Tomorrow while hundreds if not thousands of people put on jackets and head out to sell or shop at garage sales, one West Seattleite will be taking on an intense challenge a few hours from home. Riley Nachtrieb sent this announcement of what she plans to start tomorrow morning, no matter what the weather is:

20-year-old West Seattle-based ultra-runner Riley Nachtrieb will be re-attempting to run the first recorded Fastest Known Time (FKT) on the 135-mile Olympic Discovery Trail this Saturday, May 14th. An FKT is a speed record for a running route. It is not a race; there is no competition or award for completion. They are self-organized and ran solo with a support crew.

The ODT spans from Port Townsend to La Push, and Riley is aiming to complete the 135 miles in under 30 hours. The trail is 90% pavement, mostly on the side of the highway. She first attempted to run this route in 2019, but her Dad made her stop at 82 miles in 21 hours because she got a stress fracture in her foot. Despite this undesired ending to her first attempt, Riley, also an aspiring filmmaker, turned her story into an award-winning short film, “Broken” premiering at the Auburn Adventure Film Festival (watch it here).

Ever since stopping in 2019, Riley has been hungry to complete it. As a lead-up training run last month, she set the first women’s FKT on the 55-mile Whidbey Island Traverse, in 11 hours, 10 minutes.

“Running 135 miles will not be easy,” she says. “I do these hard things because I want to show people that women can do hard things. I run ‘insane’ distances to disrupt the narrative society knows, not only about running but how capable women are. As a young female in the sport, I’ve had many experiences of people doubting my abilities- But these experiences only light the fire within me to show how capable we are as women, if we dare to try.”

She starts running in Port Townsend at 7 am on May 14th. A crew full of family and friends will meet her at checkpoints. You can track her live using this link: share.garmin.com/rileynachtrieb

And you can see photo updates on her Instagram, @rileynachtrieb.

Riley adds that she’s thankful for the community support she’s received over the years.