I started my attempt on Friday August 23rd at 10:11pm at the Western Terminus on Whiskey Springs road at the AT and finished on August 27th at 7:32pm at the Eastern Terminus in Chadds Ford.
I was crewed for the entire attempt by my boyfriend James Miller and had several amazing friends join me to run different sections along the way. Jake Landon joined me for the entirety of the last 70 miles to help navigate the Eastern half of the trail that I was not familiar with. He was a huge help!
I was inspired by the other amazing local women in my area who had done the trail before me - Roxanne, Julie, and Grayce! I actually crewed Grayce for her FKT in 2022 so I knew what kind of effort it would take to complete the trail in a faster time. Roxanne was a great support through my whole effort and actually brought me a pizza on day 3! I got to see Julie out on the trail on my first day as she was out to do the whole trail again!
Completing the FKT in August added its own set of challenges. The heat obviously I knew would be an issue and is one of the reasons I decided to tackle the first long road section at night. The other things I wasn’t as prepared for was navigating overgrown sections making blazes harder to find… and tons of angry yellow jackets on the trail! I was lucky enough to only get stung once during my whole attempt, but other local trails were actually closed that weekend due to the high bee activity.
I managed to only get lost once, during a road section where telephone poles had been changed out and not reblazed - this added 2 bonus road miles between lock 15 and cold cabin.
There is a lot of road on this trail - maybe 50%. This was mentally grueling and challenging with the hot August weather. Also it should be noted that a lot of these roads don’t have shoulders and there is definitely some car dodging involved! I’d still say the beauty of the trail sections make up for it… from the grueling technical of the Susquehanna to the smooth rolling trails of white clay- it is a beautiful and unique trail.
I slept about 20 hours total (mostly on day 1 and 2), but made lots of stops to eat and change shoes/clothes. My Frosty at the Wendy’s in Northeastern was probably my favorite stop.
In addition to the bees I saw lots of other wildlife and had a few crazy encounters with snapping turtles including one trying to eat a duck in white clay creek- both duck and turtle survived!
This was my first multi day event and longest distance run to date. The attempt was a last minute decision after my 100 mile race was cancelled due to tropical storm Debbie 2 weeks prior. I have no regrets- it was an amazing adventure that I will never forget!
I could not have done this without the help of James and the amazing support of my friends and the local trail community.