Montgomery County Native Sets Appalachian Trail Speed Record

MONTGOMERY COUNTY, PA — History was made last week as a Montgomery County native took her final steps up the blustery slope of Maine's famed Mt. Katahdin, the scraggly and gnarled terminus of one of the nation's most-storied long-distance trails.

Some 51 days, 16 hours and 30 minutes before, Liz Anjos, raised in Schwenksville and now a resident of Portland, Oregon, had embarked on foot from Springer Mountain in Georgia. Her pace set a new "fastest known time" for women running the trail in the northbound direction, and it was the second-fastest-ever time for a woman behind legendary trail runner Jennifer Pharr Davis.

"My nearly 52 days spent on the Appalachian Trail were like a hyperlapse of rising and falling suns, moons, stars, storms, calm, mountains, valleys ... it wasn’t so much a daily endeavor, but more like a singular continuous stretch, moving ever forward," Anjos wrote of her odyssey.

Anjos, a professional musician who finds time to train between classical pianist performances and high school coaching duties in Oregon, spent much of the past year preparing for the attempt. She said she was supported with gear and supplies along the way by Warren Doyle, an Appalachian Trail educator and former record holder himself back in 1973.

Her early pace in the opening days of her attempt was also historic, according to FKT, an online network and unofficial governing body that tracks, reports on and certifies records on trails across the country and around the world. She ran 69.2 miles on her first day, FKT said, putting her 13 ahead of Davis. For the entire length of the mountainous and rugged trail, she averaged about 42 miles per day.

With an elite pedigree in the marathon (2:51 lifetime best) and high placings in a handful of the county's more notorious ultramarathons over the past few years, the physical ability to make a run at the record was not in question. But this type of venture requires a level of mental fortitude and skill in outdoor survival logistics unparalleled in most other forms of competition.

"I felt so confident and prepared going into it, but I don’t think anything could have prepared me for what I was about to endure, other than doing 'the thing' itself," she wrote. "I thought I knew, but I had no idea. I learned and grew in a way I never have."

Her final time was second only to Davis' 2011 speed record of 46 days, 11 hours, and 20 minutes, which was done in the southbound direction. At the time, Davis' record was the fastest that anyone, male or female, had ever run the AT in any direction, with any level of support. Anjos' time also places her high on the all-time list for both men and women.

The Appalachian Trail has seen several of its speed records fall in recent years. Karel Sabbe, a Belgian dentist, set the present overall record of 41 days, 7 hours and 39 minutes in August 2018.