On Sept. 21, 2024, Virginia-based ultrarunner Tara Dower made historical past by setting a brand new total 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 unique 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, masking 3,536 km with 141,732 metres of elevation achieve. Often called the unique long-trail thru-hike, this jap U.S. route weaves by 14 states, together with New Hampshire, Virginia and North Carolina. The path’s difficult terrain and relentless elevation shifts make it one of the vital 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 subsequent 40 days, she navigated every little thing the path needed to throw at her, finishing the Maine part (typically considered one of many hardest half) in simply six days. She made her manner 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 repute as a path athlete. She accomplished the whole Appalachian Path for the primary time in 2019, along 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 through the pandemic. She completed fourth at this 12 months’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 lady is aware of and prompts her limitless potential and is free to boldly pursue her goals,” as its web site explains. Whereas Dower surpassed her objective, you may nonetheless donate and find out about Ladies on the Run, right here. Dower shared that she hoped to “encourage ladies and women to go for that robust objective, irrespective of if it’s with working or in life.”
