Tara Dower's Record-Breaking Appalachian Trail FKT

Tara Dower talks about her record-breaking Appalachian Trail hike, where she set the overall Fastest Known Time (women or men), empowering women and raising funds for Girls on the Run.

“My feet are recovering and have a lot of sores, blisters and holes in them.”

Tara Dower’s words are not entirely surprising as she speaks to me from Georgia. What is surprising is what she says next: “I don’t think I’m a great athlete.” That statement feels out of place, considering this 31-year-old North Carolina native just achieved one of the most grueling feats in North American endurance sports.

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Tara set the overall supported Fastest Known Time (FKT) on the Appalachian Trail, beating not just the women's record but the men’s as well. She thru-hiked the iconic trail in 40 days, 18 hours, and 5 minutes, finishing at 11:53 pm on September 21st and swiping over 13 hours off the previous record held by Belgian hiker Karel Sabbe.

From Maine’s rugged Mount Katahdin to Georgia’s Springer Mountain, Tara’s 2,197.4-mile / 3,536-kilometer journey was epic. She crossed 14 states and endured 464,500 feet / 141,579 meters of elevation change – the equivalent of climbing Mount Everest 16 times.

Most thru-hikers take about six months to complete the trail, but Tara averaged around 60 miles / 96.5 km a day. Yet, even after claiming this remarkable title, her humility keeps shining through. “The [hiking] community really came together for this FKT. That’s why I say it’s not my FKT, it’s definitely a team effort,” she says.

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The Appalachian Trail

The Appalachian Trail (AT) is so historic in the US that it is oftentimes considered the original long-distance thru-hike. It's a trail that tests hikers both physically and mentally. For Tara, it’s also deeply personal. Her connection to the AT runs deeper than just her record – it’s where her love for thru-hiking began. Yet, she didn’t always have it easy in the mountains.

Less than a decade ago in 2017, Tara didn’t make it past 80 miles / 128 km of the Appalachian Trail. “I had a panic attack and I could not continue,” she tells me. “I got off the trail at Bly Gap and that was really tough to come to terms with.”

After some personal work, Tara returned to the AT two years later, this time, with her husband, and the pair thru-hiked it in a little over five months. It’s also the time she was given her trail name ‘Candy Mama.’ A few more years of working on the trail itself as a backpacking guide and hostel caretaker for none other than Jennifer Pharr Davis, a previous FKT record holder of the AT, and the new FKT idea started percolating.

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Tara’s perspective of the Appalachian Trail has clearly swiveled, as she now lights up at the mention of it: “Whenever I go back there, it always feels like home. That trail started everything for me, it started my entire trail career and I’m very thankful for it. I'm also very thankful this adventure turned out the way it did because it’s these types of experiences that are where you really start believing you're capable of more than you think you are.”

Putting in the Work

Tara worked hard to reach this realization. In 2022, she “had just set the record on the 300-mile / 482-km Benton Mackaye Trail and [she] realized [she] felt okay. [She] was sore and tired but [she] could probably carry on. That’s when the idea for the Appalachian Trail FKT started,” she recalls, smiling.

Tara began her training in earnest last year, but she had already been racking up mileage. In 2020, she established a new speed record of just over 29 days on the 1,175-mile / 1,891-km Mountains-to-Sea Trail in North Carolina. She had four ultra-running victories in 2021, plus a course record on the Devil Dog 100-miler /161-km in 2022. After the Benton Mackaye Trail record, she then shattered a long-standing women’s benchmark on the 567-mile / 912-km Colorado Trail and came fourth at Colorado’s Hardrock 100.

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“I’ve done a lot of ultramarathons but 100-mile / 161-km races are definitely my favorite,” she says with a grin. I can tell she means it. When comparing an FKT to an ultra-race, she mentions the appeal of FKTs is “a different, neat experience. Doing an FKT requires a lot of self-motivation. No one [a racer] is going to come up behind me, motivating me to go faster. I have to find that from within.”

And that motivation can come in different forms while pursuing an FKT, as Tara discovered early on in her AT attempt. “We got some pretty bad weather in southern Maine and New Hampshire, which are the most technical and toughest parts of the trail. It was really difficult to keep up the pace and we fell behind the FKT time. My feet were wet the entire time and I fell a lot because I kept slipping on the rocks we were climbing straight up and down,” she shares.

But with the support of her crew, Tara pushed forward, averaging 60 miles / 96.5 km a day through the final states to hit her goal. “I didn’t know if it was possible, but I chose to stay in the moment and trust the crew,” she says. “I had a lot of mantras to keep me going, including ‘Every second counts,’ ‘Equanimity,’ and ‘You never know if you don’t try’.”

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‘It Takes a Village’

Tara may be humble about her own athleticism, but she is quick to credit the team that helped her achieve the record. “I learned how important it is to put somebody in your crew who you can trust and who you know is going to be all in on this record,” she tells me. Her support team included her longtime friend Megan ‘Rascal’ Wilmarth and her mother, Debbie Komlo. Rascal, who Tara met on the Appalachian Trail in 2019, was instrumental in providing the emotional and logistical support needed. Tara’s mother, an experienced hiker herself, “knows how to give a good game-time speech.”

Alongside her two-woman crew – an important note for Tara – a group of about 40 to 50 pacers joined her at various points along the trail. They helped carry her pack, made sure she stayed fueled and kept her spirits high as she covered mile after grueling mile.

As the saying goes, ‘It takes a village.’ And Tara is hoping to extend that notion: “I've always been somebody who's been inspired by women. My hope is that more women will go out to the Appalachian Trail and try to go for the FKT, because I truly believe we women have a special gift of endurance.”

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Not only is Tara leading by example, but she’s also working hard to help women, young girls in particular, to be active and push for big goals by raising funds for Girls on the Run, a nonprofit that empowers girls through physical education. She’s raised over $29,000 – well beyond her original $20,000 goal for the organization and is keeping the fundraising open.

“My hope during this FKT was to inspire more women to go for that tough goal, no matter if it's in life or if it's on the trails or doing an FKT.”

Knowing how much Tara loves a good challenge, you’d think she already has a major goal lined up. Yet, when I asked her what’s next, she responded with a sly and sweet, “Ice cream and sleep.”