On Friday, April 9, 2021 at 6pm MDT, I will be hosting a livestream with Joe McConaughy (“Stringbean”), who earlier this week set a new supported Arizona Trail FKT in 13+ days, averaging 60-70 miles per day. If you were following his journey on Instagram, Strava, or YouTube, it already probably struck you as pretty epic.
The livestream will be broadcast here, through my YouTube channel. If you join us live, you can ask questions; if you miss it, it’ll be available on YouTube.
After Joe set a new unsupported Long Trail FKT in 2020, we hosted a similar event, available here. He and I worked together on a daily basis on the guided trip program and Plan Like A Pro course, and have established a good rapport. Helping to moderate the conversation will be Katie Gerber, one of our new guides and instructors for 2021 who will bring an expert nutritional perspective to the conversation.
I have a long list of questions that I’d like to ask Joe, but tell me what interests you most by leaving a comment below.
I would love to know how he settled on the timing of the effort. Did he consider pushing back the start date knowing about the snow on the North Rim?
First-
Congratulations to Joe on another FKT. As a Summer 2020 Online Planning Planning course graduate, it was fun to follow someone I “know” as they attempted this feat.
I would like to hear about how Joe’s support crew helped to coax him out of his funk and despair to return to the trail and post-hole out of the snow and continue.
Typo after “Katie Gerber – one of our new guide and instructors” not instructions. ????
Thank you
I know it’s a trivial question, but how on earth did he survive sleeping 5 hours in 13 days? And what effects did he feel from this (e.g. allucinations)?
I’m pretty sure he meant “each night”. But that’s STILL pushing it! He’s an incredible athlete.
Congratulations, Joe! Just stunning achievement. Before restarting into that snow section, did you have any intel on how much further that snowy section would be, or was it just a leap of faith that it’d end soon enough to keep your sanity?