American ultrarunner Ìęis still recovering from her eye-popping effortÌęlast weekend at France’s Ultra-Trail du Mont Blanc. Schide, 32, in 22 hours, 9 minutes, and 31 seconds, slashingÌęnearly 21 minutes off of the course record, set in 2021 by Courtney Dauwalter.

When I read about the accolade, I immediately thought of Dauwaulter’s aura in women’s ultrarunning. In recent years she’s been Ìęuntouchable at the biggest events: Western States Endurance Run, Hardrock 100, and UTMB. In 2023 șÚÁÏłÔčÏÍű contributor Meaghen Brown called Dauwalter a “once-in-a-generation athlete” and “the best female trail runner ever to live.”

Well, Katie Schide’s UTMB record is a sign that she’s approaching Dauwalter’s level. I recently spoke to her about chasing after ultrarunning’s GOAT.

OUTSIDE: You won the Western States 100 in late June and then turned around and won UTMB on September 1. What did your recovery and training look like between the two events?
Schide: First, I do not think running these two races in the same season should be considered normal. I never thought I’d race them in the same year, and I don’t think it sets a great example to do two big races so close together. That said, I do think the sport has evolved quite a bit in recent years and the way in which we train before and fuel ourselves during races have allowed people to recover faster. My first UTMB was in 2019, and now, five years later, I have a much better sense of how my body reacts. So, I took an entire week off after Western States. I traveled back to Europe, and adjusting to the time change alone took a week. Then I had another week with easy jogs, maybe 30 to 40 minutes. Then I started to get back to my normal training. I traveled to Chamonix six weeks before UTMB and I was back to my normal training for three weeks and then it was time to taper again.

A lot of American ultrarunners live in the Rockies, or in communities with other runners, coaches, and training groups. You live in Saint-Dalmas-le-Selvage, a tiny village of 60 inhabitants in the Alps. What advantages and disadvantages does your location have?
The biggest advantage is there is really nothing else around here so there’s nothing to do other than train and rest. Living here truly allows you to rest. On a rest day you can’t also go get coffee with a friend, and then go to the bookstore and the grocery store. If I have a rest day, there’s really nothing I can do except sit on my couch and maybe go for a little walk around the village. I love going out for fancy coffee when I’m in a city, but it’s not the lifestyle I need every day. Living here gives us (she lives with her partner, professional ultrarunner Germain Grangier) quiet and allows us to disconnect.

And the disadvantages—we don’t have many healthcare resources here, so if I want to see a physio or get a massage, it’s an hour and a half drive. Our grocery store is also an hour and a half away. That makes us really have to plan ahead. When I was training in Flagstaff, Arizona before Western States, it was so easy to go see a masseuse when I needed one. But these disadvantages go hand-in-hand with the advantages,Ìęso it’s a trade-off you have to choose.

Courtney Dauwalter has received a glut of mainstream media attention over the past few seasons. Has your view of Dauwalter changed as you’ve progressed in the sport?
Courtney’s been there since the beginning of my ultrarunning career, always raising the bar higher than any of us were ready to go at any given time. I first raced against her in 2019 at UTMB when she reset the standard of women’s racing. I remember sharing a few footsteps with her at that race, and her telling me that I would love my first 100-miler, and I was absolutely hating it. She also been a great ambassador for the sport and has brought a lot of non-endemic eyeballs to ultrarunning, which we can thank her for. What she’s done benefits everyone. She redefined what I thought was possible in these races, and because she was so far ahead of the other women, I think we all recognized the gap between us that needed to be closed.

Did it seem possible to narrow Dauwalter’s margin?
I never thought of my end point as getting within reach of her. But when you saw the margin between her and the other women, there was definitely space. I was like there shouldn’t be this much space between us, so in a way she inspired me to try and close the gap. But back then I never thought I would be able to get this close to her. I think she’s glad that we’re starting to close the gap.

How do your strengths and weaknesses measure up to Dauwalter’s?
Courtney definitely has the advantage with experience. She’s done more ultras than me, so that is a clear advantage. Her husband is a big advantage, because he always crews for her, and if you can have a consistent crew you can dial in and always trust them. My partner is also a professional athlete, so we can’t crew for each other. My advantage is, well, I’m not sure. I don’t like to compare athletes, because ultrarunning is a sport where there are so many differences between athletes, and that’s what makes it interesting. It’s not like cycling where you can say this person has better power-to-weight, or this person is a better individual time trialist. In running, we don’t all come from the same sporting backgrounds, so we try to bring our strengths together on the same day and see what happens.

The post Katie Schide Is Ultrarunning’s Newest Star appeared first on șÚÁÏłÔčÏÍű Online.

Courtney Dauwalter is no match for even Courtney Dauwalter. For the third straight year, the 39-year-old trail running superstar won the Hardrock 100 in course-record time. Striding into downtown Silverton, Colorado early Saturday morning, to rousing applause at 8:12 A.M. local time, she kissed the large painted rock marking the finish to stop the clock in 26:11:49—two and a half minutes under her own overall women’s course record from last year, and over 30 minutes ahead of her clockwise record from 2022.

“Man, I didn’t plan on sprinting into the finish today,” Dauwalter said with a laugh. “I only knew about what pace we needed to run for the record because [my husband] Kevin was pacing me in the last section. I wouldn’t have remembered the time for that. We got to the top of Little Giant, which is like seven-ish miles away, and I said, ‘Do you think the clock could read 25 as the first number?’ And then we looked at our watches and we were like, ‘Probably not.’ It was still pretty far and not much time. But then it was like, ‘Well, what’s the overall record?’ because it was just a good carrot to dangle to get to the finish as efficiently as we could.”

After running in discomfort early on with France’s Camille Bruyas in close proximity, Dauwalter took off running out of Telluride at mile 27 and never looked back. She progressively chipped away at not only her pain cave, but also her own 2022 splits, flirting with the elusive 26-hour mark and finishing fourth overall. Bruyas finished second among women (and sixth overall) more than three hours and 15 minutes after Dauwalter in 29:28:14.

With the win, Dauwalter has now won the Hardrock 100 three times in four tries, setting course records in each of her wins. She started the race in 2021 but dropped out midway through due to stomach issues on the grueling high-altitude course which averages 11,000 feet above sea level. She’s been virtually unbeatable since, but has been a dominant force in ultra-distance trail running since 2017.

Dauwalter has also won UTMB three times, and the Western States 100 , Transgrancanaria 128K, and the Mount Fuji 100 (formerly known as Ultra Trail Mount Fuji) twice. In fact, she hasn’t lost a race she intended to be competitive in since 2019, when she placed 12th in the IAU 24 Hour World Championship in Brive-la-Gaillarde, France.

Dauwalter said she enjoyed going up and over 14,058-foot Handies Peak before sunset and was happy the temperatures cooled off. But she said she was so tired in the wee hours of the morning she had a hallucination of a big flower wearing sunglasses and smiling at her.

“I think the heat of the day worked me pretty hard, and so it felt nice to be in cooler weather for sure,” she said. “But there are quite a few rocky sections, and when you’re running those in the dark, it’s just harder. I think this race is just particularly hard in general. I was hoping this year to come back with the experience of doing it a couple years and not coming off of a race in June like I did last year and feel more fresh and be able to attack the course a little more. But it just was really hard.”

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Beyond Dauwalter’s dominance, the women’s race saw somewhat of a ceremonial changing of the guard with two new faces on the podium. After an incredibly strong and vivacious first half, Bruyas battled through the second half of the gnarly course to take second. She walked into Silverton with her pacers and crew to kiss the rock in 29:28:11. Katharina Hartmuth of Germany hung tough to finish third in 30:29:12.

Pommeret Takes Down Kilian Jornet’s Record

Maybe you forgot that Ludovic Pommeret was the 2016 Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc champion. Or maybe you thought the Frenchman, who turns 49 in nine days, was past his prime. Either way, he reminded us all he’s at the top of not only his game, but the game at the 2024 Hardrock 100.

The Hoka-sponsored runner from Prevessin, France, took the lead less than a third of the way into the rugged 100.5-mile clockwise-edition of the course after separating from countryman François D’Haene, the 2021 Hardrock champion and 2022 runner-up, and never looked back. Pommeret progressively chipped away at the course record splits—a course record, mind you, set by none other than Kilian Jornet in 2022—to win this year’s event in 21:33:12, the fastest time by three minutes in the race’s 33-year history. Jornet set the previous overall course record of 21:36:24, also in this clockwise direction in 2022.

(Pommeret kissed the ceremonial rock at the finish in to complete the course in 21:33:07 at 3:33 A.M. local time, but race officials credited him with the slightly slower official time.)

“It was my dream (to win it),” Pommert told a small collection of fans and media after winning the race at 3:33 A.M. local time. “I was just asking ‘when will there be a nightmare?’ But finally, there was no nightmare. Thanks to my crew. They were amazing. And thanks to all of you. This race is, uh, no word, just so cool and wild and tough.”

A Historic Day

On Friday, July 12, 146 lucky runners embarked on the 2024 Hardrock 100. Run in the clockwise direction this year, it was the “easy” way for the course with a staggering 33,000 feet of climbing thanks to the steep climbs and more tempered, runnable descents.

Combined with relatively cooperative weather (hot during the day on Friday, but no storms) and a star-studded front of the pack , the tight-knit Hardrock 100 community was on course record watch.

And the event delivered—along with a whole lot more.

On the men’s side, the front of the race took a blow before the gun even went off when Zach Miller, last year’s Ultra-Trail du Mont Blanc runner-up, was denied entry after undergoing an emergency appendectomy the weekend before.

Despite the heartbreak of being forced to wait another year to participate in this hallowed event, Miller was very much a presence in the race, most notably for slinging fastnachts (Amish donuts) from his van in Ouray for race supporters and fans.

Such is the spirit of this event, deemed equally as much a run as a race.

The men’s race was further upended when D’Haene, in tears surrounded by his wife, three children, and friends, dropped from the race at the remote Animas Forks aid station (mile 58). An illness from two weeks before proved insurmountable for the challenge still to come. That blew the door wide open for the hard-charging leaders ahead.

Pommeret had built a 45-minute lead over Jason Schlarb, an American runner who lives locally in Durango, and Swiss runner Diego Pazos, by the time he had left the 43.9-mile Ouray aid station amid 85-degree temperatures. His split climbing up and over 12,800-foot Engineer Pass (mile 51.8) extended his lead to more than an hour over Schlarb and nearly 90-minutes at the Animas Forks aid station.

“I thought it was great. To run off the front like he did, and then just hold that all day and get the overall course record is pretty awesome,” Miller said. “When Killian did it, two years ago, it was a track race between him, Dakota [Jones], and François, after they got some separation from Dakota, it was Kilian and and François, all the way to Cunningham Gulch (the mile 91 aid station) and then Kilian just torched it on the way in. So yeah, it was super, super impressive for Ludo to do that. That’s a very impressive effort.”

A Blazing StartÌę

The sleepy historic mining town of Silverton, Colorado was unusually hectic at 6 A.M. on Friday. In the blue hour before the sun poked over the San Juan Mountains looming above, 146 runners toed the start line of the Hardrock 100, marked by flags from the countries represented by competitors on either side of the dirt road.

With the sound of the gun, runners jogged off the start line—their caution a tacit sign of respect for the monumental challenge of what was to come. As the runners passed through town to the singletrack wending its way up to Miner’s Shrine, group of men headlined byÌę D’Haene, Pommeret, Pazos, and Schlarb quickly took command of the front, the bright yellow t-shirt of Dauwalter was easy to spot just behind, along with Hartmuth and Bruyas.

If they weren’t awake already, runners certainly were after crossing the ice-cold Mineral Creek two miles into their journey before starting the grunt up to Putnam Basin. At the top of a sunny, grassy Putnam Ridge (mile 7) 1:34 into the race, the lead pack of men remained, while Dauwalter had made a statement solo just three minutes back from the men and four minutes up on Hartmuth.

Dauwalter was smiling and chatty when she reached the KT aid station at mile 11.5, in 2:24 elapsed. By Chapman (mile 18.4), four hours in and 10 minutes under her own course record pace, she was pouring water on her head under the blazing sun. Things were heating up—in more ways than one.

It’s a Race!

When Pommeret galloped into Telluride (mile 27.7) after 5:37 of elapsed time in the lead, he was right on Jornet’s course record pace. One minute, some fluids and restocking later, and he was gone.

But wait, it was still a close race! D’Haene charged into Telluride justÌę two minutes later and hardly stopped before continuing on through downtown before busting out the poles and starting the steep, steep 5,000-foot climb up Virginius Pass to the iconic Kroger’s Canteen aid station nestled into a notch of rock at the top at 13,000 feet.

Not to be outdone, the women’s race proved equally thrilling coming into Telluride. Bruyas bridged the gap up to Dauwalter, and the two ran into town together in 6:25 elapsed. Both took three minutes in the aid station, although that must have been enough social time for Dauwalter, as she pulled ahead marching up the climb, poles out and head down. A bouncy Bruyas alternated between hiking and jogging just behind.

But time again, Dauwalter’s long, powerful stride simply proved unparalleled. By Kroger’s (mile 32.7) Dauwalter had reestablished her lead by five minutes over Bruyas and 17 ahead of Hartmuth in third. She’d built that gap to 10 minutes in Ouray at mile 43.9, but she left that aid station in less than two minutes with a stern, serious look on her face. But as she crested Engineer Pass at the golden hour, wildflowers blanketing the vibrant green hillsides basking in the setting sun, she enjoyed a 30-minute lead in the women’s race and was knocking at the door of the men’s podium.

While Dauwalter forged ahead with her unforgiving campaign for a third straight win, the men’s race started to rumble. Like Dauwalter, Pommeret continued to blaze the lead looking strong as he trotted down Engineer to the Animas Forks aid station at mile 57.9 in 11:39 elapsed. He hardly stopped before continuing on to Handies Peak, which at 14,058 feet marks the high point of the race. He had blown the race wide open.

An hour and 15 minutes later, Schlarb, looking a bit more beleaguered, ran into Animas Forks with his pacer, where he sat down and changed his shirt while receiving a pep talk from his partner and son. But he made quick work of the time off feet nonetheless, and three minutes later he was back at it, seven minutes before Pazos appeared.

While D’Haene arrived just 10 minutes later, he did so in tears, holding the hand of his youngest son. After a considerable amount of time sitting in the aid station, surrounded by his family and crew, he called it quits. The lingering effects of an illness from just 10 days before proved too much to overcome as the hardest miles of the race loomed ahead.

While D’Haene pondered his fate, Dauwalter blitzed into Animas Forks in 13:26 with that same look of determination, 16 minutes ahead of course-record pace. She briefly stopped to prepare for the impending night, picking up her good friend and pacer Mike Ambrose to leave the aid station in fourth overall. Bruyas maintained her second place position 30 minutes back, with Hartmuth in third about 20 minutes behind her.

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Pommeret Extends His Lead

Pommeret continued charging ahead solo, increasing his lead over Schlarb and Pazos by more than two hours late in the race. When Pommeret passed through the 80.8-mile Pole Creek aid station at 10:44 P.M., it shocked the small group of race officials, media, and fans watching the online tracker from the race headquarters in Silverton. Based on that split, it was originally calculated that PommeretÌęcould arrive as early as 2:34 A.M.—which would have been a finishing time of 20:34—but he didn’t run the final 20 miles quite as fast as Jornet did in 2022.

Behind him, Pazos caught Schlarb to take over second place before Pole Creek and increased the gap to four minutes by the Cunningham aid station (mile 91.2). Pazos would outlast Schlarb and finish second in 24:39:33, while Schlarb took third in 24:48:16. Schlarb, who tied for the win with Jornet in the 2016 Hardrock 100, pulled out a mini American flag out of his trail running vest after kissing the rock.

Pommeret, who develops training software for air traffic controls in Geneva, Switzerland, didn’t break into ultra-trail running until 2009 when he was 34 years old. He was third in UTMB that year—behind a 20-year-old Jornet, who won for the second straight year—the first of seven top-five finishes in the marquee race in Chamonix. (He was third in 2017 and 2019, fourth in 2021, and fifth in 2023.) He also won the 90-mile TDS race during UTMB week in 2022, and the 170-kilometer Diagonale des Fous race (Grand Raid La Reunion) on RĂ©union Island in the Indian Ocean in 2021 and placed sixth in his first attempt at the Western States 100 in California in 2022.

Last year, Pommeret placed 13th overall in the Western States 100 and nine weeks later finished fifth at UTMB behind Jim Walmsley, Miller, Germain Grangier, and Mathieu Blanchard.

“We know Ludo is a beast, but to be a beast for so long is so impressive,” Miller said. “He’s 49, which by all means is a capable age in this endurance world. But I think anytime someone 49 does something like that, it’s gonna turn some heads because that would’ve been a really good performance for anyone. To have the track record he’s had—winning Diagonale des Fous, UTMB and Hardrock, that’s pretty impressive.”

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Dauwalter’s Final Race Against the Clock

By the time Dauwalter was pushing her way up the lower approach to 14,058-foot Handies Peak, she had a smile on her face and engaged in playful conversation with media and spectators on the course. She had good reason to smile: she was feeling good and she had increased her 10-minute lead at Ouray to more than 60 minutes. After cresting Handies before sunset, Dauwalter went through the Burrows aid station (mile 67.9) in less than a minute, while Bruyas, who reached the summit in near darkness, came in an hour later and spent four minutes refueling before heading out again.

Three hours after Pommeret had passed through the Pole Creek aid station (mile 80.8), Dauwalter arrived at 1:54 A.M., still in fourth place overall about 50 minutes behind Pazos and Schlarb. She took a little more time there, but was back on her feet in four minutes and running strong again and still on record pace. Bruyas walked in to Pole Creek at 3:08 A.M. in sixth overall, but the gap behind Dauwalter continued to widen. Hartmuth arrived about 25 minutes later, over three hours ahead of Yitka Winn in fourth.

Dauwalter was in and out of the Maggie aid station (mile 85.1) in two minutes and blazed through the Cunningham aid station (mile 91.2) even faster. The race seemed to be in hand at that point with Bruyas more than 90 minutes behind (in fact, someone updated the Hardrock 100 Wikipedia page and declared her the winner not long after Pommeret finished), it was just a matter of how fast she could close the loop.

“I left Ouray quickly because I finally was feeling like my body was running OK,” Dauwalter said. “The whole morning getting to Ouray, none of my systems felt like they were working together. It was a real effort to run. And so when I got to Ouray, things had started clicking and so I just wanted to turn and get out of there and keep the momentum going. So I guess later I was probably smiling more because it’s more fun to run when everything’s working better. But it was really hard. The whole day was really, really hard.”

Women’s Results

1. Courtney Dauwalter, 26:11:49 (course record, 4th overall)
2. Camille Bruyas, 29:28:11 (6th overall)
3. Katharina Hartmuth, 30:29:12 (9th overall)
4. Tara Dower, 33:10:55
5. Yitka Winn, 33:17:00

Men’s Results

1. Ludovic Pommeret, 21:33:06 (course record)
2. Diego Pazos, 24:39:33
3. Jason Schlarb, 24:48:13
4. Jeff Rome, 26:30:52
5. Brian Peterson, 29:36:04

Full results:

The post Courtney Dauwalter, Ludovic Pommeret Win Hardrock 100 in Course-Record Times appeared first on șÚÁÏłÔčÏÍű Online.

The last loop was quiet beneath the full moon. Their shuffling feet on the packed, pebble-tossed singletrack punctuated the sleeping Sonoran Desert as the duo moved through shadows of saguaro cactus and prickly pear. Millions of white pinpoints began to appear in the dark sky.

That’s when 66-year-old Tracy Dauwalter, mother of ultrarunner Courtney Dauwalter—who was coming off of of the 2023 Western States 100, Hardrock 100, and UTMB, including two course records—started resharing doubts with her daughter, who kindly reminded Tracy many times throughout the last 13 hours, “that’s not useful thinking, so let’s not think it.”

Occasionally, Courtney would redirect their attention, pointing out this unique section of the course that they’d been past twice before. This time, she built a 60-second container to stuff all those fears inside.

“Tell me all of your doubts and frustrations. You have one minute,” Courtney told her mom. “Once you finish, you can’t complain out loud anymore. It’s not serving us to get to this finish line.”

Tracy spewed all of her negative thoughts, from her rolling stomach to her aching muscles, which was an important reset to get out of the whirlpool of heavy thoughts. I signed up for this, Tracy humbly reminded herself. Nobody’s making me do this.

The Mother-Daughter Ultra Duo

A dedicated team, the pair was running three loops side-by-side in matching long running shorts, white baggy tees, Salomon hydration vests, and cactus-themed socks, at the Halloween-themed Javelina Jundred 100K race. The ultrarunning event is held the closing weekend of October in the McDowell Mountain Regional Park, an hour northeast of Phoenix, Arizona. Temperatures can climb into the 90s by mid-morning and dip into the low 50s once daylight disappears behind the McDowell Mountain Range.

Now 38 years old and living in Leadville, Colorado, Courtney had participated in the event once before, in 2016, when she was the race’s outright winner. She set the then-course record for the 100K, one of several performances that drew national attention to her astonishing endurance and athleticism.

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Tracy, who’d just recently started trail running, had covered ultra-distances at 12- and 24-hour events across flat gravel, but had never before run this far on a trail. They selected Javelina’s rolling 100K with 3,924 feet of vertical gain. The majority of the climbing is packed into the gradual ascent from the Javelina “Jeadquarters” aid station, which serves as the start and finish of the race and basecamp, to the far side of the loop, Jackass Junction.

It was exactly here, at this midway point, after slogging up the final climb over rolling hardened granite and sandy washes, where Tracy had a sticking point. Fortunately, Courtney was there to fill up her water bottles and point out all the tasty options when they reached the runner’s buffet.

“Please keep eating,” she said, as the electronic dance music bumped. A few hours earlier, they enjoyed a surprise pick-me-up of McDonald’s cheeseburgers, delivered by crew masters Dick Dauwalter, Courtney’s dad, and Kevin Schmidt, her husband. But one of the biggest highlights during the race for Tracy was watching Courtney interact and commune with so many people in the trail running community.

“Courtney does this amazing sport, but even more, I adore the person she is. It’s one of my favorite things to watch the love that’s out there for Courtney, and the way she responds. To be in that world with her was really special,” Tracy said. “She was also really kind to me, even when I was frumping and I’d fall down, she’d help pick me up.” Courtney let out a laugh.

“Mom, you only fell one time!” said Courtney, laughing.

“I know, but it was embarrassing,” Tracy said.

‘I’m Willing to Do Any Sport’

While Javelina was the mother-daughter’s debut trail ultra finish, side-by-side, the experience wasn’t their first race together. When Courtney was in high school, the duo finished a rollerblade marathon together in St. Paul. (Rollerblading is a major pastime in Minnesota, where Tracy grew up and still lives today.) Here, she met Dick and raised Courtney, a middle-child to two brothers.

While growing up, Tracy played softball and badminton. In college, she ran cross-country and track. “I’ve always been interested in sports and done them at a level that I could make the team. I was never a star. Being on a team is social and taxes your body while working up a sweat,” she said.

When the kids were interested in soccer, she and Dick organized an adult co-ed squad. Now, she jogs, plays volleyball, and golfs. She and Dick enjoy motorcycle tours, too, like venturing through the Elk Mountains in Colorado. “I’m not great at anything, but I can hold my own, and it’s super fun—I’m willing to do any sport,” she said. The motto was much the same for the kids.

“I thought that it would be so cool to share this sport that I love so much with this person I love so much. I knew she could do it.”

“They could try any activity. But once they committed, they had to see that season through—whether they enjoyed it or not, we were committed. We didn’t miss practices or games. We made sure those were a high priority for them and us. That drove our lives for many years with lots of fun times, but boy, that schedule was crazy—we’d slam-dunk dinner at 4 P.M. so that everybody could get to practice,” Tracy said.

An accountability mindset is one that leads to showing up in other areas of life from work to class to chores, following through on responsibilities and gritting out less desirable tasks. “When things get hard, like college classes, your option is not to quit,” Tracy said. “You dig in a little deeper, get help, and get it done, which is the same with any sport.”

But perhaps their most special ingredient is that the Dauwalters know how to have fun. “Having fun while doing those things is just as important,” Courtney said. “Our family always worked hard, but we play hard, too. All of that combined is what makes life special. Having that be deeply ingrained in who I am helps me in everyday life, but also, for sure, in ultrarunning.”

An Ultra-Star Is Born

While watching Courtney grow up, Tracy noticed her daughter had a deep motivation as a person and athlete. One of her earliest memories was two-year-old Courtney, who could barely walk, repeatedly riding a Big Wheel tricycle downhill with a group of kids and insisting she’d wrestle the bike up the hill by herself. As a kid, Courtney and her siblings played soccer, often on the same teams. Later, they ran high school cross-country and track. To fill the winter months, she tried basketball, but she had a propensity to quickly foul out, taking the bench for the remainder of the game.

One day, she came home with a bright idea to Nordic ski instead, which was foreign for a family full of downhillers. They picked up the equipment, Courtney joined a competitive team, and she practiced in nearby school fields. “All she did was wipe out. All the time. Dick and I are thinking, ‘I wonder what this is going to look like?’” said Tracy.

During those foundational years, Courtney would rush home after a Nordic race to report the number of crashes she’d had. “In a 5K, I would be psyched if I only crashed nine times—tripping, planting my poles, tumbling the entire time. I was so bad,” she said.

But Tracy bought a beat-up pair of cross-country skis and started to practice alongside Courtney. “We learned together,” Tracy said. “It was more fun to crash with somebody than to crash by yourself.”

Courtney Heads West

By the time Courtney graduated, she was an all-state runner and had earned All-American honors as a Nordic skier three times. She was a four-time state champion, and her team acquired two national championships. In 2003, Courtney moved west to Colorado, where she raced collegiately on the Nordic ski team at the University of Denver. Three years in, her DU team won 11 meets and the 2005 NCAA Championship.

“Courtney was really good at everything she did, and it wasn’t because she was a natural,” Tracy said. “Anytime she tried a sport, she didn’t have an immediate knack for it, but she hung in there to develop it. She was a hard worker and determined.”

Years later, in 2015, any remaining questions of physical stamina were laid aside—for both Tracy and Courtney, who proved to have a serious knack for endurance. Courtney broke the ribbon at her inaugural ultra race, the 2011 Prickly Pear 50K in San Antonio, Texas, and her curiosity about wanting to run longer continued to grow. The following year, she dropped out of the Colorado’s Run Rabbit Run 100 Mile race at mile 60 with throbbing legs, questioning her ability to cover that much ground in a single push.

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Frustrated by not meeting her goal, Courtney registered for her first 24-hour race, the 2013 FANS Ultra Races, a more manageable format than an ultra on singletrack. Her family joined to crew and run laps, providing entertainment and support, including Tracy. They didn’t have much of a background in ultras and were green to any strategy.

Regardless, Courtney wrapped a total of 105 miles on that two-mile gravel loop around Lake Normandale Park in Bloomington, Minnesota, completing her first non-trail century-distance, and gaining confidence. Two months later, she crossed the finish line of the Superior Fall Trail Race 100 Miler in Lutsen, Minnesota, her first 100-mile distance on trail, and stood on the podium for second place.

Like Mother, Like Daughter

Moving forward, the FANS Ultra Races became a family tradition. Courtney returned to the 2014 event, besting her first summer with 123.6 miles. Tracy decided, if she was going to crew and run laps with Courtney, she might as well sign up herself.

“She was like, ‘Heck, I’m going to spend the whole day out there anyways. Why not put some time on my feet?’” Courtney recalled.

In 2015, she tallied 109.2 miles while her mom, then 57 years old, covered 66.8 miles. Their annual pilgrimage continued in the 24- or 12-hour format, over the next several summers, coinciding with Courtney’s ultrarunning career picking up steam. She won the 2016 Run Rabbit Run 100 Mile with a 75-minute lead, and along with the title, the world’s largest ultra purse: $12,000.

By the summer of 2017, she retired from her position at the Girls Athletic Leadership School in Denver where she taught science and coached cross-country. “In an interview a few years ago,” Courtney said. “I was asked if I could run an ultramarathon with anyone in the world, who would it be? ‘My mom,’ I said. I thought that it would be so cool to share this sport that I love so much with this person I love so much. I knew she could do it.”

In an interview a few years ago, she was asked, if she could run an ultramarathon with anyone in the world, who would it be? “My mom,” she said. “I thought that it would be so cool to share this sport that I love so much with this person I love so much. I knew she could do it.”

Tracy heard the recording and, despite having never run on trails, she immediately called her daughter. “Let’s do it. I heard you want to run an ultra, so let’s sign up for something,” she said to Courtney. “If someone puts a challenge in front of me, it can even be pretty insane, and I’m a sucker for trying to rise to that challenge.” In addition to the competitive spark, the invitation felt sentimental.

An Ultra Dream, Realized

Committed to doing an ultra together, they accepted that it might be a winding road to get there. The two picked the 2022 50-mile Superior Fall Trail Race in Lutsen. Mid-route, they missed the cut-off. Tracy shrugged and shook her head recounting the unfinished event. Courtney refused to let the DNF be a negative thing. “You learned so much in that first summer, mom,” she told her. “Dialing in all of those pieces helped immensely this year. And we decided, we’re not done. We still need a finish line together.”

As soon as registration opened in January, the duo signed up for the 2023 Javelina Jundred 100K. “I was nervous coming into this race because I was bouncing off of that epic fail of the first 50-miler we tried, which was a wake-up call. You have to prepare yourself,” said Tracy.

“It was not an epic fail,” Courtney countered.

That winter, Tracy clocked workouts on a treadmill. From April onward, she ran outside four or five days a week for 10 to 20 miles. Courtney researched singletrack trails around Lone Lake, which her mom became excited to explore. One of the biggest challenges of learning to run on trails is her tendency to shuffle and trip, Tracy confessed. Building confidence, she finished the Willow 20 Miler in May and Afton Trail Run 50K in July. Like her daughter, Tracy didn’t keep a close log of her mileage, and her training was not systematic.

Courtney’s advice, true and simple, rang in her mind: Spend time on your feet.

“People asked me if I coached her. Absolutely not,” Courtney said. “I did try to be helpful—harping on testing nutrition, wearing a pack so that her body gets used to one, and hiking uphills—so her race day could be much better. She was the one putting in the work and figuring out routes where she could do laps or get on hills. I admired from afar.”

“It helped that Courtney kept reminding me, ‘This was our run together, our race, and it could look however we could make it.’ If I crawled, that wouldn’t be disgusting. It got ugly, then it got not ugly,” Tracy added.

Staying lighthearted, Courtney countered, “It never got ugly. There was never a doubt that we would make it to the finish.”

A Finish to Remember

Fortunately, the elation did come around. Next to her daughter, Tracy crossed the finish line of Javelina Jundred 100K in 17 hours and 38 minutes with a smile in the glowing lights, after staying up into the night running, eating, and sharing pain—but mostly, laughing—with her daughter. They’d gone full circle together, both on the circuit they’d traveled in the desert as well as in life.

“I think you beat me by, like, a half-second, mom,” Courtney said.

“I know,” Tracy bantered back. “I think I was really needing to be done, so I rushed with a half-second sprint.”

The post Who Is Courtney Dauwalter’s New Ultramarathon Partner? It’s Her Mom. appeared first on șÚÁÏłÔčÏÍű Online.

In what is certainly the pinnacle of the trail running world, Jim Walmsley and Courtney Dauwalter were each greeted by a riveting hero’s welcome from roaring spectators as they ran into the crowded pedestrian village of Chamonix, France, four hours apart on the afternoon of September 2.

Both were stunning moments that nearly drowned out the dramatic Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc’s (UTMB) theme song, Vangelis’s “Conquest of Paradise,” blasting through the sound system. And deservedly so, as both American runners turned in remarkable efforts to win the men’s and women’s races in the 20th edition of UTMB, the de facto world championship of ultra-distance trail running.

The legendary race began at 6 P.M. on September 1 and sent runners on an arduous 172K (106-mile) loop through parts of France, Italy, and Switzerland around the Mont Blanc massif. Although the course was slightly modified this year, it included 10 major climbs and descents and entailed nearly 33,000 feet of elevation gain during the circumnavigation of the highest peak in Western Europe.

Walmsley, a 33-year-old French transplant from Flagstaff, Arizona, became the first American man to win the race (19:37:43), while Dauwalter (23:29:14) won it for the third time in three tries since 2019 and, more emphatically, completed the unprecedented—and largely unfathomable—triple crown of winning the Western States 100, Hardrock 100, and UMTB in same year.

The race has received a lot more attention in recent years, especially with the formation of the UTMB World Series global qualifying circuit last year. During this year’s event, there were moments on the course that looked reminiscent of frenzied fans cheering on riders during the Tour de France.

“You Can’t Triple Unless You Try”

“The fans out on the course this year were incredible. Their energy was definitely propelling me forward,” said Dauwalter, a 38-year-old Salomon-sponsored runner from Leadville, Colorado. “It was really, really hard. The last half of it was really just about holding it together. My stomach was a little bit finicky. My head was mostly OK, but I kept wondering how I was going to get back (to Chamonix).”

Dauwalter’s victory is historic in its own right. But it’s nearly incomprehensible in the context of her summer. In late June, Dauwalter won the Western States 100 in Auburn, California, shattering the seemingly untouchable 11-year-old course record by more than 75 minutes, in 15:29:34.

She backed up that legendary performance just three weeks later with another course record at the grueling Hardrock 100—a race with Ìę33,197 feet of elevation gain in and around Silverton, Colorado—while once again lowering the course record by an hour in a dominating victory (26:14:08). And by winning UTMB, Dauwalter, the undisputable queen of ultrarunning, completed her sweep of the sport’s most prestigious triple crown.

Dauwalter had already won each of those races twice by the time she arrived in Chamonix in early August, but becoming the first and only person to accomplish the hat trick in one summer, she catapulted herself into another realm. And she’s done it at a time when women’s ultrarunning has never been more popular or more competitive.

She took the lead early in the race and was never challenged, but she had to manage a finicky stomach for a while and was so fatigued from the summer of racing she seemingly had to turn herself inside out to reach the finish.

“You can’t triple unless you try,” Dauwalter said. “Any time we’re given the opportunity to try something difficult or crazy, we should absolutely take it. This was totally crazy and really, really difficult, but worth it.”

“Any time we’re given the opportunity to try something difficult or crazy, we should absolutely take it. This was totally crazy and really, really difficult, but worth it.”

While U.S. runners have had success since the inaugural UTMB race in 2003—Krissy Moehl was the first women’s winner and American runners Topher Gaylord and Brandon Sybrowsky tied for second—several U.S. women, but never an American man, found their way to the top step of the podium until Walmsley won this year. In addition to Moehl (who also won in 2009), Americans Nikki Kimball (2007), Rory Bosio (2013, 2014), Dauwalter (2019, 2021, 2023), and Katie Schide (2022) have all won the women’s UTMB race.Ìę

Walmsley, a three-time Western States 100 winner, set out to try to eradicate his own frustrations from four prior UTMB races. Although always one of the favorites whenever he’s been on the starting line, he’s had two good-but-not-great finishes (fifth in 2017, fourth in 2022) and two DNFs (2018, 2021).

He and his wife, Jess, moved to France in May 2022 so he could focus on training for the race, but it took several months to feel comfortable living overseas—partially because they overstayed their initial 90-day visa and had to struggle for a full year to get the rest of their paperwork completed. After his disappointing fourth-place finish at UTMB last year, he was able to immerse in French life and enhanced his training with ski mountaineering during the winter and long spring and summer days of running and hiking on the steep trails through the massive mountains of the Beaufortain Valley near their home in ArĂȘches, about 50 miles southwest of Chamonix.

Combined with a revitalized nutrition strategy—that excluded candy and sugary junk food that he had been so accustomed to—he said he just felt fitter, better prepared, and more confident heading to the starting line this year. But he had moments where he struggled, too, especially after Zach Miller—a 34-year-old American runner who had three previous top-10 finishes in the race—took the lead and pushed the pace near the 60-mile mark of the race.

After taking in key nutrients and changing into a lighter and softer pair of Hoka prototype shoes at the 79-mile aid station in the Swiss ski town of Champex-Lac, Walmsley felt revitalized and ready to race hard again.

“He got up from the table and the energy totally shifted,” Jess said. “And as he was walking out, he looked back at me with a certain look. I know that face, it’s his race face. So it’s kind of like, ‘Game on! Let’s go!’ And, and then that’s what we saw after that.”

Walmsley caught and passed Miller about 90 minutes later and then quickly put a large, insurmountable gap on him, running the final 20 miles back to Chamonix unchallenged.

“That felt terrible for quite a while,” he said after the race. “Going into Champex was a low moment, for sure, but we got things taken care of. It’s all just kind of a synergy that just worked out this year and almost a bit of luck because it seems at times things were going south and I just feel lucky that it turned around.”

This year, Dauwalter was joined by compatriots Leah Yingling (eighth) and Sabrina Stanley (ninth) among the top 10, the second time U.S. women have had three top-ten finishers at UTMB.Ìę

On the men’s side, Miller held on to finish second (19:58:58), 22 minutes behind Walmsley and 12 minutes ahead of mid-race challenger Germain Grangier of France (20:10:52), while Tyler Green, 39, of Portland, Oregon, finished seventh (21:19:21) two months after finishing second at the Western States 100.

Many of the all-time great American men have run UMTB through the years—Scott Jurek, Anton Krupicka, Geoff Roes, Timmy Olson, Hal Koerner, Tim Twietmeyer, Tim Tollefson, Mike Wolfe, and Mike Foote, among others—but have come up just short or spectacularly short in their quest to win the race.

Walmsley immediately credited the strong legacy of American women in UTMB, even as Dauwalter was still en route back to Chamonix to win her third title.

“It just means I can add my name alongside the strong U.S. women’s contingent,” Walmsley said. “They’ve done it again and again here and I am just happy to stand on their shoulders.”

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