Courtney Dauwalter Moab 240

Courtney was raised in Minnesota, where she developed a passion for competitive and endurance sports like cross-country running, courtney dauwalter moab 240 and skiing with the aid of her family, coaches, and teammates. She competed for the University of Denver's nordic ski team, and after graduation, she started participating in road marathons. Her introduction to long-distance running swiftly snowballed into 50k, 50-mile races, and beyond.

The Story of How Courtney Dauwalter won Moab 240 outright

The distance between first and second place in most ultramarathons is less than an hour. For example, the top two podium positions in the Bigfoot 200, held in Washington in August, were separated by barely five hours. On the other hand, it took Courtney Dauwalter more than ten hours to win the Moab 240 Mile Endurance Run on Sunday, October 15.

Dauwalter, 32, of Golden, Colorado, has been competing in trail races since 2011. Still, she only suddenly burst onto the trail-running scene last year after winning the overall title at the Javelina Jundred 100K in Arizona, and the Run Rabbit Run 100 in Colorado, where she also broke the women's and public records.

At the Riverbank One Day 24-Hour competition in California four months later, in February 2017, she clocked a new American women's 24-hour record by covering 155.4 miles.

Dauwalter grew up an athlete.

She competed for her Minnesota high school's cross-country, track, and Nordic-ski teams (she was an All-American in Nordic) and later competed for the University of Denver's Division I Nordic team. She started running after graduating. Trail ultras swiftly evolved from road marathons.

Since 2011, Dauwalter has competed in 39 races, winning eight outright and placing ninth overall. She doesn't appear to place too much importance on outdoing guys to win the podium. She says it doesn't matter to me whether the runner in front of me is a man or woman when I'm racing. "I like a challenge. My objective is always to win. In ultras, women can contend with males on an even playing field.

After winning the 2017 Run Rabbit Run 100 in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, Dauwalter registered for the Moab 240. After running the final 12 kilometers completely blind, she won her second race. She claims, "[The blindness] was gradual." It began as a haziness in my peripheral vision, which drew in until my eyesight was completely white.

Dauwalter was left to bumble her way down the challenging singletrack, falling numerous times and eventually ending up with a gash on her head that was bleeding.

She admits, "I didn't absorb what was occurring." At the time, I only thought, "I'm in this race. I need to keep going.".

Within five hours, she had full vision again, albeit the cause is still unknown. The problem, according to doctors, was probably brought on by a combination of poor nutrition and irritation from dust on her contact lenses. (Recently, a study identified ocular edema as a frequent factor contributing to blindness in ultrarunners and other endurance athletes.)

Six weeks later, Dauwalter was lining up for the courtney dauwalter moab 240 in her go-to running clothes: baggy 12-inch shorts and a t-shirt with a men's cut. She describes the coziness as absolute. They are lovely and flowing. You should race in whatever makes you most comfortable because you will be there for a long time.

The Moab 240 requires three to five days on the course. The first race travels 240 miles across eastern Utah's canyons and mountains in a single, enormous circle. Twenty-nine thousand four hundred sixty-seven feet of elevation gain and loss are involved in the event.

Dauwalter claims that enrolling was motivated by a "natural curiosity about what more my body and brain can achieve."

She had concentrated on recovering and fitting in a few last weeks of training throughout the weeks that had passed (Dauwalter runs 90 to 100 miles a week on average).

Dauwalter had no intention of taking the lead on race day. She had no strategy at all.

She claims that the distance and duration are only two unknowns. "I just wanted to understand a little about [200 miles]." It was an erratic, unplanned strategy.

She arrived at an aid station as the lead runner was dozing off, maybe between miles 100 and 130 (Dauwalter's recollection is hazy). Unfortunately, he was still in his crew car when she departed, and she didn't see him again for the remainder of the race. Despite being on route for 57 hours, Dauwalter hardly ever slept. Finally, at mile 190, she sat down for 20 minutes and said she thought she would sleep. However, my brain wouldn't turn off.

But after traveling five miles, tiredness set in. She claims, "I couldn't keep my eyes open." I was driving in a zigzag pattern.

She slept off on the path, using her pacemaker as a living alarm clock, and slept for precisely one minute. She claims, "I've never slept that deeply." "When I awoke, I believed he had allowed me to sleep for 30 minutes. Instead, I felt utterly refreshed and awake after that minute.

The remainder of the race was everything but easy. She started having severe hallucinations during the second night. According to her, everything in the forest was a face, an animal, or a musician playing the cello. "I observed a leopard in a hammock that appeared to be rather cozy." On day three, Dauwalter had established a comfortable lead by the time the sun rose, allowing her to enjoy the last 17 kilometers with her husband.

Final Verdict

Courtney Dauwalter is known as the "Queen of Ultra Running," "The Nacho Queen," and "The Person Who Changed Women's Fashion in the Trail Running Scene." She enjoyed that if you put in the effort and persevere, you'll feel better and be able to move more quickly and far. These realities were much more apparent as she discovered the ultrarunning community! Most notably, she won the UTMB and the Western States in 2019. She sets absurd goals for herself, such as running 24 hours nonstop on the track or aiming to run 500 miles on the Colorado Trail in the summer of 2020. She won the Big's Backyard race in America in 2020 after covering 283.33 miles in 68 hours.

FAQs

How did you get into ultra running?

Courtney Dauwalter, a professional runner and Team Injinji athlete, has had a number of races that didn't go as she had anticipated. The Run Rabbit Run in 2012 marked her first try at a 100-mile race. She had only competed in 50k and 50-mile races before, and she was new to the ultrarunning scene, but she was intrigued by the challenge of running the distance in stunning Steamboat Springs, Colorado.

What are some of your other essential pieces of gear?

If you ever need to distinguish Courtney from her rivals in an ultramarathon, look for the radiant woman with the bright smile who appears more appropriately attired for a basketball game than a 200-mile endurance event.

It's just perfect comfort, she exclaims. Longer shorts have always been my preference, and I discovered that this is still the case for ultramarathons.