On September 21, 2024, Tara Dower set a brand new general supported quickest recognized time (FKT) on the two,197-mile Appalachian Path, breaking not solely the previous girls’s file but in addition the boys’s. Her time of 40 days, 18 hours, and 6 minutes had her averaging just below 54 miles a day on the East Coast path recognized for its mud, rocks, and roots. No stranger to lengthy path FKTs, with a number of to her identify, Dower can also be an achieved ultrarunner, having received the Run Rabbit Run 100 Mile in 2023 and positioned fourth at Hardrock 100 earlier this summer time. She’s one of many few ultrarunners who has efficiently built-in lengthy path FKTs and shorter race efforts right into a single summer time.
In an in-depth cellphone interview six days after her end, Dower talks extensively about how her effort unfolded, how beneficial her crew was to her success, the ladies who’ve acted as her function fashions, and the way she needs to encourage different girls to set massive targets. The transcript of this interview has been gently edited for readability.
Tara began this effort with the purpose of elevating $20,000 for the nonprofit Ladies on the Run. As this text is revealed, she’s practically doubled that. You’ll be able to nonetheless donate to her fundraiser.
Be taught extra about Tara’s run in our information article about her FKT.
Tara Dower smiling with a pacer whereas on the Appalachian Path. All photographs courtesy of Tara Dower except famous in any other case.
iRunFar: Hello. Tara, how are you?
Dower: Good. I really feel drained. I miss the path. Particularly with being again right here in Virginia and undoubtedly lacking every part.
iRunFar: You turned solely normalized for path life; your physique and thoughts tailored to it.
Dower: And being across the crew all the time, having any person round the entire time. Lots of people within the thru-hiking group speak about a post-trail melancholy. I undoubtedly really feel that, “I want I used to be again there.” Not doing as many miles, although. [laughs]
Tara Dower, after setting an general supported quickest recognized time on the Appalachian Path. Picture: Pete Schreiner/@schreinertrailphotography
iRunFar: That’s an ideal place to begin this interview; you set the purpose beforehand of setting an general supported FKT. This required you to hike and run a mean of about 54 miles on daily basis, till it’s accomplished. You had an ideal function mannequin in Jennifer Pharr Davis being a girls’s chief within the thru-hiking group and a previous general supported Appalachian Path FKT holder. I’d like to find out how you determined to go for the general FKT.
Dower: I used to be empowered to set such a lofty purpose due to the ladies function fashions I’ve had. I’ve been so fortunate to have girls who’ve come earlier than me. I imply, even going again to Ann Trason, and even additional. Those that I take essentially the most inspiration from have been Jen Pharr Davis, Courtney Dauwalter, and Heather Anderson. They path blazed, and that’s given me — and I do know quite a lot of different girls — confidence to go for these powerful targets and to even take into account them attainable.
I feel wrapping my head round that, it’s simply this blind confidence. I do know, clearly, I’ve an understanding of the Appalachian Path, and I’ve quite a lot of expertise on the path, in addition to endurance races and endurance feats. However I feel it takes a little bit greater than that, particularly with such a protracted file, something might occur. I wasn’t 100% assured. I’m not going on the market, “I’ll set the file.” I do know Karel Sabbe [the men’s supported Appalachian Trail FKT holder and prior holder of the overall supported FKT] went on the market like, “I’m gonna’ set the file it doesn’t matter what.” I didn’t have that confidence.
It was because of my crew that I made it via and made it in that point. I ran it, however I didn’t do quite a bit apart from operating. They did every part. They did all of the logistics — my mother and Rascal [Megan Wilmarth, whose trail name is Rascal]. Rascal is the Supervisor of Chaos, as she likes to say. They had been those with the grasp plan to get me to the top, and for lots of it, I form of misplaced autonomy. I didn’t make any selections for myself. I didn’t select what I used to be going to eat or what number of miles I used to be going to do. I’d beg Rascal for one or two fewer miles in a day, and typically she would entertain that, however nothing was as much as me. I didn’t make any selections.
iRunFar: iRunFar readers are extra conversant in the crewing facet at an ultramarathon the place it’s over in six hours, 12 hours, or 30 hours, versus 40 days. Would you name it actually a multi-pronged effort the place each prongs carry the identical quantity of weight to make a file occur? Crew in ultrarunning offers very important help however not as strongly as I feel you’re inferring right here.
Dower: I’d name it a group effort throughout. With out them, none of this might have been attainable. I can see myself in a 100-mile race; if one thing occurred to the place the crew couldn’t meet me, I might most likely survive off the help station meals and possibly simply grit it to the top. That wouldn’t be gratifying. I would like the crew, and I would like the pacers throughout a 100-mile race, and I admire all their assist as a result of they assist me get there far more effectively. However, for the sort of lengthy, supported file, it is just attainable to do it with a crew, particularly the general file.
I imply, I didn’t have full confidence that I might do it. I simply knew I ought to go on the market and take a look at my greatest. When it bought powerful and after we had been behind, if it was as much as me, I’d most likely be like, “All proper, we tried.” We had been 100-something miles behind at one level, and Rascal didn’t bat a watch. She was like, “It’s okay. We’ll get again there. We’ll make a plan.” And that’s precisely what she did. She put miles on my schedule that I used to be very intimidated by, and she or he informed me, “I do know you are able to do it, however I would like you to know that you are able to do it,” and I didn’t imagine it for the longest time. However day after day, I used to be doing 58s and 60s and 57s [miles per day], and I used to be like, “That is attainable.”
Tara Dower is taken care of by her crew at a street crossing.
iRunFar: I like the way you’re referring to each the bodily help {that a} crew offers and that psychological help along with your self-belief system.
Dower: Yeah. They conjured the best phrases to get me to the top. They stored me fed properly, which helped my temper and likewise helped me bodily. They simply stored the temper gentle and simple, which made it easy to take pleasure in it extra. It’s a group effort, 100%. I do know that sounds foolish once I say, “I simply ran,” however they did every part else.
iRunFar: That’s wonderful. To backtrack, the individuals who observe you on iRunFar know you most via your extremely exploits, however you will have quite a lot of thru-hiking expertise. Are you able to place this expertise for iRunFar readers? I feel it’s most likely each extremely expertise and your expertise with lengthy trails that got here collectively.
Dower: Actually, my complete path profession began with the Appalachian Path. Once I was a freshman in school, I watched a documentary referred to as “The Appalachian Path” by “Nationwide Geographic,” and I made a purpose to thru-hike it after I graduated. I had run the mile and cross nation in highschool, and I used to be good, however I didn’t need to go off and do something nice with it. It was simply an gratifying expertise. I like operating lengthy distances.
So in 2017 I began my thru-hike, and I made about 80 miles. I had an nervousness assault at Bly Hole and bought off the path. It was form of a traumatic expertise, having a panic assault within the woods on my own. I had a migraine, and I couldn’t get my breath beneath management. After two years of engaged on my nervousness and attending to a spot the place I felt wholesome once more, I went again out and thru-hiked the path in 5 months and 10 days, and it was the very best expertise. I made so many associates. That’s the place I met Rascal in Pennsylvania, and that began our complete friendship, and my friendship with so many different folks.
I used to be entrenched on this group, too, and in order that’s one other facet of this. I’ve met them throughout all my exploits on the Appalachian Path. All of them simply got here collectively for this file, so I’m grateful for them.
I wished to do one other thru-hike and thought in regards to the Mountains to Sea Path, which is 1,175 miles throughout North Carolina. Then COVID-19 occurred in 2020, and I made a decision I wished to do it in a much less impactful manner. I used to be working for Jen Pharr Davis as a backpacking information and hostel caretaker, and she or he impressed me to go for the FKT. So I did it with a little bit quarantine crew, and we simply traveled down the path. I set the FKT on that, and that started every part. I knew that Diane Van Deren was a 100-mile athlete and a The North Face athlete. She set the file earlier than me, and I used to be like, “Okay, if she will be able to do 100-mile races, possibly I might do 100-mile races.” And that’s the place the ultramarathon obsession began.
iRunFar: We are able to blame/thank Diane Van Deren?
Dower: She began all of it. I simply felt like possibly this might be my subsequent problem. A 12 months later, I did my first 100 miler, and I went from there. I actually liked the 100-mile distance and by no means seemed again. I’d say the Appalachian Path began all of it.
Autumn begins to indicate its colours on the Appalachian Path with 400 miles to go.
iRunFar: You efficiently cross backwards and forwards between operating ultras and doing these longer FKT efforts. That is in contrast to just a few ultrarunners who’ve come earlier than you, the place they take up lengthy path mountaineering after ultrarunning to attempt one thing totally different. You’re integrating them.
Dower: For certain. It’s a purpose of mine to do an extended path yearly. I’d say a 20o-plus-mile path yearly. It may be an FKT or a thru-hike. I need to see what number of trails I can get.
iRunFar: I suppose, that’s a test mark for this 12 months. [laughs]
Dower: Yeah, I feel we’re good for this 12 months. [laughs]
iRunFar: I’m questioning if we will parse out your effort a little bit bit. I do know 40 days is a very long time to summarize in a single interview, however the path itself has segments. If you happen to can break it into segments, how does your thoughts digest all of it?
Dower: Yeah, I’d say southern Maine and New Hampshire had been essentially the most difficult elements of the path. It’s simply actually troublesome. All the Appalachian Path, they don’t imagine in switchbacks, however there, it’s even worse. It’s simply relentless rocks. I struggled via there, fell behind on file tempo, and was utterly exhausted. I’d say the very best phrase to explain that part was simply demoralized. Additionally, the climate wasn’t good, making going quicker on these trails even more durable. Even simply three miles per hour is troublesome; two miles an hour was just about what I used to be sitting at. I’d say the Northeast was actually troublesome.
You then get into Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania, and it’s flowy. However then in Pennsylvania and New York, you get these rocky parts that break up the circulate and make it exhausting to maintain a strong tempo. It may not be loopy mountains, however it’s rocky and exhausting to maintain a strong tempo. I used to be in a position to make up a while on this part. We realized in that space that I must put down some big-mile days to catch as much as Karel Sabbe’s file tempo. And that’s the conclusion, and I wasn’t fairly assured in my skills then. So I’d say I used to be simply discovering, “What is feasible? What can I do?”
You then get into Maryland, West Virginia, and Virginia, which will get actually flowy. And a few sections are troublesome, some fairly gnarly mountains just like the Priest and Three Ridges, however it’s fairly flowy, and we will make up quite a lot of time in that space. Virginia is one among my favourite states, too.
Then we bought into Tennessee, North Carolina, and Georgia. And that’s the place we had been pushing fairly exhausting, and you may odor the barn. However, for me, I by no means allowed myself to even get to the purpose of pondering I’d get the file and even come near the file. It wasn’t till three miles out that I stated, “Oh, this can be a risk.” That’s why once I completed and noticed the response, I wasn’t, like, getting ready myself. Once I noticed a response. I used to be like, “Gosh, that is intense.” I didn’t even put together myself for the file.
1,293.6 miles to go to the end.
iRunFar: You talked in regards to the Northeast having the psychological challenges after which entering into the bodily challenges of placing in just a few additional miles day by day to get again on file tempo. After which, what’s it in ultras, you odor the barn after mile 90 or mile 95 in a 100-mile race? However was it per week of beginning to odor the barn if it’s a 40-day effort?
Dower: Yeah. I simply knew the top was coming, it doesn’t matter what. I knew it was going to finish. I don’t assume I knew, “I’m gonna’ be the quickest time,” however I knew, “It’s coming to an finish it doesn’t matter what.”
iRunFar: Talking of accidents, did you are feeling issues approaching at any time?
Dower: I had a decent hamstring via Pennsylvania and the Shenandoah mountains. We needed to stretch that out a bunch. I had some Achilles ache in southern New Hampshire and Vermont. It’s quite common for people who find themselves doing the Appalachian Path FKT to get shin splints, and I feel I satisfied myself a few instances I used to be getting shin splints, however it could go away.
Apart from that, I simply fell quite a bit, and it was actually violent. I’m simply clumsy. I had quite a lot of falls that had been terrifying. I used to be all the time satisfied on these falls, I’d break my kneecap or dislocate my shoulder, and it could all be over. My job was so easy. All I needed to do was run and eat. My crew is doing all of those different issues, and I used to be frightened that I’d damage my half on this by falling as soon as. I simply bought minimize up and bruised however by no means bought critically injured throughout a fall.
Falls had been terrifying, however bloody knees had been the worst that got here of them.
iRunFar: To shut out your FKT effort, you probably did a ultimate nonstop push of round 100 miles? What was that like?
Dower: It was 129 miles and 43 hours.
iRunFar: Wow. That has develop into a reasonably commonplace function of those lengthy path pace efforts, is that individuals got down to run X miles per day, after which end out with this massive, ultimate effort on the order of 100 miles. In your case, virtually 130 miles. What’s it prefer to set out on one thing that’s by itself an extremely on the finish of a month-long extremely?
Dower: Yeah, it’s humorous. I thought of that one once I completed 30 miles in that push. I bought to the 100 miles to the top, and I checked out my time, and I used to be like, “Okay, that is Hardrock. It’s a 100-mile race, and I’ve a 48-hour cutoff,” so I might simply take a look at it like that and simply end.
Nevertheless it’s utterly totally different as a result of the tempo is a lot slower, and every part and everybody is concentrated on you. When in a race, it’s like you possibly can go into the background a bit extra and discover that inside encouragement. I used to be inspired by everybody there, however everybody’s so targeted on you. They’re all simply saying, “Good job, Tara. You are able to do it. You bought this.”
iRunFar: Ultrarunners, path runners, and thru-hikers are all fairly humble beings. They’re individuals who identical to to be out on trails or roads for a very long time and inside their heads or with their associates. What was it prefer to have a lot consideration coming to a degree, you as you’re in that ultimate push, watching your tracker, seeing you on the path, and following your end?
Dower: Yeah, I ended up popping out of the Smoky Mountains — I feel it’s three or three-and-a-half, 4 days earlier than the top — and I deleted Instagram, Fb, and all social media off my cellphone. So I wasn’t even that. There have been lots of people at Neels Hole recording me. I bear in mind feeling a little bit overwhelmed with that.
Fortunately, my crew, they’re nice, and we simply have enjoyable collectively. When the main target was on me, I tended to deflect and attempt to be like, “However take a look at Rascal! Have a look at every part she’s doing. She simply paced me for, I don’t even know what number of miles she paced me general, however it was a lot within the final 43 hours. And take a look at JP Giblin, who paced me for the final 30 miles of all the factor. Or take a look at Hunter Leininger, who paced me in a single day and hand-fed me all the manner.”
I are inclined to deflect, as a result of I hate to say that is my FKT. I want I might placed on the Quickest Recognized Time web site, that the file was set by Staff Chump Change. That was an enormous focus of mine earlier than. I wished to lean closely on the group facet and make jobs. So my job was, we stated, race automobile or runner. After which Rascal is Crew Chief/Supervisor of Chaos; just about, she’s the boss. My mother was Camp Mother. She does laundry and this and that. We made very clear jobs and tried to encourage as a lot as attainable, “It is a group effort.” Lengthy story brief, I attempted to deflect and be, “Have a look at all these nice folks over right here.”
Tara Dower had a slew of pacers from her Appalachian Path group accompany her on her run.
iRunFar: You make a extremely good level, and possibly the oldsters on the Quickest Recognized Time web site are listening. Possibly sooner or later, there might be alternatives to establish the crews which can be part of these lengthy, supported FKTs. As you stated, there are such a lot of various things that they’re dealing with. And the distinction between unsupported and supported FKTs — they’re two totally different sports activities. You’re by your self within the unsupported effort, and it’s actually a group within the supported effort.
Dower: Yeah, it’s within the identify. There are some FKTs you may most likely get away with, I imply you’re supported, however it’s not as essential. However I genuinely imagine in these lengthy, supported FKTs, the crew is every part.
iRunFar: Your story on iRunFar is the most well-liked information story within the final two years. I count on that you’re getting an unlimited quantity of consideration. You made it clear that you simply had been doing this to increase cash for the nonprofit Ladies on the Run and to attempt to unfold confidence amongst girls athletes. You may have an enormous platform to do this proper now, with tons of of 1000’s of individuals listening. What do you need to say?
Dower: I’m no scientist, however I imagine girls have this particular reward of endurance that we haven’t absolutely tapped into but. I feel we’ve made enormous strides in that path. With Ann Trason and again, additional than her, these girls have been constructing on prime of one another simply seeing what is feasible, and it’s thrilling to assume we’re scratching the floor at this level. I’m inspired to see, earlier than I did this FKT, all the ladies pushing the bounds and all of those course information happening in ultramarathons. So simply with Katie Schide, issues are getting loopy for girls in endurance, and I’m so excited to see what is going to occur.
However I feel, going out right here, an enormous purpose of mine was to encourage and encourage. It’s troublesome for me to say, “I’m inspiring girls.” I don’t know why. I’ve to recover from that, however it was an enormous purpose of mine to indicate girls that we will get these general information.
I’ve heard that the longer the space, the extra even the enjoying discipline for the genders, and that’s simply thrilling for me. It’s not about beating the boys, however it’s about discovering our true potential. And there’s that benchmark with males, what they’ve accomplished in historical past, and it’s thrilling to see us constructing as much as that and seeing what girls are able to.
I hope that extra girls exit and try this powerful purpose. It doesn’t must be in operating or endurance efforts, however I’m actually excited to see extra girls go after that Appalachian Path FKT and see how we will decrease that bar. So, I’m hoping that I encourage extra girls to go for that file or go for a run and see how far they will go.
Additionally, Ladies on the Run, I partnered with them for a purpose, to have a direct impression on these communities of younger women. I bear in mind being a younger lady and virtually having this sense of, “I can do something,” after seeing Mia Hamm. “I need to be a professional soccer participant like Mia Hamm.” I’ve benefited vastly from girls function fashions, and I hope to offer again in that manner and present people who issues are attainable. It’s a cool time to be in endurance sports activities as a lady.
Tara Dower stands on the Massive Bald highpoint, on the border of North Carolina and Tennessee.
iRunFar: You recognize the Appalachian Path higher than anyone else at this precise second. You had been simply on it, and also you simply did it in a really condensed interval. So you will have consumed all of it just lately, and what do you assume? Down the street 5 years, 10 years, 15 years. What is feasible for a girl on the Appalachian Path?
Dower: That’s an ideal query. I don’t know, however let’s see. Let me perform a little math right here. [laughs, pulls out calculator]
Okay, so I feel 37 days is feasible. That could be very aggressive. However I didn’t know, after New York, New Jersey, the place Rascal stated to me, “We’re bumping up the mileage.” So, at that time, I’m doing 57s, 58s, 59s, 60s [miles per day], and just about back-to-back, time and again. We had been relentless. Once I bought to that time, I didn’t assume that was attainable in any respect, however we did it, and I did it with the encouragement of my crew. However who is aware of, 59-, 60-mile days, that might be attainable, particularly 15 or 20 years down the road. But in addition, I’m no scientist.
iRunFar: I feel these items is equal elements science and instinct, and you’ve got quite a lot of instinct for this. Apart from, there is no such thing as a science for half these items proper now. Congratulations, Tara. I do know at some point you’re going to really feel comfy saying that you simply encourage folks as a result of that’s already a reality. You encourage me, and you’ve got impressed many.
Dower: Thanks. I admire that.
