Courtney_Dauwalter

Courtney Dauwalter

Courtney Dauwalter

American ultramarathon runner


Courtney Dauwalter (born February 13, 1985) is an American ultramarathon runner and former teacher.[1] Widely regarded as one of the world's best trailrunners,[2] Dauwalter became in 2023 the first person ever to win Western States 100, Hardrock 100 and the UTMB, three iconic 100-mile races, in the same year.

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Early life

Dauwalter was raised in Hopkins, Minnesota and competed in track, cross-country, and Nordic skiing in high school. She was a four-time Minnesota state champion in Nordic skiing during her high school career.[3] She attended the University of Denver on a cross-country skiing scholarship,[4] and then earned a master's degree in teaching from the University of Mississippi in 2010 while participating in the Mississippi Teacher Corps.[5]

She worked as a middle and high-school teacher in the Denver area, before becoming a full-time professional runner in 2017.[4]

Trailrunning

Dauwalter is sponsored by Salomon.[6]

In 2016, she set a course record at the Javelina Jundred 100K and won the Run Rabbit Run 100-mile race, finishing 75 minutes ahead of second place. She also won the 2017 Run Rabbit Run while battling temporary blindness when running the final 12 miles.[7] She won the 2017 edition of the Moab 240 race in 2 days, 9 hours, and 59 minutes, finishing first overall and beating the second-place finisher by more than 10 hours.[8] In 2017, she set the-then record for the longest run in 24 hours, at 155.391 miles during the Riverbank One Day Classic.[9]

In 2018, Dauwalter won the Western States 100-mile race, with a finishing time of 17h27m. She competed in the Big's Backyard Ultra in 2018, finishing second overall and completing a total of 67 laps, setting the women's course record at 279.268 miles.[10][11] She also placed second in the Tahoe 200, beating the previous women's course record by over 18 hours.[12]

In 2019, she won the Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc in a time of 24 h 34 min 26 sec, coming in 21st overall.[13][14] In 2021 she would return to set the women's course record. She competed for the United States at the IAU 24 Hour World Championship in Brive-la-Gaillarde, France in October 2019, finishing 12th. In 2020, she won the American section of Big's Backyard Ultra. She ran 68 laps for 283.3 miles for a finish time of 56 hours, 52 minutes, and 29 seconds, setting the record for the longest distance recorded by a female runner in the race.[15]

In 2021, Dauwalter entered the Hardrock 100 but did not finish. In 2022 and 2023 she entered again and won, beating the previous women's course records for the Hardrock 100 set by Diana Finkel by over an hour, in each direction.[16][17]

Also in 2023, she won the Western States 100, besting the previous women's course record set by Ellie Greenwood in 2012, finishing in a time of 15:29:34.[18] This set the overall record for the Western States–Hardrock double. In September 2023, she then won the Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc again, making her the first person in history to win the triple of Western States, Hardrock, and UTMB in a single year.[19]

Awards and recognition

Dauwalter was named Ultra Runner of the Year in 2018 by Ultrarunning Magazine after winning 9 of the 12 races that she entered, including two where she finished first overall.[20]

In 2020, she received the George Mallory Award at the Wasatch Mountain Film Festival for pushing the boundaries of physical human achievement.[21]

Selected race results

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References

  1. Byerly, Rebecca (December 8, 2018). "The gruelling sport in which women appear to hold a psychological edge". The Irish Times. Retrieved February 1, 2019.
  2. Fader, Mirin (2022-08-30). "Inside the Pain Cave With Courtney Dauwalter, the GOAT of Ultrarunning". The Ringer. Retrieved 2023-09-07.
  3. "The Woman Who Outruns the Men, 200 Miles at a Time". The New York Times. 2018-12-05. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2022-01-17.
  4. Michelson, Megan (2019-10-08). "Inside the Mind of Ultrarunner Courtney Dauwalter". REI Co-op Journal. Retrieved 2019-12-26.
  5. Schranz, Eric (2017-09-15). "Courtney Dauwalter | Blind Perseverance at RRR100". Ultrarunnerpodcast.
  6. Rojek, Taylor (2018-08-03). "There's No Stopping Ultrarunner Courtney Dauwalter". Runners World.
  7. Mitka, Nate (2017-10-16). "238 Miles On Foot: Courtney Dauwalter Wins Moab Ultra". Gearjunkie.
  8. Scacco, Justin. "Colorado ultrarunners shatter Tahoe 200 course records". www.sierrasun.com. Retrieved 2020-07-01.
  9. Strout, Erin (2019-09-18). "Ultrarunning Star Courtney Dauwalter's Superpower? Don't Overthink It". Women's Running. Archived from the original on 2019-12-14. Retrieved 2019-12-14.
  10. "Pacing Diana". Trail Runner Magazine. 2017-04-26. Retrieved 2023-07-15.
  11. "OpenSplitTime: Full results - Hardrock 100 2023". www.opensplittime.org. Retrieved 2023-07-15.
  12. "George Mallory Award". Wasatch Mountain Film Festival. Retrieved 2020-12-16.
  13. "2023Full Results: Hardrock 100 2023", OpenSplitTime, July 15, 2023
  14. "Squamish Results", Squamish Website
  15. "How Courtney Dauwalter Won the Moab 240 Outright", Trail Runner Magazine, Outside, October 19, 2017

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