Ultra-Runner Diane Van Deren, of Colorado, plans to jog, run or trot 15 hours a day and cover 47 miles each day to beat the 24-day, 3-hour, 50-minute run made last summer by Matthew Kirk of Marion, N.C.

Van Deren, who had brain surgery to end seizures, will take off before dawn Thursday hoping to finish North Carolina’s 1,000 mile  Mountains-to-Sea Trail in 21 days, the fastest time ever.

“Van Deren, a super athlete, has competed in some of the most grueling long-distance runs in the world. In 2008, she won the Yukon Arctic Ultra 300-mile race, pulling a 50-pound sled with food and supplies over frozen tundra in temperatures as low as 40 below. A year later, in the Yukon Arctic Ultra 430-mile race, she was fourth overall,” the Charlotte Observer reports today. Read more: Woman to run.