On Sept. 21, 2024, Virginia-based ultrarunner Tara Dower made historical past by setting a brand new general supported Quickest Identified Time (FKT) on the Appalachian Path, finishing the monumental journey in an astonishing 40 days, 18 hours and 5 minutes. This feat surpasses Karel Sabbe’s earlier FKT from 2018 by about 13.5 hours.
Her effort additionally surpasses the lads’s southbound supported FKT, at 45 days, 4 hours and 27 minutes (set by Kristian Morgan in 2023) in addition to the ladies’s southbound supported FKT of 46 days, 11 hours and 20 minutes (set by Jennifer Pharr Davis in 2011). By selecting the southbound route, Dower used a special technique than Sabbe, who went northbound in his 2018 record-breaking try.
Tackling the two,197-mile beast
The Appalachian Path stretches from Mount Katahdin in Maine to Springer Mountain in Georgia, protecting 3,536 km with 141,732 metres of elevation acquire. Often known as the unique long-trail thru-hike, this japanese U.S. route weaves by way of 14 states, together with New Hampshire, Virginia and North Carolina. The path’s difficult terrain and relentless elevation shifts make it one of the crucial revered, however daunting, undertakings for any long-distance runner or hiker.
Virginia-based Dower began her journey on the northern terminus of the path, Mount Katahdin, at 5:47 a.m. on Aug. 12. Over the following 40 days, she navigated every little thing the path needed to throw at her, finishing the Maine part (usually thought to be one of many hardest half) in simply six days. She made her method southbound, ultimately ending at Springer Mountain on Sept. 21 at 11:52 p.m., surrounded by her crew and supporters. When Dower completed, she highlighted the assistance of her help crew, calling it “the crew’s FKT.”
A exceptional ultrarunning historical past
Earlier than her record-breaking Appalachian Path feat, Dower had already constructed a robust fame as a path athlete. She accomplished the whole Appalachian Path for the primary time in 2019, together with her husband, following an earlier try in 2017 that didn’t go as deliberate. In 2020, Dower set a Quickest Identified Time (FKT) on North Carolina’s Mountains-to-Sea Path, a 1,175-mile trek, which she completed in 29 days, 8 hours and 48 minutes, showcasing her grit in the course of the pandemic. She completed fourth at this yr’s notoriously robust Hardrock 100.
Elevating funds whereas racking up miles
Dower was additionally working with a mission: she hoped to lift USD $20,000 for Ladies on the Run, a non-profit group devoted to “making a world the place each woman is aware of and prompts her limitless potential and is free to boldly pursue her desires,” as its web site explains. Whereas Dower surpassed her purpose, you may nonetheless donate and study Ladies on the Run, right here. Dower shared that she hoped to “encourage girls and women to go for that robust purpose, regardless of if it’s with working or in life.”
