Tara Dower has become one of America's top ultra runners, winning numerous 50 and 100-mile races and setting speed records on some of the nation's most challenging trails. In 2024, she achieved a monumental milestone by completing the 2200-mile Appalachian Trail, surpassing the previous fastest known time (FTK) by 13 hours.
Tara Dower has become one of America's top ultra runners, winning numerous 50 and 100-mile races and setting speed records on some of the nation's most challenging trails. In 2024, she achieved a monumental milestone by completing the 2200-mile Appalachian Trail, surpassing the previous fastest known time (FTK) by 13 hours.
Connect with Tara:
Listen to the Camp Nowhere Podcast
Thank you to our sponsors:
Tara Dower:
Oftentimes, I conveniently forget about the really, really hard times and remember all of the glitz and glamour that comes with it. So I just remembered like, "Oh, I got second overall, I'm probably pretty quick in these races. I should try again with another race."
Shelby Stanger:
In the last few years, Tara Dower has emerged as one of the fastest ultra runners in America. She's won multiple 50 and 100 mile races and set speed records on long-distance trails around the country. These routes are hundreds and thousands of miles, often crossing multiple states and mountain ranges. There's one trail in particular though that is always called to Tara, the Appalachian Trail, also known as the AT. It runs 2200 miles from Georgia up to Maine. In 2024, Tara achieved a longtime goal when she beat the fastest known time for the AT by 13 hours. I'm Shelby Stanger, and this is Wild Ideas Worth Living, an REI Co-op Studios production, presented by Capital One and the REI Co-op MasterCard.
A few years ago we interviewed a dentist from Belgium named Karl Sabbe, who set the fastest known time for the Appalachian Trail in 2018. Karl beat the previous record holder by more than four days. Most people assumed that beating Karl's time would be nearly impossible. So when Tara broke his record last year, it was a big deal. Tara has always had an affinity for the Appalachian Trail. She thru-hiked it in 2019, and once she started ultra running, she knew that she wanted to return.
Tara Dower, welcome to Wild Ideas Worth Living.
Tara Dower:
Yeah, thanks for having me.
Shelby Stanger:
You completed the fastest known time of the Appalachian Trail, 40 days, 18 hours, and five minutes, beating the previous record is set by Karl Sabbe, who we interviewed, by 13 hours. How did it all feel? How has it felt since then? I mean, it's been a couple months and you've been on a whirlwind tour.
Tara Dower:
Yeah, no, it's been nearly three months now since I completed the trail. And recovery wise, I feel great. I just did a 50k over the weekend and I feel incredible. I got second overall and got a PR, so I feel really good mentally and physically.
Shelby Stanger:
So you were always outdoorsy growing up. How did you find ultra running?
Tara Dower:
So when I was in college, I mean it started by watching a documentary about the Appalachian Trail, and that's how this entire trail career, is what I call it, started, is watching this documentary and having that curiosity and that fascination with the trail and this footpath that goes from Georgia to Maine. It's such a long footpath. So I had that curiosity, and so after I thru-hiked it in 2019, I realized my love for the trails. I realized my love for these outdoor spaces and how I wanted to spend most of my time out there. And so I was like, "What can I do? What's a hobby I can get into?" And FKTs, or fastest known times/ultra running came into my life, and pretty much ever since 2020, 2021, I've just been on the trails enjoying nature.
Shelby Stanger:
Okay, so you hiked the Appalachian Trail in 2019. It changed your life. Had you ever done a thru-hike before or was that your first one?
Tara Dower:
Yeah. Well, in 2017 I attempted to thru-hike and had a panic attack eight days in and had to get off the trail. I realized it was not how I wanted to experience the trail because I was suffering from some untreated anxiety and had this panic attack and it really scared me. And at that time, I had told everybody that I was going to be a thru-hiker. That was my goal, was to be a thru-hiker of the Appalachian Trail. And that dream died so quickly and it was not how I viewed this experience. I'd built it up in my head so much, by the time I failed, it was just so devastating.
Shelby Stanger:
Had you done thru-hiking before?
Tara Dower:
No, no. I had done section hikes, done 60 miles with some friends. I did a 40-mile section hike with my mom. It was always just a couple days out there, but it was never any thru-hiking.
Shelby Stanger:
What made you want to just do this whole thing?
Tara Dower:
Yeah. Well, in 2013 when I learned about the trail, I just wanted to be a thru-hiker and not a section hiker. I'd wanted to complete this thing in one fell swoop. And I am somebody who is very challenge oriented, and so a thru-hike, being out there for five to seven months seemed like a big challenge. And it also seemed like a really cool adventure. It came to a point where it was more about telling people that I was a thru-hiker, and that's why I think in 2017 I failed because it was no longer about the journey it had become, "I want to complete this challenge. I want that check mark. I want to tell people I'm a thru-hiker," and I lost sight of why I was out there in the first place, which was to enjoy the journey, enjoy the community, and the culture of that trail.
Shelby Stanger:
Why do you think you had that panic attack? Because that's pretty gnarly.
Tara Dower:
Yeah. I had no clue my anxiety was that intense. I knew I had anxiety. My parents struggle with anxiety. It's very much part of our lives, but I thought from the experience I've had section hiking, I thought this would be just such a neat adventure. I wouldn't feel that anxiety. I got out there and the first couple days was okay, but as I kept going, I started missing family more often, and then I felt this sense of dread and the sense of doom that I couldn't quite put my finger on. I just felt like I couldn't calm down. It wasn't like I was feeling unsafe or was like I was uncomfortable. I was physically okay. Mentally, I couldn't put a finger on why I was feeling this sense of dread and doom.
So on that eighth morning when I woke up in my tent, I think I had just built up all this anxiety in my body and I woke up and didn't know what was happening at first, but I had chest pains, I had a migraine. I felt like something was sitting on my chest, honestly, and I felt like I couldn't breathe. I was hyperventilating, and it was all of a sudden, as soon as I woke up. So I think all that anxiety just built up in me. And then this panic attack happened, and I didn't understand what a panic attack was at the time, this tunnel vision, this dread and doom. And I went to the doctor once I got home and he was like, "Yeah, that was a panic attack."
Shelby Stanger:
Yeah. That must have been terrifying.
Tara Dower:
So I can't put my finger on what exactly caused it. It was just this sense of dread and it was not how I wanted to experience the trail, which I've talked about was kind of the most important thing in my life at the time. So I think I really had to... Over a couple years, it wasn't perfect... After 2017 when I worked on my anxiety and went back in 2019, my anxiety wasn't perfect and I still wasn't okay, but I knew my triggers and I knew what to focus on, my motivations. And over time, I have found a lot of solace in nature. And now at this point in my life, I feel like that is the most at peace I am, when I'm in nature and on trails.
Shelby Stanger:
When Tara returned to the Appalachian Trail in 2019, she'd learned a number of tools to help her manage her anxiety. She used techniques like focusing on the ground under her feet or squeezing gravel in her hand to help her connect with the present moment. With these tools, she was able to complete the entire 2,190 mile thru-hike in 2019, which was a deeply rewarding experience. Tara found that spending time in the old Appalachian Mountains surrounded by nature was both grounding and transformative. Along the way, she also met other thru-hikers who've become some of her closest friends.
Just out of curiosity, what's your trail name?
Tara Dower:
Candy Mama.
Shelby Stanger:
It all makes sense now. Tell me how you got the name. When did you get it?
Tara Dower:
I think it was about a month into the thru-hike. I would just eat a lot of candy. Airheads was my candy of choice, and I just mom'd everyone too, like, "Oh, you're tired. You probably have Lyme's disease. Do you have any ticks on you? Have you eaten today? Have you drank?" And honestly, it was kind of annoying. Looking back, I'm like, I would hate somebody who's up my butt all the time. But for the candy, I went back to the dentist after completing the trail and I had six cavities.
Shelby Stanger:
Oh, no.
Tara Dower:
Yeah. So that's how much candy I ate, just so much.
Shelby Stanger:
Tara's time on the trail solidified her love for endurance adventures. After thru-hiking the AT, Tara became a backpacking guide and her boss introduced her to ultra running and fastest known times, or FKTs. In 2020, she decided to attempt an FKT on the Mountains-to-Sea trail, which spans the entire state of North Carolina. Tara ended up beating the previous record holder and realized that she could compete with some seriously talented athletes. With this new confidence, Tara began to enter ultra marathons while continuing to break speed records on trails around the country. In 2022, she set the FKT for the Benton MacKaye Trail, which travels through Georgia, Tennessee, and North Carolina. That run inspired her next wild idea.
Tara Dower:
Benton MacKaye was the father of the Appalachian Trail. So I set the fastest known time on this 289 mile Benton MacKaye Trail. And when I finished, it was like four days and change, and I set the overall record and I thought to myself, "I feel okay. I'm tired and I'm hungry, and I could probably sleep for days, but if I had to keep going, I could probably keep going." And that's where the idea sparked. And so I just had this desire to do something big, this big adventure like the Appalachian Trail. And I knew from my career being an ultra athlete, I was developing my body to get to that point. I also felt like the stars were aligning. I was meeting these people in this Appalachian Trail FKT community. I was becoming friends and creating relationships with these people who are very involved with this FKT, and it almost seemed like the stars were aligning. My body was developing in a way that could bring me down these trails quickly and I was making friends with people who were involved in that community, and it almost just seemed like the trail was calling me back.
Shelby Stanger:
Over the last five years, Tara Dower has become a well-known ultra marathoner and trail runner. She's won countless races and holds the fastest known times for routes all over the U.S. In 2024, Tara hit the headlines again for completing the fastest known time for the Appalachian Trail, a goal that she'd been hoping to achieve for over two years. Karl Sabbe held the previous record, and Tara studied his approach carefully. Preparing for the FKT attempt took a lot of work, and luckily, Tara had plenty of help. Her friend and fellow thru-hiker, Rascal, helped with logistics. Her mom was in charge of food, and Pacers kept her company on the trail. So walk us through the logistics. Tell me what day you started, what time you would start each day. Let's go through a day.
Tara Dower:
Yeah. Well, typically, I would wake up at 3:00 AM, and Rascal and I slept together pretty much the entire FKT. So we had a van and we also had a tent. Those were two sleeping situations. But I'd wake up at 3:00 AM. Rascal would hand feed me because I had to prepare my feet. I would put Leukotape on my feet, I'd put my shoes on. That usually took a long time because the feet hurt pretty bad.
Shelby Stanger:
What do you mean?
Tara Dower:
Well, there was a lot of sores and blisters, and there's two distinct holes in my feet that we just filled with Neosporin, hoping that they didn't start to get infected. But yeah, my feet were in a lot of pain.
Shelby Stanger:
So Rascal would spoon-feed you? What would she feed you?
Tara Dower:
Yeah, we would have pastries or oatmeal, really anything that was going to get me that 500 calories for breakfast. So I would put the Leukotape on. I would pretty much get going by 3:30 AM, and I'd meet the crew about six to seven times a day, and I would drink a protein shake and have a little meal with them every time I saw them at a road crossing. And then I would pretty much stay moving for 17 and a half hours on average, a day, get to the van or get to the tent at night and be hand fed again, wash my feet, and then get into bed.
And something I actually learned from several podcasts Karl Sabbe did, is that he mentioned that you want to stay as close to an average amount of miles as possible. So I wanted to stay as close to that 54 mile per day average as possible. So what that looked like is having Rascal and JP hike up camping gear to wherever we wanted to stop for that night and setting up camp, and I would just walk in to the camp and they would clean my feet, hand feed me, and I'd go to bed in the tent. So 18 out of the 40 days I was sleeping in the tent.
Shelby Stanger:
And you only showered three times the whole time?
Tara Dower:
I only showered three times. That's correct.
Shelby Stanger:
So did you use baby wipes?
Tara Dower:
Well, no. I actually didn't wash my body that often. Only those three times that I washed my actual body. But every day I would wash my feet at least once during the day. I would wash it with soap and get new socks, clean socks on, and new shoes on. But at night, I would have somebody else cleaning my feet. So we'd do more thorough cleaning, washing with antibacterial soap, and then we'd powder the feet or put an ointment on the feet. I'm definitely a student of Karl Sabbe, so when he said how important foot care was, I really took that to heart. And knowing how my feet looked when I was taking really good care of them during this FKT, I can't imagine what they would look like if I wasn't taking as good care of them. So I was cleaning my feet pretty much twice a day, but my body, it didn't really matter. I was going to be dirty and smelly anyways, so it didn't matter how often I cleaned my body or my hair.
Shelby Stanger:
How did you entertain yourself during 50 miles a day?
Tara Dower:
I don't know. I was incredibly entertained and content being out there. I think a lot of people think that this FKT was so hard and arduous. And I was always tired and injured, but that couldn't be further from the truth. I really enjoy the Appalachian Trail. I enjoy those mountains. So oftentimes I was just so happy to be out there among nature and hanging out with other people. I'd have pacers with me, people who would run with me, hold my food and water, and we would tell stories and talk, and I would listen to music. So I had a great time out there.
Shelby Stanger:
This is so refreshing. I've interviewed a lot of people who've been motivated by pain, but lately, some of the most successful people I've interviewed... And I'll give Courtney Dauwalter as an example.
Tara Dower:
Oh, love her.
Shelby Stanger:
They're motivated like you are, by joy. And it's such a paradigm shift between the old way of no pain, no gain to now how athletes are achieving such great success like you, and it's really refreshing. So I'm getting very heartwarming sensations listening to your story, and I'm so glad that it was joyful and that you weren't in pain and that it was just fun. But I did read this fun fact that some of your teammates told you stories, you sang some songs to yourself.
Tara Dower:
Yeah. I mean, there was so much storytelling on the trail. Oftentimes, I didn't want to talk. I would just want to listen. So I'd ask pacers who came in to tell stories or to talk about maybe their day or the day before. "What's going on in the world? Tell me what is happening." I just wanted to get in the know. So there was a lot of storytelling. There was a lot of singing. I listened to two soundtracks in particular, it was La La Land and Moulin Rouge. And I listened to those so often, and they worked so well to keep me entertained, but also awake. I would sing along with these soundtracks, and by the end of the FKT, it kind of became this jail because that was the only thing that was working to keep me awake. And it was like, "I don't really want to sing this for the hundredth time, but here we are. It's going to work."
Shelby Stanger:
In addition to her core support team, Tara also received a lot of encouragement and assistance from the thru-hiking and trail running communities. A total of 40 people came out to the trail to help Tara with the FKT, and about half of them were total strangers she'd connected with on the internet. People saw that Tara had the potential to break this record, and they wanted to help her to make it happen.
Was there any random moments on the trail? I know when Alex Honnold climbed El Cap, someone ran out dressed as a unicorn. Did you have any trail magic or weirdness?
Tara Dower:
There was a lot of trail magic. I mean, we would have people come out and bring... I had a list of foods on my website of foods that me and the crew love to eat. We had somebody buy every single thing on that list, like $500 worth of groceries and bring all of these groceries out to us. We'd didn't even ask this person to do it. They just showed up with all of these foods. They showed up with brownies their wife made. It was incredible. There was also this point... There was this guy in New Jersey who came out to pace me two days in a row, and the first day I was like, "Oh, I could really use some cookies, good chocolate chip, homemade cookies," and he was like, "Bet." And the next day his wife showed up with homemade cookies. They were the best.
Shelby Stanger:
Amazing, amazing. I love trail magic.
Tara Dower:
Yeah, there was a lot of people that just came out from the internet that I met through social media. I put out a call out there to people on my Instagram, like, "If you're interested in pacing or coming out to help in any way, just sign up on this call sheet and we'll call you if we need you." And people knew my tracking information. There's public tracking so people could find me on the trail or find me at road crossings and just come to pace for a section or a couple days.
Shelby Stanger:
It's cool how public you are, and yet you're not concerned about safety.
Tara Dower:
Yeah. Well, it has taken a long time to get to that point to where I felt comfortable putting my tracking information out there. I felt so comfortable because I did have so many people who I knew personally that were also out there with me, and I also know I can run faster than most people if I needed to. But yeah, I created a lot of deep relationships with these random people though. There was a lot of moments, especially in the White Mountains, where I met my pacer... She was a mutual friend, Maya, and we went thru the toughest section on the Appalachian Trail together in the worst weather. I met her that day and I cried so much in front of her, and she was so compassionate. And we just have that now. We have that relationship now. We went through a really hard time together, and she paced the next day. She wasn't tired of me. She came back the next day and paced me again, so I'm really thankful for that.
Shelby Stanger:
What was that awful weather? What was the worst weather you had?
Tara Dower:
Oh my gosh, it was just raining so much. And in the White Mountains where it's just very rocky and the rocks get really slick, it's dangerous to go quick on those trails with such slick rocks. There's these mud bridges and mud pits, and you have to navigate these mud pits. I fell in one of the mud pits, mud splashing on my face. I just disassociated after that point. I mean, it gets dark and you're running through the rain and it's cold and it's wet. At this point, I had been cold and wet for like six, seven days straight. I hadn't seen the sun for more than four minutes.
Shelby Stanger:
Yeah, it sounds miserable.
Tara Dower:
Yeah, it was miserable.
Shelby Stanger:
Was there any parts where you doubted yourself and you're like, "I don't think I'm going to do this"?
Tara Dower:
Oh, yeah. I didn't know I was going to set the FKT until about three miles to the end. I didn't believe it was possible until that point. And then when I got to nearly the end, I was like, "Wow, this is exciting. This is going to happen." Because I mean, the thinking there was, with racing, it's not over until it's over. I've been passed with a quarter mile left in a 50k race, so anything could happen during these races or during these FKTs. I fell very often. I fell so violently that I was so nervous I was going to dislocate a shoulder or break a kneecap, and then I wouldn't be able to finish, and that was a reality up until those last three miles. Once I got to those last three miles, I was like, "At least I can crawl to the end and have enough time to finish." But before that, I was so sure it wasn't going to happen.
God willing, incident [inaudible 00:24:58] and injury [inaudible 00:24:59] hopefully make it there by 11:00 or 12:00 PM, which is late, but finish the [inaudible 00:25:12] hike. That's exciting. Let's do it.
Shelby Stanger:
Despite Tara's disbelief, she reached the finish line of the Appalachian Trail on September 21st, 2024. After running for 40 days, 18 hours and six minutes. Tara has created a video series about her record-breaking FKT on her YouTube channel. Tara Treks. That's T-A-R-A T-R-E-K-S. Tara's run also raised $100,000 for the national nonprofit, Girls on the Run. You can learn more about that on her Instagram at Tara.Dower. That's T-A-R-A.D-O-W-E-R.
Wild Ideas Worth Living is part of the REI podcast network. It's hosted by me, Shelby Stanger, produced by Annie Fassler, Sylvia Thomas, and Sam Pierce-Nitzberg of Puddle Creative. Our senior producers are Jenny Barber and Hannah Boyd. Our executive producers are Paolo Mottola and Joe Crosby. As always, we love it when you follow the show, take time to rate it and write a review wherever you listen. And remember, some of the best adventures happen when you follow your wildest ideas.