From Addiction to Athlete | Catra Corbett Strives to Break Hiking Record
Catra Corbett is not your typical middle-aged career girl. Sure, she is a nutritionalist at Whole Foods market, owns her home and car and enjoys the outdoors. But this 42 year old also has 22 piercings and over 100 tattoos. Her brightly colored braided hair is a tell-tale sign of the ambition this woman possesses.
Corbett’s dream is to break the record for speed hiking the 2,650-mile Pacific Crest Trail. The current record is held at 78 days by a man, and 91 days by a woman. Corbett is confident she can break both records. This means she will need to hike roughly 35 miles a day and will not be able to have any rest days.
You may be thinking that this is just another over-achieving athlete; that this accomplishment is no bigger than any other. Corbett stands out however because she was once an amphetamine addict and chronic alcoholic. Forced to clean up her act over 10 years ago, Corbett has been working to achieve the goals she set for herself when she made the effort to get rid of her addictions.
“I like to challenge myself,” said Corbett. “You only live once, and this is my way of seeing the beauty in California. I set goals when I stopped doing drugs and drinking, and hiking the PCT was one of them.”
If this wasn’t challenging enough, Corbett will also be hiking with a Frenchman by the name of Julien Chauchepart. Chauchepart is a 26 year old outdoor retail salesman who Corbett met on the internet and quickly became hiking comrades. They met face-to-face for the first time this week.
This hiking experience will be a challenge to Corbett, an experienced ultramarathon runner, and a dramatic undertaking for Chauchepart. How this duo will progress will be interesting to watch.
To read the complete article on Catra Corbett’s Pacific Crest Trail challenge, visit signonsandiego.com.
Photo by TJK.
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!