Karl Meltzer is still plugging away on his Appalachian Assault and has now logged more than 1,328 miles on the Appalachian Trail in just 37 days.
The latest updates from WheresKarl.com indicate that he’s reached Shenandoah National Park in Virginia, and has been logging a lot of mile lately in an attempt to make up for lost time thanks to the injuries he suffered early on. A few days back he even logged 60 miles in one day over a grueling 14 hours on the trail. His blog indicates that a pace of nearly four and a half mile an hour, which is very impressive considering the terrain he is crossing.
Karl set out back on August 5th in an attempt to break the speed record on the AT. He hoped to run it’s entire length, all 2,174 miles of it, in just 47 days, which would have worked out to about 46 miles per day. Unfortunately, he ran into some issues early on, including severe tendentious, and thanks to the wet conditions on the trail, he even contracted trench foot.
Following those setbacks, he took a few days off to recuperate, but was soon back at it, slowly building his mileage back up. Now, he seems to have caught his stride again, and is making up for lost time. It would have been very easy to pack it in, and call it all off, but Karl has been determined from the beginning to see this through to the end, and you have to admire his tenacity.
At this point, it seems the record is out of reach with just ten days to go, but sometimes these adventures aren’t about breaking records, but instead they’re about challenging yourself, seeing something through to the end, and never giving up on your dream. I think Karl is showing us all how that is done.
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