 bottle of Pep Race and Pep Train, Neversecond bar, Neversecond gel, Spring Gel
• Hour 32: 2 bottles Pep Race, Waffles, Neversecond gel to push for the finish

 

Here are some comments and observations David made about Pep after his effort:

"Pep is legitimately the best thing I've tried. It is perfect for FKT, skiing and long efforts. I fueled most of my Nolan's training with Pep."

"It felt like high satiety fuel. Some drinks like Scratch because it’s sweet it makes you want to drink constantly. With Pep I felt like I could do a solid sip every 15-20 minutes. On effort like this, that was good. I could focus more on the effort."

"Pep worked insanely well. I was just a huge idiot and didn't pack enough bottles. Probably should have done the concentrated gel format which would have been easier to carry and because I was filtering most of my water anyways." 

 

What's next?

David said that he’s had the adventure that he wanted on Nolan's and is excited about new goals. His near-term plans include Bob Graham route in the summer of 2026 and potentially Aconcagua FKT next year.  David also has UTMB 100 ambitions and we can probably expect to see him on the start line within the next few years.