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 document but in addition the lads’s. Her time of 40 days, 18 hours, and 6 minutes had her averaging slightly 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 title, 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 season. She’s one of many few ultrarunners who has efficiently built-in lengthy path FKTs and shorter race efforts right into a single summer season.
In an in-depth cellphone interview six days after her end, Dower talks extensively about how her effort unfolded, how invaluable 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 huge targets. The transcript of this interview has been gently edited for readability.
Tara began this effort with the objective of elevating $20,000 for the nonprofit Ladies on the Run. As this text is printed, 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 the whole lot.
iRunFar: You turned completely normalized for path life; your physique and thoughts tailored to it.
Dower: And being across the crew all the time, having anyone round the entire time. Lots of people within the thru-hiking neighborhood discuss 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 a terrific place to start out this interview; you set the objective beforehand of setting an general supported FKT. This required you to hike and run a median of about 54 miles on daily basis, till it’s achieved. You had a terrific function mannequin in Jennifer Pharr Davis being a girls’s chief within the thru-hiking neighborhood and a previous general supported Appalachian Path FKT holder. I’d like to learn the way you determined to go for the general FKT.
Dower: I used to be empowered to set such a lofty objective 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 probably 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 a whole lot of different girls — confidence to go for these powerful targets and to even contemplate them doable.
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 a whole lot of expertise on the path, in addition to endurance races and endurance feats. However I feel it takes a bit greater than that, particularly with such an extended document, something may occur. I wasn’t 100% assured. I’m not going on the market, “I’ll set the document.” 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 document it doesn’t matter what.” I didn’t have that confidence.
It was due to my crew that I made it by means of and made it in that point. I ran it, however I didn’t do so much apart from operating. They did the whole lot. 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 might 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 choices.
iRunFar: iRunFar readers are extra aware of the crewing side at an ultramarathon the place it’s over in six hours, 12 hours, or 30 hours, versus 40 days. Would you name it really a multi-pronged effort the place each prongs carry the identical quantity of weight to make a document occur? Crew in ultrarunning supplies very important help however not as strongly as I feel you’re inferring right here.
Dower: I might name it a workforce effort throughout. With out them, none of this might have been doable. I can see myself in a 100-mile race; if one thing occurred to the place the crew couldn’t meet me, I may in all probability survive off the help station meals and possibly simply grit it to the top. That wouldn’t be gratifying. I want the crew, and I want 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 such a lengthy, supported document, it’s only doable to do it with a crew, particularly the general document.
I imply, I didn’t have full confidence that I may do it. I simply knew I ought to go on the market and take a look at my finest. When it acquired powerful and once we had been behind, if it was as much as me, I’d in all probability be like, “All proper, we tried.” We had been 100-something miles behind at one level, and Rascal didn’t bat an eye fixed. 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 he or she instructed me, “I do know you are able to do it, however I want 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 doable.”
Tara Dower is taken care of by her crew at a street crossing.
iRunFar: I like the way you’re pertaining to each the bodily help {that a} crew provides and that psychological help along with your self-belief system.
Dower: Yeah. They conjured the appropriate 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 get pleasure from it extra. It’s a workforce effort, 100%. I do know that sounds foolish once I say, “I simply ran,” however they did the whole lot else.
iRunFar: That’s wonderful. To backtrack, the individuals who observe you on iRunFar know you most by means of your extremely exploits, however you have got a whole lot of thru-hiking expertise. Are you able to place this expertise for iRunFar readers? I feel it’s in all probability each extremely abilities and your expertise with lengthy trails that got here collectively.
Dower: Actually, my whole path profession began with the Appalachian Path. Once I was a freshman in faculty, I watched a documentary referred to as “The Appalachian Path” by “Nationwide Geographic,” and I made a objective 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 anxiousness assault at Bly Hole and acquired 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 anxiousness 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 pals. That’s the place I met Rascal in Pennsylvania, and that began our whole friendship, and my friendship with so many different individuals.
I used to be entrenched on this neighborhood, too, and in order that’s one other side of this. I’ve met them throughout all my exploits on the Appalachian Path. All of them simply got here collectively for this document, so I’m grateful for them.
I wished to do one other thru-hike and thought concerning 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 method. I used to be working for Jen Pharr Davis as a backpacking information and hostel caretaker, and he or she impressed me to go for the FKT. So I did it with a bit quarantine crew, and we simply traveled down the path. I set the FKT on that, and that started the whole lot. I knew that Diane Van Deren was a 100-mile athlete and a The North Face athlete. She set the document earlier than me, and I used to be like, “Okay, if she will be able to do 100-mile races, possibly I may 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 could possibly be my subsequent problem. A yr later, I did my first 100 miler, and I went from there. I actually cherished the 100-mile distance and by no means regarded again. I might say the Appalachian Path began all of it.
Autumn begins to point out its colours on the Appalachian Path with 400 miles to go.
iRunFar: You efficiently cross forwards and backwards between operating ultras and doing these longer FKT efforts. That is in contrast to a couple of 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 objective of mine to do an extended path yearly. I might 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 assume, that’s a test mark for this yr. [laughs]
Dower: Yeah, I feel we’re good for this yr. [laughs]
iRunFar: I’m questioning if we are able to parse out your effort a bit bit. I do know 40 days is a very long time to summarize in a single interview, however the path itself has segments. When you can break it into segments, how does your thoughts digest all of it?
Dower: Yeah, I might say southern Maine and New Hampshire had been probably the most difficult elements of the path. It’s simply actually troublesome. Your entire Appalachian Path, they don’t imagine in switchbacks, however there, it’s even worse. It’s simply relentless rocks. I struggled by means of there, fell behind on document tempo, and was fully exhausted. I might 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 might 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 arduous to maintain a strong tempo. It may not be loopy mountains, nevertheless it’s rocky and arduous 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 document tempo. And that’s the conclusion, and I wasn’t fairly assured in my talents then. So I might 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, nevertheless it’s fairly flowy, and we are able to make up a whole lot of time in that space. Virginia is one in all my favourite states, too.
Then we acquired into Tennessee, North Carolina, and Georgia. And that’s the place we had been pushing fairly arduous, and you could possibly scent the barn. However, for me, I by no means allowed myself to even get to the purpose of pondering I might get the document and even come near the document. 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, making 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 document.
1,293.6 miles to go to the end.
iRunFar: You talked concerning the Northeast having the psychological challenges after which moving into the bodily challenges of placing in a couple of further miles every day to get again on document tempo. After which, what’s it in ultras, you scent the barn after mile 90 or mile 95 in a 100-mile race? However was it every week of beginning to scent 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 suppose I knew, “I’m gonna’ be the quickest time,” as a result of I may have gotten injured or sick. 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 good hamstring by means of 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 occasions I used to be getting shin splints, however it might go away.
Aside from that, I simply fell so much, and it was actually violent. I’m simply clumsy. I had a whole lot of falls that had been terrifying. I used to be at all times satisfied on these falls, I might break my kneecap or dislocate my shoulder, and it might 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 might destroy my half on this by falling as soon as. I simply acquired lower up and bruised however by no means acquired 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 closing nonstop push of round 100 miles? What was that like?
Dower: It was 129 miles and 43 hours.
iRunFar: Wow. That has grow to be a reasonably normal function of those lengthy path pace efforts, is that folks got down to run X miles per day, after which end out with this huge, closing effort on the order of 100 miles. In your case, nearly 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 considered that one once I completed 30 miles in that push. I acquired 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 may simply take a look at it like that and simply end.
However it’s fully totally different as a result of the tempo is a lot slower, and the whole lot and everybody is targeted on you. When in a race, it’s like you’ll be able to go into the background a bit extra and discover that inside encouragement. I used to be inspired by everybody there, however everybody’s so centered 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 similar to to be out on trails or roads for a very long time and inside their heads or with their pals. What was it prefer to have a lot consideration coming to a degree, taking a look at you as you’re in that closing 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 taking a look at that. There have been lots of people at Neels Hole recording me. I bear in mind feeling a 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! Take a look at the whole lot she’s doing. She simply paced me for, I don’t even know what number of miles she paced me general, nevertheless 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 method.”
I are likely to deflect, as a result of I hate to say that is my FKT. I want I may placed on the Quickest Recognized Time web site, that the document was set by Workforce Chump Change. That was a giant focus of mine earlier than. I wished to lean closely on the workforce side 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 doable, “It is a workforce effort.” Lengthy story brief, I attempted to deflect and be, “Take a look at all these nice individuals over right here.”
Tara Dower had a slew of pacers from her Appalachian Path neighborhood 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. Perhaps sooner or later, there could possibly 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 workforce within the supported effort.
Dower: Yeah, it’s within the title. There are some FKTs you could possibly in all probability get away with, I imply you’re supported, nevertheless it’s not as essential. However I genuinely imagine in these lengthy, supported FKTs, the crew is the whole lot.
iRunFar: Your story on iRunFar is the preferred information story within the final two years. I anticipate that you’re getting an infinite quantity of consideration. You made it clear that you just had been doing this to increase cash for the nonprofit Ladies on the Run and to attempt to unfold confidence amongst girls athletes. You might have an enormous platform to do this proper now, with tons of of hundreds of individuals listening. What do you need to say?
Dower: I’m no scientist, however I imagine girls have this particular present of endurance that we haven’t absolutely tapped into but. I feel we’ve made enormous strides in that course. With Ann Trason and again, additional than her, these girls have been constructing on high of one another simply seeing what is feasible, and it’s thrilling to suppose 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’s going to occur.
However I feel, going out right here, a giant objective 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, nevertheless it was a giant objective of mine to point out girls that we are able to get these general information.
I’ve heard that the longer the gap, the extra even the enjoying discipline for the genders, and that’s simply thrilling for me. It’s not about beating the lads, however it’s about discovering our true potential. And there may be that benchmark with males, what they’ve achieved 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 do this powerful objective. 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 are able to decrease that bar. So, I’m hoping that I encourage extra girls to go for that document or go for a run and see how far they’ll go.
Additionally, Ladies on the Run, I partnered with them for a cause, to have a direct affect on these communities of younger ladies. I bear in mind being a younger woman and nearly 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 present again in that method and present people who issues are doable. It’s a cool time to be in endurance sports activities as a lady.
Tara Dower stands on the Large Bald highpoint, on the border of North Carolina and Tennessee.
iRunFar: You already know 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 have got consumed all of it lately. What do you suppose, down the street 5 years, 10 years, 15 years, what is feasible for a girl on the Appalachian Path?
Dower: That’s a terrific query. I do not 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 may 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, again and again. We had been relentless. Once I acquired to that time, I didn’t suppose that was doable 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 could possibly be doable, particularly 15 or 20 years down the road. But additionally, I’m no scientist.
iRunFar: I feel these items is equal elements science and instinct, and you’ve got a whole lot of instinct for this. Moreover, there isn’t a science for half these items proper now. Congratulations, Tara. I do know someday you’re going to really feel snug saying that you just encourage individuals as a result of that’s already a truth. You encourage me, and you’ve got impressed many.
Dower: Thanks. I admire that.
