FKT of the Year Acceptance Speech

I didn’t expect to win FKT of the Year for the Appalachian Trail, but here we are.

This video is not about splits, miles per day, or how fast the record was. It’s about the decade-long path that led to it. From leaving college in 2011 and discovering thru-hiking, to years of chasing adventure while trying to fit into a traditional career, to hitting some of the lowest points of my life, including suicidal depression, and finding my way back through the outdoors.

The Appalachian Trail has been a thread running through my entire adult life. The structure of long days, defined goals, resupply points, and moving forward one step at a time makes sense to my brain in a way the outside world often doesn’t. Trails gave me a place to belong when I didn’t feel like I fit anywhere else.

I also talk honestly about 2020, canceled plans, working at a grocery store, feeling like a failure, and how nothing about this journey was overnight. Just chipping away, year after year, at something I loved, even when it felt impossible.

We also raised over $43,000 for the Trevor Project during this FKT. That mattered more to me than any award. It was proof that people care, that kindness is real, and that we all belong, even when things feel loud, divided, or overwhelming.

This is a reflection on why the doing matters more than the accomplishment, why praise is hard for me to sit with, and why I believe if you truly love something, you’re willing to keep showing up for it, regardless of the outcome.

Thank you to everyone who supported this journey, donated, followed along, and showed kindness.

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Mount to coast

As always, we can all be our own version of elite.

Stay elite, my friends.

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