I made it 13 miles into New York on my first thru attempt last year before finally deciding to call it quits. 100 degree temps at 10 in the morning plus exhaustion due to too much weight loss is what did it for me. I sort of regret it but I know I would have been miserable if I had kept pushing on. One day I'm going to hike the whole trail over again, and start earlier in the year so I don't feel like I have a time crunch--and so I don't get trapped in the mid-Atlantic states during an August heat wave.