Speedgoat Karl faces wet start to record attempt

They call him the Speedgoat, which is a pretty apt nickname for a guy who runs mountains for a living. But when Karl Meltzer begins his quest to become the fastest man ever to complete the 2,175 mile Appalachian Trail, he might find himself wishing he were the Speedduck instead.

Meltzer is set to take off Tuesday morning from the top of Mt. Katahdin in Maine, the northern terminus of the nation's best known foot path. The current record for the fastest through hike of the trail is 47 days, 13 hours, 31 minutes, set in 2005 by Andrew Thompson. Meltzer will need to cover around 47 miles a day to make it to the other end of the trail at Springer Mountain in Georgia faster.

It's a challenging pace, even for a guy who made his name dominating the Rocky Mountain ultamarathon racing circuit. Meltzer has won 40 ultramarathons in his career, including six 100-mile races in 2006 alone. The guy has serious long distance trail running credentials.

But he is quick to admit, "I'm not a very good swimmer." And that might be a problem for Meltzer as he begins his journey in Maine's rain-soaked 100-mile wilderness.

Reports from northern Maine paint a soggy picture.

"For the past two weeks here we have had more rain than sunshine," said Paul Renaud, who runs the Appalachian Trail Lodge in Millinocket. "We're very wet. All the streams and rivers are swollen. Some might be impassable."

Northbound hikers arriving at the lodge in recent days have reported Maine's 100-mile Wilderness, a beast in the best of conditions, is a muddy mess. Those who have managed to get through that stretch of the trail have had to hike far downstream to find spots to cross many of streams they encountered. That, of course, means a corresponding hike back upstream to rejoin the trail, a relatively minor inconvenience to someone taking months to complete their journey, but a real detriment to someone on a compressed schedule like Meltzer.

The weather forecast for northern Maine predicts Meltzer will have sunny conditions as he starts out on his hike. Enjoy it while it lasts. Accuweather's extended outlook calls for rain the next six days after that.

Meltzer acknowledges the role the weather could play in his effort.

"It's a big factor. Especially in Maine and New Hampshire," he said.

Those are not the only places he could encounter weather related problems. This time of the year, there is always a threat of tropical systems coming ashore and causing havoc along the trail.

Weather might slow him and cost him the record, but it won't stop him.

"I'm gong to continue. I will finish regardless. Only an injury will take me out," he said.

Born and raised on the East Coast, Meltzer moved to Utah in 1989 to be a ski bum. He made a name for himself out west by running for hours on end, but won't be running the entire trail.

"Most of it will be hiking real fast. Only 10 to 15 percent of it will be running," he explained.

His preparation has included seven to eight hours of daily hiking, in addition to his usual 90 to 100 miles of running each week.

"I've got 30 years of base behind me. I'm in great shape. I've had no injuries the last four months," said Meltzer, who began running as a 10-year-old in New Hampshire.

Nonetheless, he plans to start slow.

"That's a key," he said. "The first five to seven days I will try to get into a routine. After that I hope it becomes routine."

That routine will include hiking from dawn to dusk, sleeping eight hours a night and dining Conehead style -- consuming mass quantities.

On the trail, most of his nutrition will come from Powerbar gels, supplemented by peanut butter and jelly sandwiches handed to him by his support crew at road crossings. At the end of the day, anything goes.

"I have to eat as much as possible. I'll probably eat a ton of ice cream," Meltzer said. "It won't matter what I put in my body because I'm going to burn it so fast. My body will be like a furnace."

To be sure, Meltzer figures on eating lots of carbohydrates. But to sustain the effort it will take to finish in 47 days, he will need a lot of fat and protein, too. His goal is to down 6,000 to 8,000 calories per day. Even then, the 142-pounder figures to drop from welterweight to featherweight by the time he reaches Georgia.

"I'll probably lose 10 to 15 pounds," said Meltzer.

Unlike regular through hikers, Meltzer won't have to carry his food with him, or worry about mail drops, or stops in town to resupply. The most he plans to carry as he hikes is a few liters of water. Everything else will be transported by his crew, which is traveling in a pimped out Rv wrapped with splashy graphics that include a larger than life image of the Speedgoat himself and the url for his WheresKarl.com Web site.

The rig is equipped with a GPS unit that allows followers to track Meltzer's progress as he heads south. It's part of an effort Meltzer estimates totals around $100,000 when you figure in the labor hours his main sponsor, online outfitter BackCountry.com, put into building the Web site and decking out the RV.

"I didn't ask for that," said Meltzer. "It's kind of beyond what ultra running is all about."

Meltzer's original idea was more modest. He just wanted BackCountry.com, and a few of his running sponsors, to help him fund a more bare bones effort.

"They liked the idea and they jumped at it," said Meltzer.

Despite his ultra running background, this will be Meltzer's first multi-day effort. It took Thompson three tries before he set the current mark.

"I'm totally a rookie for the multi-day thing," Meltzer said. "It's a new challenge for me.

"Maybe I will fail. maybe I won't. I don't have a big head on my shoulders that I can do this no problem."