I finally wrapped up a great book I’ve been working on for most of 2019!

The Pursuit of Endurance: Harnessing the Record-Breaking Power of Strength and Resilience by Jennifer Pharr Davis got me pretty jacked up to set some lofty adventure goals!

For those of you who are not familiar with her thru-hiking prowess, back in 2011 she set the new (at the time) Fastest Known Time (FKT) on the Appalachian Trail – completing all 2,189 miles in a blistering 46.5 days…an average of about 47 miles per day!!

She does a wonderful job filling the reader in on the history of FKT attempts and corresponding records, as well as the psychology of endurance. I really enjoyed her chapters on other FKT record holders and how they came to shape her frame-of-mind (and approach) regarding endurance.

I have to admit that I encountered my own pursuit of endurance trying to actually read/finish a book w/two, then three kids at home 🙂 It took me the better part of 2019 to complete the book cover-to-cover, but that is life right now in the Schmidt household!

This book is very well written, which left me feeling a bit said when I finally finished it. Jennifer’s style of writing never got old and I appreciated her in-depth look at the sport of speed hiking.

I have done every mile of the SHT in one year, with two-thirds of it occurring in one push (original SHT thru-hike from the border to around Betty’s Pies) during the summer of 2015 with a friend of mine. We averaged about 30 miles per day during the thru-hike without going crazy.

With that knowledge, and the memories of how fun that trip was (combined with a competitive gene that I can’t seem to fully escape), reading this book definitely has me wanting to attempt an SHT FKT sometime in the future (when the kids are a little older). Time will tell if that will ever come to fruition.

In the meantime, I highly suggest you grab a copy of The Pursuit of Endurance…enjoy!!