Year: 2024
Award: Ultra Running, Professional
Location/Affiliation: Boulder, Colorado
- Set Appalachian Trail Speed Record
- Raised over $100,000 for Girls on the Run
Two-thousand, one hundred, and ninety-seven miles. Four-hundred and sixty-five thousand feet in vertical elevation gain. That’s the complete length of the Appalachian Trail. Most people take about six months to complete it. But, our honoree in ultra-running, Boulder’s Tara Dower, did it in just over a month! The fastest known time. Ever. Tara faced intense hallucinations and severe sleep deprivation, while averaging 54-miles a day of hiking, running, climbing and descending. She did all that 17 grueling hours a day… for 40 days, 18 hours, and 5 minutes. Which set the new Appalachian Trail Speed record. Not a new “women’s” record. The new record, period. Tara’s goal was to finish in under 41 days. Done!
And, to raise a minimum of $20,000 for Girls on the Run. Surpassed – pulling in over $100,000. Long, challenging trail runs are nothing new for Tara … she’s also recorded the fastest known time for completing the Colorado Trail. For all that, Tara Dower is our unstoppable Ultra Runner.
