When you objectively look at what Karl “Speedgoat” Meltzer has accomplished in his 49 years, it’s easy to see why people refer to him as super human.
In fact, I was among them.
It was his most recent accomplishment — his biggest, most impressive achievement that convinced me otherwise. Well, to be accurate, it was recently released documentary “Karl Meltzer: Made to be Broken” that actually convinced me that what separates him from people like me is less genetics and more about choices.
In September, the Sandy man set a new Appalachian Trail hike speed record, traversing the 2,190 miles from Maine to Georgia in 45 days, 22 hours and 38 minutes.
The documentary, which is available for free on Red Bull TV, chronicles the trek with a perfect balance of logistics, context and emotional insight.
“I’m pretty psyched about the movie,” Meltzer said. “I think they covered the main points of what really happened out there.”
Last fall’s hike-thru was Metzler’s third attempt at the record. He began on Aug. 3, 2016, in the pre-dawn hours on Mount Katahdin, Maine.
The movie interviews other hikers about the mystique of the trail and attempts to convey just how brutal the trail’s terrain can be. The Appalachian Trail Conservancy says that only one in four of the thousands who attempt a hike-thru each year complete it.
For most, it takes months.
That’s because the AT, as it’s more commonly known, runs through 14 states and includes 464,500 feet of elevation change. And that’s just the physical demands of the trail.
The real intrigue of the documentary for me was the way Meltzer dealt with the emotional struggles.
When I first met Meltzer in 2006, he’d just won the Wasatch 100. While he was on his way to winning more 100-mile races than any other runner in history (38), I was still reeling from my first marathon a year earlier.
I asked all the questions that make ultra runners cringe, starting with “Why would anyone want to run 100 miles?”
Even though I’d been persuaded to the transformative power of running, including the need to embrace suffering, I just couldn’t fathom the kind of suffering I saw and that was described at that Wasatch 100 finish line in the fall of 2006.
In the decade since, I’ve run my own ultras with varying degrees of success, although never close to winning or setting any kind of record. (Unless there is a record category for racing with sub-par training, interviews conducted while running, or stupid decisions, usually involving food, made during races that lead to even more suffering than 50 miles in the mountains can offer.)
All this is to say that I never saw much of me in Meltzer’s massive list of accomplishments, which includes 57 ultra victories.
But the documentary changed that.
I saw myself in the discouragement that comes with repeated falls. I saw myself in the struggle about whether or not to continue. I saw myself in the gratitude that comes from another runner’s generosity and wisdom, offered at just the right moment, in just the right way.
And when I asked Meltzer what he hoped other people would get from watching the documentary, he gave words to what I felt.
“I hope people can understand, not just in the AT attempt, but anything in life, if you want something badly enough, you can go get it,” he said. “It took me nine years to go get that record. It took three tries. It shows that with determination and planning, you can get it done.”
Truth.
Make a plan, find the will.
And something else I saw in the documentary is that no one accomplishes anything great without help. Meltzer had a dedicated crew that included his wife and father, and without them, there is no record-breaking moment.
He was also joined on the trail by ultra runners David Horton, who set the record years ago, and Scott Jurek, who broke the record in 2015.
In fact, it was Jurek’s record that Meltzer broke by nearly 10 hours when he arrived in Georgia on Sept. 18.
Both of those men offered advice and insight — and Horton gave an especially timely pep-talk.
Their support of Meltzer, who crewed for Jurek in his 2015 attempt, reiterated to me that we don’t compete against one another. We all have our own dreams to chase, our own demons to wrestle. Offering someone your best only brings out the best in you. It gives you experiences and insights into the human experience that you can’t get if you see other people as the enemy.
I asked Meltzer what could possibly be next on his to do list, and he laughed.
“I jokingly said that I should try to break the northbound record,” he said. “That would be the only way to raise the bar. I have a race in Georgia, a 74-miler, but in terms of doing something that big, I don’t know if I’ll do that again.”
He said he hopes the fact that he will still seek challenges, even after “putting a stamp on my career” will inspire others.
“I just want to continue to be in the sport, and still show people, later in age, that you can do things,” Meltzer said. “And you can do pretty big things.”