Colorado woman runs 2,200-mile Appalachian Trail in 40 days, beating fastest known time record

A woman recently ran the entire length of the Appalachian Trail, beating the fastest known time by 13 hours. Tara Dower, a 31-year-old professional runner, recently ran the roughly 2,200-mile Appalachian Trail on the East Coast in about 40 days.The woman from Boulder, Colorado, told Fox News Digital she had previously hiked the trail but not nearly as fast.“In 2019, I thru-hiked the Appalachian Trail in five months and 10 days, and then, from there, I wanted to get into the fastest known time attempts to go faster on trails,” she said.This time around, Dower decided she wanted to beat the fastest known time to complete the Appalachian Trail, which had been roughly 41 days and seven hours, she said.Having been a runner her entire life, Dower said she was already in great shape prior to the attempt, but this effort was a challenge.“It was 40 days, and there’s just so much to experience out there,” she said.“There [were] really hard days where I couldn’t stop crying.”Dower said she ran roughly 75-80% of the trail with a pacer, so she wasn’t alone the entire time, but she said many times she struggled mentally.“I was just sleep-deprived, and sometimes I’d have little hallucinations that would come into play,” she said.

She said she also tripped and fell many times throughout the journey.Stay up on the very latest with Evening Update.

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Never miss a story.The 2,189-mile route stretches through Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee and Georgia.The path typically takes a thru-hiker about five to seven months to complete, according to the Appalachian Trail Conservancy.Her mom and her crew chief were by her side to make sure she was fed and taken care of thr...