Solving the Appalachian Trail Puzzle

As we ascend into the alpine on the Appalachian Trail (AT), the weather begins to deteriorate. After 4,000 feet of uphill we gain Madison Ridge, laughing and chatting as the sun begins to set. Above treeline, however, the wind and rain are so intense that we can no longer hold conversations. The boulder-strewn trail is so slippery that we can no longer hop with abandon. Our pace slows as darkness descends.

It’s August 8, and our group of five is in the Northern Presidential Mountains of New Hampshire, pacing 46-year-old British ultrarunner and coach Kristian Morgan on his fourth attempt to set a new fastest known time (FKT) on the Appalachian Trail. We head north from the Pinkham Notch on the route the trail takes up and over the summit of Mount Washington. At least, that’s the plan.

Morgan leads our group as we scamper across the summit of Mount Madison. Lightning strikes in the distance. I count four one-thousands before the thunder arrives, but any comfort is lost as we immediately hear a crackling noise. My exposed hair stands and tingles. The air is electric. We look at each other wide-eyed then spring into action, adrenalized. We need to get off this ridge as quickly as possible. Morgan disappears downhill, into the darkness of the mountain.

The Draw of the Appalachian Trail FKT

The Appalachian Trail is one of America’s premier long trails and the longest hiking-only footpath in the world. Traveling south, it runs 2,189 miles from Mount Katahdin in Maine, to Springer Mountain in Georgia, traversing 14 states and nearly half a million feet in elevation gain. The men’s FKT is hotly contested and has been previously held by ultrarunning luminaries like David Horton, Scott Jurek, and Karl Meltzer. Racing ultramarathons, however, does not necessarily equate to an easy time setting a new FKT on the AT.

“The major hiking trails have a history of famous ultrarunners who flail, every time, in their attempts to set new records,” said Buzz Burrell, founder of FastestKnownTime.com. “It’s actually uncommon for a famous ultrarunner to do well on a multi-day trail. These records are typically done by thru-hikers who have the methodology and, more importantly, respect for the trail.”

Currently, the AT’s overall record of 41 days, 7 hours, and 39 minutes—held by Belgian dentist Karel Sabbe—is considered out there in the stratosphere, nearly untouchable. Sabbe falls in that category of athlete who doesn’t have the traditional ultrarunning race success of Jurek or Meltzer, but has done exceptionally well on multi-day FKT efforts. His 2018 northbound record time shaved more than four days off of the previous best, which Joe McConaughy set unsupported in 2017.

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Morgan first became interested in the Appalachian Trail after being invited to help Sabbe on his 2018 record-breaking run. “As soon as I was there, I just fell in love,” he said. “From day 1 to day 15, I just thought, I’d love to do this.”

The following summer, Morgan, who is “UK born, Australian raised,” traveled back to the United States from his home in London for a first attempt at the record, with his mother and his cousin as crew members. He quit after six days, in Asheville, North Carolina. “Everything just felt off, wrong, and unorganized,” said Morgan.

“We were just so naive,” said Morgan’s crew chief and mother Sharon Mullen. “Looking back, it was a bit silly we even tried it.”

His plans for a 2020 attempt were thwarted by the pandemic, and Morgan instead set a new FKT on the UK’s longest official national trail, the South West Coast Path. In 2021, an injury drove him off the trail after having made it just a few miles further than the 2019 attempt.

Last year, in 2022, he finally finished the entire Appalachian Trail. Morgan credits very specific hill training and a preparatory class led by legendary AT guru Warren Doyle as essential. But the adventure wasn’t without incident.

Ahead of the record, after 31 days, he said he “cracked under the pressure” and stepped off the trail for more than 24 hours. He reached out to Karl Meltzer, who called to remind Morgan that he was still on track to have a very fast time, and that he’d never regret finishing.

“It was crazy because he was ahead of Karel all the way up to Vermont,” Meltzer told me. “I couldn’t believe it. I was like, man Kristian’s killing it, but then he had that one day where he lost it mentally. I just didn’t want to see him quit. I said, ‘You’re still gonna do it in like 43 days. Don’t give up just because you didn’t get first place. You’re still going to be way under everybody else.’” The stop cost him the overall record, but he finished with the second fastest time ever run.

Given the expense, time, and energy that a single effort requires, it would have been easy to pack it up and conclude that the FKT was beyond his capabilities. But Morgan refers to his previous attempts not as failures but as stepping stones towards success. “The more you fail at something, the more you learn,” he said, “and the more you learn, the more chance you have at success.”

No one knows this better than Meltzer, who took three attempts at the record to set a new mark. “I don’t think I know anybody, including myself, who was more determined to chase the record,” said Meltzer. “When Kristian said he was going back and going southbound, I said, ‘Jesus, you are so focused.’”

2023 Southbound Success

After Morgan ran away from us on Mount Madison, I take a hard fall trying to mimic his downhill speed in the rain. Alone, the trail forward is no longer obvious, and I grope around in the dark for a few minutes before rejoining fellow pacers Andrew Drummond and Veronica Leeds as they stream by.

When we arrive at the Madison Springs Hut soaking wet, the cozy inhabitants look at us with wonder and fear. Morgan, for the first time, looks tired. Getting over Mount Washington was the goal, but he had covered enough terrain that day to purchase a bunk, get some rest, and worry about the tallest peak in the northeast later.

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“The scariest time on the Appalachian Trail was when you and I experienced that static,” he said. “It wasn’t actually crossing Mount Washington that next day, it was that static electricity, because you can be struck at any point.”

The Appalachian Trail has a way of sending you challenges. For Morgan’s 2023 attempt it was physical injuries, which began in Vermont with a swollen ankle that required a partial day of rest. Then, as the end of the trail neared, he took a hard fall and tore his MCL, though he didn’t know it at the time. Battered, he intuitively figured out how to run without stressing the ligament.

Dancing in the Face of Absurdity

Multiple members of Morgan’s crew told me that they were astonished at his attitude, his ability to stay positive despite the injuries and the terrible weather they were experiencing.

“I just found happiness and positivity in every cell and strand of my body that I could,” said Morgan. “Nothing else went right.” He began to dance as a way to laugh through the absurdity of running for a total of 16 hours each day and posted his shimmies on the internet to add some levity to the situation.

His last push was 85 miles nonstop with more than over 25,000 feet of gain and loss. On September 16—45 days, 4 hours, and 27 minutes since stepping off the summit of Mount Katahdin—he arrived at the trail’s southern terminus on Springer Mountain with the new southbound supported FKT and the second fastest overall time.

When I asked if he’s satisfied with this effort, Morgan said he began planning his next attempt a couple hundred miles from his finish.

“I’m still hungry,” he said. “OK, yeah I’ve got the southbound [FKT], but that was always my consolation. I don’t want to downplay the record going south, but my dream ever since I helped Karel was to get the overall record—regardless of direction.”