When Sarah Baker stepped onto the Appalachian Trail’s southern terminus in Georgia this April, she had an ambitious plan. The 43-year-old Tennessean hoped to unseat the self-supported female record held by Heather Anderson, who ran the 2,190-mile trail in about 54 days back in 2015.
Baker felt she had a decent shot at pulling it off. After all, she has earned three other FKTs (fastest known times) all on various sections of America’s most popular thru-hike. And for the first few weeks, she was averaging an impressive pace of 35 miles a day — or more.
But it’s hard to avoid any setbacks during a months-long effort like this one. On Day 20, Baker fell seriously ill, likely with norovirus. It was only the first of several unplanned obstacles for Baker’s dream of entering the small club of elite trail runners.
“I’ve always had a problem with trying to control everything. I said to God, ‘I will give you control if you help me get a record,’” a laughing Baker told GearJunkie this week.
Despite nearly dying from heat, cold, and starvation, Baker arrived at the trail’s northern terminus this July with a new FKT — though not the one she’d hoped for.
A Viral Setback
Baker isn’t sure how she got sick. She only knows that on Day 20, she woke up in a hostel in Pearisburg, Va., to projectile vomiting and a high fever. She’d only planned on staying one night to clean up after running hundreds of miles without a shower. Even sick, Baker wasn’t able to stay in bed.
The hostel’s managers weren’t keen on having a sick traveler spreading infection, so they dropped her back off on the trail. Baker spent the next several days stealth camping on the trail as she recovered.
It was during this period (June 4) that ultrarunning legend John Kelly passed by Baker’s camping spot. Kelly was on track to set a new FKT for the trail, toppling the incredible 40-day record that Tara Dower set last year. But an ankle injury dashed Kelly’s hopes. As for Baker, she never even got to meet the endurance athlete — she was too worried about getting him sick.
Once her illness had finally passed, Baker wasn’t certain she wanted to continue. There was likely no chance of beating Heather Anderson’s 54-day record — but Anderson earned that FKT moving southbound. By starting in the south, Baker still had a shot at setting a new female record for the northbound route.
She wasn’t sure even that was possible. Given the loss of fat reserves from the illness, Baker would now be moving forward at a deficit. Despite a deep desire to go home, Baker listened to the encouragement of her coach, friends, and family, and got back on the trail.
A Self-Supported Trail Run
FKT records on trails like the AT are divided into three categories: supported, self-supported, and unsupported. Supported FKTs, like marathons, allow athletes to use any external help. Self-supported FKT attempts prohibit external support, but allow athletes to use public resources like stores, mail drops, or help from strangers. Unsupported FKTs require athletes to carry everything and prohibit any external help or access to resources.
Within those categories, the gender gap has largely disappeared. Dower’s AT record was supported — but it’s also the fastest time that any man or woman has ever managed.
To conquer the trail with a self-supported record, Baker followed the longtime strategy of thru-hikers: mailing food to various resupply locations in small towns along the way. That meant walking extra miles to reach the supplies and return to the trail.
A self-supported record is also more dangerous. When she reached Virginia’s Grayson Highlands, for example, Baker nearly froze from a spat of cold rain. In that moment, her fleece and LightHeart Gear rain jacket likely saved her life. And that wasn’t the worst weather she faced along the way.
“The hardest thing was how long I went between showers, the bugs, and the record-breaking heat wave I encountered in Pennsylvania,” Baker wrote in a trip report for Fastest Known Time.
Worried about polluting local streams, Baker didn’t even bathe in natural water sources along the trail. That was rough, she said, but still not as debilitating as the heat in Pennsylvania this summer. It was so intense that she had the trail all to herself — everyone else quickly abandoned it. To keep herself hydrated, Baker combined water with Salt Stick Electrolyte Capsules, which also contain some caffeine.
“I allowed God to take control and he walked with me all the way to Katahdin [the trail’s northern terminus],” Baker said. “There were times I felt completely void of the ability to go on, but somehow I did, albeit very slow at the end.”
Dying to Reach the End
As Baker hiked through New Hampshire’s White Mountains, she felt her body hit a new low. She had no fat left, and food could not sustain her. She felt weak and dizzy as she trekked through the uphill climbs. Her Z-Packs Sub-Nero pack, usually flush with food, was now empty save for what she needed to camp.
When she finally arrived in Maine’s 100-Mile Wilderness, the second-to-last leg of the journey, Baker begged hikers for something to eat. She had eaten everything she’d sent to herself before starting, and now she was literally starving. A few section hikers gave her some GORP, or trail mix, and that was just enough to push Baker to the trail’s end on Mount Katahdin.
Despite everything, Baker finished the journey in 74 days, 4 hours, and 42 minutes. That wasn’t nearly fast enough to beat the 54-day record set by Heather Anderson on the southbound trail. However, Baker’s effort still set a new FKT for a self-supported woman on the northbound trail, beating the 80-day record set by Elizabeth Thomas in 2011.
Perhaps more importantly, it earns Baker a spot on the same FKT page as modern legends like Heather Anderson, Tara Dower, and Joe “Stringbean” McConaughy.
And like any ambitious runner, a week of rest already has her head spinning with future possibilities. Knowing that she overcame such a painful ordeal, Baker is more certain of her ability to come back stronger.
“I’m just so grateful for the experience and that I was able to persevere,” she said. “That’s what I would want people to know: It made me a grateful human.”
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