As many of you know, this summer Dr. David Horton is attempting to break the supported speed record for the Colorado Trail. The current record holder is Paul Pomeroy who, in July 2008, completed the CT in 8d12h14m. David hopes to better that mark by approximately 2 hours. While Pomeroy ran west-to-east and David will be running east-to-west, there is only one overall supported speed record (direction doesn’t matter). Currently, Pomeroy holds both supported and unsupported records on the CT.
According to Peter Bakwin’s website (a great resource for Fastest Known Times on long trails), a supported record attempt “means you have a dedicated support team that meets you along the way to supply whatever you need. This generally allows for the fastest, lightest trips, and for an element of camaraderie and safety, since someone knows about where you are at all times”. Arguably, David has the best support available. Former CT record holder, Jonathan Basham will be crewing David for the entire adventure. Basham ran 8d13h28m (east to west) in July 2006 and knows the trail extremely well. Moreover, Basham has extensive crewing experience, supporting the current AT record (among others), Andrew Thompson, on his speed attempt in 2005.
Horton & Basham left early this morning and are driving to Colorado for 3 weeks of training at higher elevations. To start his acclimation, Horton plans to run/hike up Longs Peak and Pikes Peak; both are 14er’s in the Colorado front range.
Last night I stopped by and wished David well on his newest adventure.
David will be calling me daily (if he has cell coverage) to give me an update. I’ll be posting those updates here on the eco-x blog as well as posting audio blogs from David.
Stay tuned – It will be another great adventure!
3 comments:
this is AWESOME horton!! i'll be cheering for ya man... and twittering about it too - http://twitter.com/theMattHart
GOOD LUCK!
David, Tammy and I wish you a successfull and safe adventure. Our prayers will be with you and your support crew. Rick
Hope the snow melts quickly! Lots of spring storms have brought lots of new snow to the CT course.
Just as an example, on Saturday we attempted to get up Pikes Peak but were post-holing with 2 miles to go to the summit. In previous years by the first of June the route up Pikes has been free of most snow. The upcoming warm weather will help.
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