John Kelly beats brutal heat, storms, foot injury to hit ‘home stretch’ on epic Appalachian Trail record attempt

Ultrarunning legend John Kelly has hit the home stretch on his quest to set the fastest known time for the Appalachian Trail.

Kelly, who has three Barkley Marathon finishes to his name, posted on Instagram on Monday how he has entered the Shenandoah National Park.

He is ahead of schedule to beat the 40 days, 18 hours and five minutes mark set by his fellow American Tara Dower – and he says not even brutal heat, a foot issue and a big storm can stop him now.

Lying shirtless in a creek

Approaching 900 miles on Day 16 of his journey, Kelly said in the post: “Beautiful stretch of the country here. Kinda the home stretch. Finally in the long Virginia section of the AT and where things start to get more moderate for a while.

“Yesterday did end up getting quite hot and muggy again as I went up what really is my last long sustained climb until New England. I did struggle a bit on that.

“We did finally have a brief storm roll in near the top and I went in a manner of minutes from lying shirtless in a creek trying to cool off to putting a jacket on for the first time in a week. That’s how quickly mountain conditions can change.

“You can’t ever scrimp on warmth. You have to look at the worst imaginable forecast for the night and imagine you are going to get stuck out there and immobilised and alone all night long and pack accordingly.

“Fortunately that storm did cool things off a bit rather than it going right back to a steam room.”

The epic, near 2,200 mile-long trail, running from Springer Mountain in Georgia to Mount Katahdin in Maine, passes through 14 states and is part of ultrarunning folklore.

“Brutal heat”

Kelly, who says he is powered by thoughts of his Dad who is suffering with cancer, has had his ups and downs on the run so far. But he reckons struggling through scorching earlier temperatures, and shaking off an injury, will help him stay the course.

He said: “I have a small foot issue. Fixed that at the last support point and had a quick nap. Now I’ve had a good strong morning.

“Still had some good elevation gain but it’s much more sneaky and moderate. These trials [on this section] might as well be paved. It’s nice to have some real runnable sections. I’m also hoping that in terms of adaptations, the brutal heat will help me adapt to any hotter days from now on.”