Earlier I reported that Kilian Jornet was planning to go for the fabled John Muir Trail record. He is one of the best mountain runners in the world, so that was big news. I suggested that he had the talent to crush the existing record, but his planning was questionable.
The latter turned out to be the case … his team discovered that in the US, access to public land is not guaranteed, and athletic achievement is not encouraged as it is in Europe. You can’t say, “Hey, I’ve trained for this for months, I going to see how fast I can run this, now can I please have a permit?” Not only will this not work, but it will probably backfire.
In short, they couldn’t get a permit to run the John Muir Trail. So they’re going to try the Tahoe Rim Trail instead.
The website describing this effort is so over-the-top and filled with hype, that it’s impossible to figure out what he’s actually doing. However, sources say he’s going to start early this Monday morning. As in all his runs, he will have massive support from his sponsor Solomon, including pacers, and probably a video crew. The current record is 45 hrs 45 mins set by Tim Twietmeyer in 2005; he should be able take a minimum of 5 full hours off that. Hopefully, this will be practice for a JMT run next year.
Stay tuned.
Adventure Running 
September 25, 2009 at 9:07 am |
In the video, Killian talks about the challenge of running through two nights–I don’t think that is going to be an issue for him. Seriously, I won’t be surprised by a sub-36hr time. A lot of the TRT is really fast trail, and not a ton of vertical.
June 20, 2011 at 2:36 am |
nice video