The Plan

I plan on attempting to beat the unsupported speed record on the Appalachian Trail- currently held by Ward "Spooky Boy" Leonard.  Set in 1990, his record time of sixty and a half days still stands.  The 2013 trail length is 2,185.9 miles from Springer Mountain in Georgia to Mt. Katahdin in Maine.

 

So that's like, a million miles a day then?

About 37 miles a day, with no days off to get her done in sixty days flat.  In (not entirely unreasonable) hiker math; that's about 2.5 MPH for 15 hours.  Totally reasonable pace, and even schedule.  On paper that is. 

 

I'm not the first, may not be the last actually, to give it a shot.  It's the kind of record that is entirely possible, even plausible if you know what you're doing.  But 2000+ miles is a lot of miles for damn near anything unfortunate to happen.  Your body can fail, your mind crap out, or the trail just plain old tells you to leave.  It happens a lot.

 

The standard plan-

Generally, some young jackass runs track (sometimes cross country, but usually track) and just "crushed" a race.  Then they see this trail called the AT, see that most folks travel 2 MPH.  Then they see that a "fast" hiker travels at 3 MPH, and a "blistering pace" is 3.5 MPH.  Then they read, or perhaps simply heard about, Bill Bryson's book, "A walk in the woods".    Then they say, "If that fat bastard and his fatter friend could get as far as they got, imagine what I could do!"

 

"Hey," it unfortunately dawns on them; "I just ran a six minute mile at the last track meet.  I even finished a marathon in under X hours so I could totally hike that trail fast.  Shit, at 4 MPH I could crush that record going only 10 hours a day.  I wouldn't even have to try that hard.  Stupid backpackers, wait till they get a load of me!"

 

Said runner then posts all over the Internet, maybe even scores a newspaper article or two somehow and announces his or her intention to "kill" "CRUSH" "annihilate" or otherwise do some form of nasty physical harm to the non physical and entirely inanimate record.

 

Said runner then has a 50/50 chance of actually even beginning the record attempt.  Of those that actually make the attempt, few of them make it longer than a week.  Most of them slink off somewhere with little or no report of why they somehow failed to break the record.  None of them even make it halfway.

 

My plan-

I certainly agree that the former section qualifies as shit talking, although I prefer the more accurate term of history lesson.  Anyone familiar with the trail is familiar with how the AT community treats record attempters.  I know the deal, I didn't really want to even start a blog.  In a perfect world I would just keep my yap shut and only speak up if I broke the record.  Bare minimum, I'd wait until halfway to even open my mouth.  You can read why, in that section of this blog.

 

That said, I am a backpacker, not a runner.  At best I've got a 50/50 shot, and that's being optimistic.  I have a failed Thru-Hike of the AT under my belt.  Probably more valuable than a successful one really.  I went over ten years ago, in the worst shape of my life, and covered the north half of the trail before getting off with a stress fracture in my leg.  I went 120 miles after the stress fracture was diagnosed, but at some point...

 

I understand, quite intimately, that the trail is not always kind.  That I only have so much control over getting hurt.  but I did learn my lesson.  I've since cut almost forty pounds off my body, and twenty pounds from my pack.  I can walk back to back forty mile days, and even run a bit here and there.  But really, even if I were in perfect shape, there's still a good chance I could get a hike (or at least record attempt) ending injury.  It's just how it is.

 

That's just my body.  There's weather, which despite the best paid scientists opinion to the contrary, is a hair more unpredictable than usual these days.  There's mental issues, people issues, and simple logistical issues.  They say there are five million steps on the AT, but just as importantly, there are five million choices, decisions, and opportunities for failure.  Completing a Thru hike is like winning the lottery, breaking a record is like winning the Powerball.

 

Can't win if you don't play!

All that aside, I'm going for it.  Not to crush it, but because there is a chance, however remote, that I can do it.  Not a big deal in the whole grand scheme of things really, but still worth doing.  Besides it has long sat as somehow inappropriate to me that a guy known, with good reason from what I hear, as Spooky Boy should be so well tied to the AT.  

 

On the other hand, that's what makes the trail what it is.  If a slightly mentally unstable fella holds the fastest time on it, maybe that is the way it should be.  I love the AT, and so do many others.  They'd probably tell you the only person fit to hold a speed record on the trail has to be insane to even desire to hold that record, let alone even bother to attempt it.

 

That's why I am only declaring an attempt, not my impending victory over the forces of nature.  I guess in the end we'll let the trail choose.  For those that know and love the trail, the woods, the outdoors you understand that you don't win, you can't.  You can co-exist, participate, and ideally find harmony with the trail.  All you can really do is show up and give it a shot.  Preferably your best shot, but that's really all you have control of.  The rest is out of your hands.

 

In the end, that's the way everything on the trail works.