I like that shirt
Karl just posted on Facebook and updated his site.
"One week down on the trail and less than 2,000 miles remain. The running is good and the bacon is even better...follow along at redbull.com/atrun"
Distance Covered: 273.97
Actually, there is a journal being kept on the Red Bull site. Just scroll down to the map and then click on the blue tab that says "read more from the trail". Here an excerpt from Day 1
Day One started early from Mount Katahdin and Karl was ready to go. He pounded out the first leg of the journey with unbelievable timing, surprising our crew by arriving two hours early off a near 10 mile stretch. Karl had his first bumps and bruises as well, falling twice on the rocky mountain trail but still finished three hours ahead of schedule. As expected, Karl was exhausted by the end of the day and in bed as soon as possible (after eating some pasta of course!) so he could be up at 4 a.m. for Day Two.
wana pass the popcorn
Nice Chair-man, I totally missed that on the site. Passing the popcorn.Originally Posted by Chair-man
Sounds like Scott and Jenny better get busy and fry up some more bacon for Karl. Score one for ancestral health vs veganism!
"The running is good and the bacon is even better.."
The notes give his first firm bencark. He reached the Kennebec river at the end of day 3.
The Redbull site has been updated. Not sure what day but he has completed 416.27 miles. Today is day 10 of his hike.
wheres the spreadsheets guys? come on!
Yes - Spreadsheet guy - can you work your magic?
Here are the details posted for the first seven days:
Day 1 - 8/3/16 Mt. Katahdin, ME
Day One started early from Mount Katahdin and Karl was ready to go. He pounded out the first leg of the journey with unbelievable timing, surprising our crew by arriving two hours early off a near 10 mile stretch. Karl had his first bumps and bruises as well, falling twice on the rocky mountain trail but still finished three hours ahead of schedule. As expected, Karl was exhausted by the end of the day and in bed as soon as possible (after eating some pasta of course!) so he could be up at 4 a.m. for Day Two.
Day 2 - 8/4/16 Maine
Karl’s spirits were high after dominating Day One. He spent the morning smiling and making jokes with our crew. He has been early at every stop since the beginning of the attempt and was very optimistic for the day. The day continued smoothly until the second to last stop where Karl mentioned his neck was bothering him. Our crew had some adventures of their own - the truck got stuck trying to access the final check-in location on the gnarly backcountry access roads. Overall, a successful start to the journey.
Day 3 - 8/5/16 Kennebec River, ME
Karl is happy! Well, as happy as a man can be for running 50+ miles a day. He decided to go ahead and run an extra 12 or so miles to the Kennebec River to catch the River Ferry (canoe) across the App Trail river crossing. Hikers are advised to take the ferry in order to avoid the dangerous currents and for Karl, keeping his feet dry is key.
Day 4 - 8/6/16 Kennebec River, ME
The optimism continued for a third consecutive morning and Karl livened up the 4:45 a.m. wake up call making jokes with our crew while he drank his coffee. Great news, the ferry driver was early! For Karl, every second counts. He started on the other side of the Kennebec River around 6:15 a.m., three hours ahead of his planned schedule. Mother Nature was Karl’s friend today - he cooled off thanks to some rain in the area. Per usual, he ended the day ahead of schedule and rolled into camp happy, even picking up litter that hikers had left behind. He got into bed early which is always critical. More rest = better performance.
Day 5 - 8/7/16 Maine
Smooth day. However...the weather? Not so smooth. There were heavy rainstorms and showers which caused Karl to arrive right at his expected time for the first time. Karl Sr. (Karl’s dad and a part of the crew) greeted him at the finish and even hiked the last mile out with him. The biggest highlight of the day was the arrival of his wife Cheryl! We’re currently somewhere in the Maine wilderness, near the Canadian border (cell reception thanks to the top of a mountain!). Today’s last stretch was the most intense part of the hike yet and it will only get more intense over the next couple of days.
Day 6 - 8/8/16 Grafton Notch, Maine
Karl began Day Six after a cold and wet night. The terrain for the next few days will be extremely rough as Karl has to nearly climb his way up mountains. His timing was on schedule and he continues to hit his marked destinations. Tomorrow Karl will be venturing through what is known as the “toughest mile,” on the AT.
Day 7 - 8/9/16 Gorham, New Hampshire
No rain in the area today. However, the trail is now getting into rocky terrain. This is one of the most technical parts of the AT as hikers have to use a combination of bouldering and hiking. Also noteworthy is that there still ice on the ground...in August.
The trek through Mahoosuc Notch and Success Mt. This span of terrain is intense and Mahoosuc Notch is known as the, "hardest mile," on the AT. This was a crew day as Karl's support team pushed in two spots he didn't get crewed on his last attempt. This is not only huge for Karl's moral on the trail and knowing someone's always there but also in replenishing his body with full meals. Karl's demeanor was very good for someone who faced such obstacles. He moved at an efficient pace through a challenging environment, which sets the pace for his leg tomorrow.
Just saying... :-)
“He is richest who is content with the least, for content is the wealth of nature.” –Socrates
He he he ...
Colorless green ideas sleep furiously.
It looks as if Karl was at Crawford Notch at the end of day eight Mile 345.4. How does that compare to where JPD was after eight days?
At the end of day 8 JPD was at Mt. Washington, 332 miles.
This is the Daily log for Jennifer Pharr-Davis 2011 AT record hike (supported):
Day 1 (June 15): Katahdin to Jo Mary Road -- 56 miles (56 total) (started 4:06 AM)
Day 2 (June 16): Jo Mary Road to location near Long Pond Stream ford -- 44 miles (100 total)
Day 3 (June 17): Long Pond Stream ford to Boise Cascade Logging Road -- 46 miles (146 total)
Day 4 (June 18): Boise Cascade Logging Road to ME 27 (Stratton) -- 42 miles (188 total)
Day 5 (June 19): ME27 (Stratton) to Sabbath Day Pond -- 41 miles (229 total)
Day 6 (June 20): Sabbath Day Pond to Grafton Notch -- 38 miles (267 total)
Day 7 (June 21): Grafton Notch to Gorham NH -- 31 miles (298 total)
Day 8 (June 22): Gorham to Mt. Washington -- 34 miles (332 total)
Day 9 (June 23): Mt. Washington to Gale River Trail Junction -- 30 miles (362 total)
Day 10 (June 24): Gale River Trail Junction to Glencliff -- 38 miles (400 total)
Day 11 (June 25): Glencliff to Hanover -- 43 miles (443 total)
Day 12 (June 26): Hanover to dirt road near Stony Brook Shelter -- 36 miles (479 total)
Makes sense he is a bit ahead, since Karl is a runner and he had lots of flat terrain in ME to make big miles, and JPD basically walked most of the trail. Maybe she did a bit of running in the flat parts of the 100-mile?
Anyway, it always amazes me comparing JPD to these ultra runners and how magnificently well she did.
We'll see how he holds up, this is fun stuff to follow!
Here is Jen's full sheet... been a while but IIRC;
MPD was what was reported generally or in her book.
CA-MPD was what Brew wrote down and appeared to be slightly more accurate.
It would indeed be magic, lol. As of now there aren't really any data points to spread on a sheet. I think Odd Man Out identified the first reliable one, Angle has a second. But that's 2 out of 8 days.
Data point one then has him going 50.67 MPD, Data point two has him dropping down to 43.125 MPD if correct.
If you compare those to JPD-
She was averaging 48.63 MPD after 3 days and 41.5 MPD at day eight. A slight edge for Karl to be sure.
On day 9, she posted her worst day of the trip- 27.8.
It is worth nothing that she was not doing well at all and didn't really recover until she cleared Vermont if I remember right- roughly day 15/16. 600 ish miles in.
From there on out her "bad" days were 46 MPD or so.
She averaged about 50.
Nothing against Karl at all- but he has quite correctly said that for him- everything has to go right to have a shot.
He's got a slight edge on the daily's- but that's compared to someone who was struggling badly enough that they almost quit.
I wouldn't get too excited- other than seems he's had good weather and things are more or less going according to plan thus far.
Continued best to Karl!
I hope he gets it, I hope he does it with Jurek by his side too.
Stories like that are good for all of us.
If the oppressive heat a bit farther south continues, he's going to be challenged to maintain record pace...
“He is richest who is content with the least, for content is the wealth of nature.” –Socrates
Checked it real quick-
JPD-
Days 1-15= average of 40.82 (Big K to VT/MA border)
Days 16-46= average of 49.5 (tossed out her final half day)
Her overall for 46 days is an interestingly coincidental 46.xx MPD.
If Scott beat her by 3 hours- we can more or less call his trip the same trip as I don't think anyone sat down to work his splits out. He clearly didn't do any better up north on his sleepwalking masterpiece
The only real spot to improve on her time is day 4-14... 38MPD average or so over about 418 miles of trail.
So let's give Karl a theoretical win there and say he holds a 43MPD average-
418/38= 11 days even
418/43=9.72 days
That's a 1.28 day improvement overall...
Which is more or less the scenario that both Scott Jurek and Karl have said (after Scott's hike) would be the "Perfect Trip" and about the limit of possibility- basically a 45 day trip.
Karl basically has the first 15 days to beat it- then he has to hold on for dear life for the next 30 days.
Saw this this am on a trail journal. They stayed at Guilford State Park Sat, night posted this yesterday. Storm's journal
In the first mile we stopped at Thundering Falls which is the highest waterfall on the AT in Vermont. It was really pretty and was flowing well with all the water from last nights storms. We passed the guy heading southbound who is going for the supported record of the AT. He is running literally.
I saw that on Storm's journal also. Thundering Falls is at mile482.9, but Karl's site has had 500.37 miles completed since sometime Saturday morning I believe. I'll need to pay better attention when they update that figure.
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