On Thursday, Oct. 17, Flagstaff ultrarunner Helen Galerakis will start her bid to set the supported fastest known time on the 803.5-mile Arizona Trail, running from the southern border of Utah to the northern border of Mexico.

The current fast know time (which was unsupported) was set by Jeff Garmire at 15 days, 13 hours and 10 minutes.

Galerakis started running four years ago after leaving the corporate world. Her first trail run was at Rob Krar’s ultra and trail running camp in Flagstaff two years ago, a camp that inspired her to move to Flagstaff. To reach her goal, she will need to cover at least an average of 50 miles per day (just under 31 marathons) across 15 consecutive days. With 110,000 feet of vertical gain and loss, this is the equivalent of climbing up and down the Empire State Building 88 times or Mount Everest four times.

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