Running the Tahoe Rim Trail in record time
Runner finishes Tahoe Rim Trail in record 37 hours
RENO, Nev. (AP) — What could you accomplish in 37 hours?
For Adam Kimble, the answer is simple: run around Lake Tahoe.
On July 18, the Tahoe City resident crushed the previous record for the fastest known time for a supported run on the Tahoe Rim Trail, a roughly 170-mile (273-kilometer) path that circumnavigates Lake Tahoe. He completed the feat in 37 hours, 12 minutes and 15 seconds, almost an hour and a half faster than the previous record.
“Everything I do revolves around running,” he said. “Training is a big part of my life. When COVID started, I told my wife, ‘we might come out of this more fit.’”
Growing up in the Midwest, Kimble wasn’t much interested in running.
“I come from a sports background, both my parents are athletes, but running is not part of their background.,” he said.
After playing baseball in college, he missed the camaraderie and competition of organized sports. Watching his father-in-law run races, he felt he saw some of that spirit between runners. So, Kimble started running. He did his first ultra-marathon, defined as anything over the traditional marathon distance of 26.2 miles (42 km), in 2014 in Indiana. He completed a 31-mile (50-km) race, a 50-mile (80-km) race and a 100-mile (160-km) race within the span of five months.
“The longer the run, the more I enjoyed it,” Kimble said. “Once I got into ultras, not only was I enjoying it more, I was having more success.”
In 2016, Kimble ran across the United States. He started in Huntington Beach and ended at Tybee Island in Georgia. It took him 60 days.
That same year, Kimble, 33, and his wife, Karen, also a runner, moved to the Tahoe area from the Midwest.
In 2017, he ran the length of Great Britain, from the top of Scotland to the tip of England, as well as tagging some mountain peaks, in 30 days, a fastest known time.
“The joy is in the running,” he said. “The record motivates me.” The Tahoe Rim Trail “opened” in 2001. Over the years, stretches of road have been replaced by trail, and steep sections of trail have been replaced with more user-friendly switchbacks.
The result? The trail has slowly grown in length.
When world-class Spanish ultrarunner Kilian Jornet set the previous supported record of 38 hours, 32 minutes in 2009, the trail was about 165 miles (265 km) long.
The trail is now estimated to be closer to 171 miles (275 km) in length — meaning Kimble ran an extra six or so miles, despite running the trail nearly an hour and a half faster than Jornet.
Kimble made his first bid for the record on the Rim Trail last October, when he clocked in at 45 hours, 36 minutes.
He hit several obstacles, including what he described as too many hours running in the dark.
In both attempts, “Night hours were my lowest points. The energy is subsiding, there’s not a lot of people cheering, and you just have to grind it out,” Kimble said.
In October, he stopped for what he described as a “refreshing” 20-minute nap.
This year, “because I was close to record pace, my mind was in a different state and I couldn’t turn my brain off,” he said. He didn’t sleep at all
during the 37-hour run.
In July, at mile 122 (km196), Kimble was 45 minutes behind the record pace. He wasn’t daunted. “I knew if things went well, I could do better in the last 50 miles (80 km),” he said.
He spent the last stretch “doing an obscene amount of math,” he said. “If I run this pace, for this many miles, how far would I
be ahead of the record or behind the record?”
Around 30 miles (48 km) from the finish, Kimble passed, for the second time, a friend running the Tahoe Rim Trail in the opposite direction. Something clicked. He thought, “we’re going to get this, I’ve gotta just keep doing what I’m doing.”
At mile 160 (km 257) , Kimble caught a second wind.
He crossed the finish line in Tahoe City running a mile in 9 minutes, 13 seconds.
So, what is next for the professional runner, running coach and motivational speaker?
“The wheels are spinning,” Kimble said.
He’s toyed with running across the U.S. again, or attempting a speed record on the Pacific Crest Trail. He’s also looking at an 1,800mile run across the Te Araroa trail in New Zealand.
“The thing I’ve learned about expeditions is, to keep yourself motivated, you have to provide ample time in between,” he said. “I try to space them
out at least a couple of years, so I don’t burn myself out.”
Kimble said the sweet spot of long-distance running for most people is from their early 20s to late 40s, and he estimates he has about 15 strong years of racing left.
“One thing I’ve been grateful for since moving out here is seeing people in their 60s, 70s, 80s doing really active things,” he said. “You just don’t see that in the Midwest. I get a lot of inspiration from the older crowd out here.”