Analyzing Tara Dower's WILD Appalachian Trail Speed Record

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Singletrack

Күн бұрын

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@runsingletrack 4 ай бұрын

Thoughts on Tara's feat? What'd we miss? Leave a comment below to get this discussion started.

@KrizAkoni 4 ай бұрын

Outstanding discussion! The race car analogy is very appropriate. I’m a hiker, not a runner, and was fortunate to be able to help with crew a few days. The level of effort by the crew was enormous, seriously professional, highly stressful, yet full of love - the level of love and caring amongst the entire crew and those that came out to help I don’t think can be under estimated. I’ve never experienced anything like it. 💕👊💕

@christopherorman5769 4 ай бұрын

I'll put it this way: Tara Dower is UROY hands down -- no competition. She didn't just get the record -- she crushed it. And she did it the same year that she had the following results: 4th at Hardrock 100 and 7th at Black Canyon (which I guess were really part of her FKT training!). I think this FKT reflects our sport so well. I will be really curious to see how Javelina goes for her. Anyway, a long slow clap for Tara.

@buckeyejen1076 4 ай бұрын

They do not consider FKT.

@christopherorman5769 4 ай бұрын

@@buckeyejen1076 might be a good time to change practices.

@buckeyejen1076 4 ай бұрын

@@christopherorman5769 Not our decision.

@christopherorman5769 4 ай бұрын

@@buckeyejen1076 LOL -- okay. Jamil seems like a pretty good soul and I'm guessing that magazine changes significantly in the next few years regardless. Maybe this is one of them. Seems like Jamil and other runners would certainly want to highlight the fact that a runner came in top 10 in several ultras (and possibly Javelina -- oh and she won Olmstead) and set an FKT by 5 days -- an FKT that supplanted times set by the likes of Meltzer and Jurek -- thus some pretty big names in this sport. Besides Dower was 9th last year, so I have to think she ends up in the top 3 this year. We will see, but if she is near the top, I guess FKT does matter a bit.

@buckeyejen1076 4 ай бұрын

@@christopherorman5769 Look, you are talking to the wrong person. Like I said before, it is not my decision what the criteria is. I’m just stating the facts. Every year the IROY awards cause controversy. It is what it is. As far as Tara goes, I was a huge fan of hers when she was Candy Mama, before she ever competed in an ultra. I have watched her incredible progression and cheered her the entire way. Tara is not only a terrific athlete but she is as humble as a person can be.

@HansIsYoungAndFit 4 ай бұрын

Thanks for the quick shoutout!! 🤘

@toddboucher3302 3 ай бұрын

Here in the south east she’s knocked out really everything we got. She knocked out cruel jewel two years back. She’s knocked out hellbender think she had a rough day that day, but she still knocked it out rhinestone too. I mean all the big ones you know we got people know it, cruel is a beast of a race and then this year she got into hard rock. She did real well at hard rock too and I was shocked that she was doing this but she wanted a special ones. I remember hearing that she used to do a lot of her workouts on the Beth McCabe Trail, which is part of the cruel jewel course here in Georgia and that’s pretty hard-core, just plug all my Georgian accolades in for her

@HerbertKrabel 4 ай бұрын

Love your analysis

@runsingletrack 4 ай бұрын

Appreciate ya watching! Interesting spot for her for sure

@lkbd12345 4 ай бұрын

Amazing. Historic. She is so gracious and fierce. Lot it!

@Clint_the_Audio-Photo_Guy 4 ай бұрын

It's super impressive and will probably get about 3 minutes on the late news, while whatever happened in Football today will get all kinds of coverage. I mean, this is right up there with the Nims Purja who climbed the 14 Himalayan peaks in less than 7 months. You mentioned the Cannonball run record, I know the guy who has it, he lives about 20 minutes from me, ha. Incidentally, the longest I've ever run was about 11 miles and my IT bands flared up so bad I couldn't run for a year, ha! I was running 3-5 miles every day at the time and tried for a half marathon. I also was riding near 500 miles a week on my bicycle, so I had the lungs and slow twitch muscle, just not the knees for it. P.S. The guy on the left is giving me Christopher McCandless vibes.

@buckeyejen1076 4 ай бұрын

“The awards focus on performances at organized ultramarathon events, which are races longer than the 26.2 mile marathon distance. The awards do not include shorter races, such as marathons, or fastest known time attempts.” UROY Award criteria.

@christopherorman5769 4 ай бұрын

But I looked, and they do consider a runner's body of work over the year. The guidance and spreadsheet given does allow for the consideration of other performances. So the above is not necessarily what is the criteria -- and it has loosened up a bit over the years. I should look again too, because I'm pretty sure FKTs were mentioned when Jurek ran the Appalachian Trail, as well as Meltzer in that voting. By the way, you know that UROY is limited to North Americans -- which is utter garbage too. Dollars to donuts that changes.

@1519Spring 4 ай бұрын

@@christopherorman5769 would Katie Schide be your #2? Katie would be my #1 (although Tara's efforts are super).

@christopherorman5769 4 ай бұрын

@@1519Spring probably Schide. But man, Dauwalter has had another impressive year. She won Hardrock and set a course record. She won Mt Fuji and was 3rd overall. She won swisspeaks and was 2nd overall. Schide won Wser and set the course record at utmb, but Courtney was again impressive. My sneaky pick though? Ruth Croft....but I don't think she qualifies because she isn't north American or whatever goofiness criteria they use.

@TheVegaoscar75 4 ай бұрын

Candy Mama is a beast. She went primal like we all do at some point on a thru hike. She just kept it at 100 the whole time. Good for her. Go get it. I like the idea of secret fkt society type thing though but those days are gone. Its cool just to see how fast a human can do this. I've always wanted to push myself hard like that.

@debrunsfar153 4 ай бұрын

Wow late show shout out to Dylan Bowman! Love it, go get it Dylan. Thanks for that Brett.

@runsingletrack 4 ай бұрын

Go Dbo!!!!

@brettrunsfar 4 ай бұрын

The FKT/street racing comparison has me convinced Brett eyeballs runners on start lines and tells them "you know we're racing for pinks, right?"

@John-se5vc 2 ай бұрын

Tara's FKT is totally believable, because she had a crew that was completely sincere and supportive of her. Roughly comparable was Grandma Gatewood, who did it on her honor, with the good will of some of the local folk, plus a few reporters. Sadly, the sanctity of FKTs will probably decrease. Tara's effort will stand--maybe not forever in numbers, but in spirit, because of the purity of her drive and the dedication of ChumpChange and Rascal, Mom, and the others. This effort of the whole will not be duplicated. That's my prediction.

@FilmMyRun 4 ай бұрын

John Kelly next for the AT?

@werdnativ 3 ай бұрын

It was called Fastest "Known" Time for a reason, as something you'd do unofficially without major publicity. (Fastest Known implied that was probably/likely the best, but you couldn't be sure unless someone else spoke up.) Now that it's a whole scene and the known records are being challenged on specific trails, those are no longer "FKTs" but de-facto officially recognized records.

@werdnativ 3 ай бұрын

Budget & commercial sponsorship could be where the line should be drawn for what is an FKT versus a professionally organized & promoted record attempt.

@saskhiker3935 4 ай бұрын

Thru hikers start with less miles and work their way up in the Miles. Perhaps starting slow is the thru hiker approach.

@The_MidwestMisfit 4 ай бұрын

Tara should go for Pete’s transcon record

@wk633 4 ай бұрын

Camille should have a PR person.

@ruthgoebel723 4 ай бұрын

Amazing achievement, but did she enjoy all the fabulous views and wildlife along the way?

@runsingletrack 4 ай бұрын

I'd argue she enjoyed it as much or even more so than the average thru-hiker! She was spending far more time on trail per day..many thru-hikers take frequent zeros, spend time in trail towns lounging, etc..these speed attempts are an under-appreciated communion with nature!!

@micaKTM1290 3 ай бұрын

She did when she thru hiked it. FKT is not about smelling the roses.

@mattpelofske4632 4 ай бұрын

Brownings fkt coverage was too much kinda over the top .

@christopherorman5769 4 ай бұрын

I was going to comment on that too. While I like Browning a lot, it did all seem a bit much. What Dower did on both the Colorado Trail and now Appalachian Trail deserved far more coverage -- though I get that Dower's 40 day run just wasn't going to get daily looks by Mountain Outpost.

@cecilivy7492 4 ай бұрын

Both were raising money for great causes. I don’t blame Browning or Mountain Outpost for trying to bring more eyes and attention to the attempt and subsequently the charity.

@AD04070 4 ай бұрын

Well we can all agree, Camile will surely change the Wikipedia entry 🤷

@runsingletrack 4 ай бұрын

lol

@The_MidwestMisfit 4 ай бұрын

any drug testing prior, during, or after? people often act like clean sport is very important and doping is a real problem in trail running (i don’t share that opinion), so what say you all about that???

@uloutdoors 4 ай бұрын

You can´t make enough money with fkt or thru hike consulting. It is not worth the hastle around it. Not enough people do it and those who do like to figure out stuff alone imo.