Before dawn on Tuesday, August 19, 2025, Tara Dower reached the southern terminus of the 272-mile Long Trail at the Vermont-Massachusetts border, setting a new overall supported fastest known time (FKT) on the route with a time of 3 days, 18 hours, and 29 minutes.
This bests the previous overall supported FKT, set by Will Peterson in 2024 at 3 days, 21 hours, and 9 minutes, by 2 hours and 40 minutes. Alyssa Godesky held the prior women’s supported record with a time of 5 days, 2 hours, and 37 minutes.
Tara Dower cheered on by fans during her 272-mile run along Vermont’s Long Trail. Photo: Pete Schreiner
Dower completed the trail southbound, starting at the Canadian border near North Troy, Vermont, at 10 a.m. on Friday, August 15, 2025. The trail closely follows the main ridge of the Green Mountains, covering some 68,000 feet of elevation gain. Built between 1910 and 1930, it is considered the oldest long trail in the U.S. and is credited with providing inspiration for the construction of the Appalachian Trail (AT). In fact, the Long Trail shares the final 100 miles with the AT, which, of course, Dower is intimately familiar with, having set an overall supported FKT on the 2,197-mile trail in 2024.
This Long Trail FKT comes after a bit of a frustrating summer for Dower, who was on a steep upward trajectory in the ultrarunning world when she got sick the week before the 2025 Western States 100 and ultimately had to drop from the race. She then languished as the first person on the waitlist for the Hardrock 100 and ultimately didn’t gain a last-minute entry.
Instead of throwing in the towel on the season, she turned all that fitness and motivation around into an incredibly fast time on the Long Trail.
The Long Trail maintains a reputation for being rocky, rough, and slow, but Dower started off fast, covering nearly 80 miles in the first 24 hours. She was about 140 miles in with 48 hours on the clock, and had covered about 200 miles when the clock ticked over on three days elapsed, on Monday morning, August 18. As Monday afternoon rolled around, she took one more quick sleep before starting the final 37 miles to the finish during the overnight hours of Monday night and Tuesday morning.
After 3 days, 18 hours, and 29 minutes, Tara Dower sets a new overall supported FKT on the Long Trail. Photo: Pete Schreiner
History with Long Distance Trails
Dower, who puts together a closely knit crew for these types of efforts, was supported by her crew chief, Megan Wilmarth, a.k.a. Rascal, who served in the same role during her AT FKT, as well as photographers and videographers Pete Schreiner and Emily Cameron. The core crew was assisted by a host of pacers, many of them local to the area, and it appears that Dower was accompanied by many runners in the area, all excited to come out to support the monumental effort.
The Long Trail is perhaps the shortest FKT effort Dower, who goes by the trail name Candy Mama as a nod to her love of sweets, has undertaken. In addition to the AT, after which she discussed her efforts with iRunFar in an in-depth interview, Dower also briefly held the women’s supported FKT on the 486-mile Colorado Trail in 2023. In 2020, Dower set the women’s supported FKT on the 1,175-mile Mountains to Sea Trail, which travels from Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Tennessee, to Nags Head, North Carolina, and went on to set the women’s supported FKT in 2022 on the 288-mile Benton MacKaye Trail, which travels from Springer Mountain, Georgia, to Big Creek in Great Smoky Mountains National Park in Tennessee.
Running for a Cause
As with the AT, when she fundraised for Girls on the Run, Dower also used her Long Trail effort to raise money, this time for the Green Mountain Club, the organization that maintains the Long Trail and publishes guidebooks and other resources for the trail. She’s already exceeded her goal of raising $10,001, and you can add to that by donating here.
