Outside – Trail Life (June 15, 2019) by Mary Beth Skylis

The Arizona Trail (AZT) spans 800 miles from Mexico to Utah, winding through deserts, mountains, forests, and canyons. Elevation ranges from 1,700 to 9,148 feet. It’s challenging to complete the AZT at any speed, much less Jeff Garmire’s fastest known time (FKT) of 15 days, 13 hours, and 10 minutes.

Fending off sleep deprivation and hallucinations, Garmire completed the trail and set the record on April 21, 2019. He averaged over 50 miles per day, self-supported. To put this into perspective, Garmire ran about two marathons a day, sleeping an average of four hours per night, and repeated the process for 15 and a half days. The previous self-supported FKT for the trail was 18 days, 16 hours, and 45 minutes, by Whitt “El Matador” Wisebram in November 2018, and the record for a supported completion was 15 days, 22 hours, and 39 minutes, by Michael Versteeg in October 2016.

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