She hiked the 2,175-mile Appalachian Trail in 57 days. If it’s hard to comprehend just why that’s so speedy, consider that it takes skilled hikers at least three months to traverse the entire trail, and most normal people make the trek in six months. Jen Davis raced from Georgia to Maine in August of 2008, breaking a trail record for a female hiker, set by Jenny Jardine in 1993. Afterwards, the Hendersonville native started her own business, Blue Ridge Hiking Company, leading people on regional hikes and writing about them in two new local guidebooks. (A guide to Charlotte-area hikes book is already out; an Asheville book will be published this fall.) The college classics major also published a memoir last fall, Becoming Odyssa, about her experiences on the trail.

This winter, she’s been speaking at clinics and at schools and seminars, mainly about why it’s important to get outdoors. “Ironically, I’m getting a lot of car time,” she says, explaining that she’s been wheeling around from her current home in Asheville to places like Cherokee and Johnson City, Tennessee. “I hate driving.”

She won’t be in the car for long. This spring, she’ll train for another sprint up the Appalachian Trail, this time angling to beat the men’s record of 47 days. That’s 45 miles per day, which sounds daunting to anyone in their right mind. But not Davis, who points out that it’s just seven more miles each day than her record-breaking journey in 2008.