Endurance runner Tara Dower smashed one of the toughest records in sport.
The Appalachian Trail (AT) is the world’s longest hiking-only path, at 3,535 kilometres from Mount Katahdin in Maine to Springer Mountain in Georgia.
On Sept. 21, Dower finished running its entire distance in the fastest known time: 40 days, 18 hours and six minutes.
That is 13 hours faster than the record set in 2018 by Belgian runner Karel Sabbe. Prior to Dower’s breakthrough, only 10 people had ever managed to traverse the AT in 50 days or less.
But while accolades like the greatest endurance feat ever are showered on the 31-year-old from Virginia Beach, Dower prefers to pass on the praise to her support team, which included her mother, who often had to exhort her exhausted, injured, hallucinating daughter to keep pushing just a little bit more.
“[My own effort] doesn’t look that heroic, honestly. I remember some really tough days and some very messy days … it’s very overwhelming to get that amount of recognition,” she told CBC Sports.
Dower ran north to south, getting the highest and hardest mountains out of the way in the first 10 days. But those two weeks also included day after day of rain. A lot of stumbles and rocky landings. Dower developed brutal sores and craters on her feet. The physical agony and the overall effort led to some periods of hallucination.
WATCH | Dower explains how, why she was able to win 3,500+ km trail race:
Endurance phenom describes the method and motivation behind her 40-day run from Maine to Georgia, battling anxiety and intense fatigue to knock 13 hours off the fastest known time for the 3,500-kilometre trail.
Races that involve such long distances and times are not easy to understand, much less attempt. Dower ran more than 90 kilometres every day for nearly six weeks. That’s 15 full marathons each week. In the mountains. On muddy trails.
Winning a footrace that spans 14 U.S. states demands physical excellence, but also mental strength that goes beyond the normal. Dower is no stranger to mental health challenges. Her first attempt at the AT in 2017 foundered after just 129 kms, when she suffered a panic attack.
Did the 2017 experience prepare her for this triumph?
“Out there [on the trail run], there’s a lot of potential for a lot of anxious moments. I think now I feel like it’s a full-circle moment. I have had a really long history with the AT.”
Elite Canadian runner and high performance coach Dr. Sasha Gollish works in the Mental Health and Physical Activities Research Centre at University of Toronto. She marvels at Dower’s toughness.
“It’s not just the mental resolve to get up everyday to run really far, but the strength to overcome such adversity. It’s the mental fatigue resistance that I think makes Tara’s accomplishment so powerful,” Gollish said.
“Mental toughness is partly innate, but it absolutely can be taught and refined,” said Hannah Spence, a Welsh-Canadian duathlete, coach and extreme endurance cyclist. “Depending on the race, a mentally stronger person will finish ahead of a physically stronger person.
“People like Tara Dower … have refined their mental training to power-house perfection.”
‘It never always gets worse’
Dower’s exhaustion-fighting mental routine includes a repeated mantra: It never always gets worse.
“The thought is, it may be really difficult for an hour or two hours or an entire day, but it won’t always be this bad,” she said. “Maybe you’ll get an inch better but it’s never going to just keep getting worse. Eventually the effort and the pain will end. … But it’s also equally probably going to be really difficult and it’s going to hurt. And the fact that you can look forward to that next really nice moment is encouraging.”
Spence considers the mental tactics from another angle.
“The rollercoaster of emotions, positive and negative self-task, the self-bribery and all the little games you go through in any given race can be very effective because it keeps you in control of the moment and of the outcome,” Spence said. “But it’s also very draining. To endure that rollercoaster for 40 days is beyond impressive.”
Women endure more just to live
Epic trail runs are not just about top speed.
On the AT, Dower was very consistent, running 18-19 hours every day. Those are much longer running hours than other competitors have attempted. Dower understood that she didn’t have to go maximum speed if she could keep banging out miles when everyone else was asleep.
Dr. Gollish sees some evidence that females have a competitive edge in extreme endurance.
“When we look at the psychological differences, females may be more mentally fatigue resistant. There is a theory that around 195 miles, females will outperform males … we really need to be doing more medical and sport science specific research across all sports, to better understand what’s happening.”
Spence concurs.
“Women are used to fighting for things for much longer than men are — education, voting rights, discrimination, legal and health rights, etc. Women are used to enduring physical pain and discomfort throughout their entire lives — menstruation, pregnancy, birth, menopause.
“Women have to endure more than men just to live. I think that results in women having a more refined mental toughness for endurance.”
Dower’s goal was also to raise money for Girls on the Run, an American non-profit focused on running for girls between third and eighth grades. Statistics show that if a girl stays in sport through puberty, she’s likely to be an athlete for life. Dower has raised $34,000 US so far.