FKT Attempt on The Appalachian Trail Underway

Coached by David Roche. Im not expecting success.

JK is one of the most successful Barkley runners, but you've got to really move on the AT going Nobo.

6 days in. Already sore quads. Better adapt quickly

I suppose these ultra guys think they are like Daniel Boone and other pioneers who cut these trails, fighting off grizzly bears every step of the way.

Now nearly every American grizzly bear has been killed. The Russians have pretty much all the bears. The Appalachian trail is a meaningless feature of pure geography. Are there snakes, at least? Rattlers, not copperheads

does the great Wild Card Ninja still hold this FKT?

There are rattlesnakes, don’t fret

Who is the current record holder ?

Belgian dentist Karel Sabbe ?

Yes. I think he did it southbound though.

Current record holder is coached by Megan Roche.

Don’t know why the downvotes this site is ridiculously idiotic. I don’t care about Roche, but it’s a fact Megan coaches Tara Dower, who holds the overall record. You don’t separate NOBO and SOBO records. People consider Tara the time to beat.

I believe that a very tough, gnarly section in the White Mountains has recently been rerouted, so I'm not sure how that affects setting a course record?

To me that's one of the reasons why the AT FKT is a joke. The actual trail distance changes constantly as the different sections get rerouted.

The PCT is actually far worse with climate change. Forest fires are always rerouting that trail. AT is better in comparison.

Climate Chnage? No such thing, idiot.

This coming from someone who can't spell "change" correctly.

I can, and I do.

🤡

Great but who cares. You aren’t fastestknowntime.com and I doubt you ever tried to run the AT.

What a clown post.

Do you think that only referees and players can have an opinion on rules in the NFL?

Duhhhhhhhhhh.

🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡

I don't know about Tara Dower, but for someone like John Kelly who we know has been very methodical about his training, I'd guess that any connection with David Roche is probably just to have another set of eyes on his training to provide outside feedback.

I saw David Norris's Insta stories yesterday include a clip of Roche cheering his US Mountain Running Championships win and calling him a SWAP athlete. But Norris surely knows how to train, having been the #1 US distance cross country skier multiple times at Worlds/World Cups and who also provides coaching services himself, so getting and additional set of eyes to avoid self-coaching mistakes is my guess there too (though Norris has that from his Olympian wife too).

Maybe? At some level all runners past college are probably somewhat capable of coaching themselves. But I've been following this FKT attempt and Kelly posted an "ode to David Roche" on Instagram a few days ago so he considers Roche to be important.

I haven't wasted much time on the anti-Roche threads on this site, but I've seen enough to know that there is a pocket of trolls who have it out for the guy. All I know is that the Roches coach a bunch of top American ultra and mountain runners and from Instagram they seem to love them.