2,189 Miles, 40 Days, and 3 Showers: How Tara Dower Destroyed the Appalachian Trail Speed Record
2,189 Miles, 40 Days, and 3 Showers: How Tara Dower Destroyed the Appalachian Trail Speed Record
On September 21, Dower became the fastest person in history to complete the Appalachian Trail, a 2,189-mile path through the eastern United States.
My grandparents lived on the trail. They would bring the hikers in and cook them dinner and let them take showers. It was a different time back then, but I remember sharing Sunday dinner with a lot of strangers.
Yep, trail magic is real magic. Just humans being good to each other.
What an incredible experience that must have been.
That sounds so cool, but I wouldn't want to house a lot of strangers in my home and I also wouldn't want to sleep in random strangers' houses.
They didn't sleep inside, they camped out in the fields. They were all super chill about everything, and if there was ever a problem with any of them, I never heard about it.
an average of 54 miles each day
It also mention she ran 17 jours a day. I can't imagine the kind of energy it takes to keep that pace going for 40 days. Absolutely insane.
That’s like 3mph for 17 hours. Jesus…. That’s a lot of wheaties… by my back of the napkin calculations that’s burning like 4200 calories a day.
3mpg for 50 miles is mind blowing. Starts to make sense how we're enduranc hunters.
Ultra marathoners are complete badasses. Whenever people talk about the tough mudder and those other short races with stupid challenges as so cool and tough I just think about how badass the they hikers and ultras
Speed running the Appalachian trail seems like missing the point to me. You’re supposed to be taking in the history and the environment as you hike.
Some people like the challenge. Not her first time on the trail, either.
She did do a 5 month walk on it a few years earlier. So it's not like she disagrees with you, she just also wanted to get that record.
Did that with her husband in 2019, much more normal time of over 5 months.
I'll admit that I dont understand the now long running deal with speed running things like this, but if done safely and respectfully, I also dont see the harm. What is important is impact to the resource, and that is the main issue. That transcends folks like this. If she can pass that ethic along with this record, I'm for it.
Absolutely.
So did she win something? Just bragging rights? Meh. There's not much point if you can't either get paid or make some kind of progress information pop up on your screen.
Thanks for letting us know your negative thoughts.
Hold up a second, you're saying here that getting a progress information pop up on your screen is better than bragging rights and equal to monetary compensation? You don't see how that's crazy?
Maybe she just set a goal for herself and decided to go for it. Do you never do that?
She can get sponsorships. Also keep in mind this isn’t a men/women’s record. She’s the fastest human to do this, ever. She beat previous record of a Belgian man by less than a day.