Karl Meltzer running and training to break the record on the Appalachin Trail. (Josh Campbell/Red Bull Content Pool Photo)
Just one year after ultrarunning legend Scott Jurek set a thru-hike speed record along the Appalachian Trail, another ultrarunning legend is looking to do it faster.
Karl Meltzer, 48, says he will start at Katahdin next month and, running north-to-south, try to complete the 2,189-mile Appalachian Trail faster than anyone else ever has. Jurek, who ran south-to-north, last year completed the trail in 46 days, 8 hours.
To beat Jurek’s pace, Meltzer will have to average 50 miles a day for a month and a half. (Ouch.)
But if anyone can do it, it’s Meltzer. He is the winner of 57 ultra races, including 38 100-mile wins (a world record). He’s also tried this before. In 2008, he ran the Appalachian Trail in 54 days despite suffering from severe tendonitis.
He describes the trail as “steep and hilly and rocky and rooty and wet and nasty.” And during his 2008 run, he says he expended over 6,000 calories a day on many stages. He says running the AT is “not only man versus clock, but man versus nature…and man versus self.”
Read about Karl Meltzer’s Appalachian Trail plans on TravelandLeisure.com.