The ultrarunner completed the equivalent of more than two marathons a day, and she says that her support team was crucial to her mission

For most hikers, attempting to walk the length of the Appalachian Trail is an exercise in failure. Of the roughly 3,000 individuals each year who try the “thru-hike” – walking the trail’s entire length in one trip – 75% will not complete the journey. This dropout rate is understandable. The trail’s epic scale gives low-probability risks ample room to transform into unsolvable problems.

The trail, which spans much of the eastern United States, stretches 2,190-miles (3,524 km) across the Appalachian Mountains and through 14 US states, much of it in wilderness. Among those who successfully thru-hike the route from Maine to Georgia (or vice versa), most will need five to seven months to complete the trip. But American ultrarunner Tara Dower is no ordinary hiker. In September, she set a new speed record on the Appalachian Trail, finishing her thru-hike in just under 41 days, beating the previous record by 13 hours. Covering such a distance in that span required Dower to run the equivalent of more than two marathons each day – over mountains. Speaking with the Guardian a few weeks after finishing her record-setting run, Dower could still feel every step.