Courtney Dauwalter: The Grand Adventure Through Ultra Running History

Who is Courtney DeWalter? The world's best female ultra runner, straight up. She seemingly came from nowhere and raced distances from 50 kilometers all the way up to 200 miles plus and set the ultra running world ablaze. But it's just the way you're beating these people is insane. She is arguably the best period. It's amazing what she just did. What was the driving force getting her to these extraordinary heights? They looked like they went 100 miles and I was like, but they did it. Like, why did I give up so fast? And when did it actually go too far? That then the doctor, you know, kind of painted the picture of this could have gone really far south if they hadn't brought you in. Right. We'll just keep smiling and running like you're having a normal type race and like on the inside, it was like nothing normal was going on. This is what we are going to explore right now. This is the run movie of Courtney DeWalter. This story begins in Hopkins, Minnesota, USA. This is where Courtney grew up. Her parents would instill in her a competitive spirit and a desire to see things through to the end. In her school years, she would take these traits and apply it to sports. She took up running and skiing. Her coaches and teammates from around this period helped her develop a lifelong love of endurance sports. She would go on to become a state champion skier. Despite this, she didn't pursue a career in sports and instead became a teacher, moving to Colorado in the process, keeping running only as a hobby in the meantime. Thing is, she was starting to desire challenge and adventure that this life was not providing. The marathon distance more than met these requirements for challenge and for thrill. I was curious on if I could run 26.2 miles. I thought that sounded insane. I actually was texting goodbye to people before the start of the road marathons because I thought my legs would shatter and that would be it. I would just be this heap on the side of the road. And when I finished it, it kind of like flipped a switch for me of just wondering if that sounded too hard, but I did it. What else is there that sounds too hard that I could try? So what do you do when you complete a marathon, but you want more? Enter the world of ultra marathons. The most common distance up after a marathon is a 50 kilometer run. That's 31.1 miles. Buddy that I knew was going to do this 50k. It's basically an extra long marathon. It sounded like the perfect amount more than a marathon where I was like, I got to try and see if the extra five miles kills me. And that then opened up the whole ultra running world to me. After that, what's the next distance I could try? 50 miles. Yeah. 50 miles, pretty much like a double marathon. It was awful, horrendous weather the entire time. So we were just getting pelted by rain and hail and wind and everything pointed to we should be miserable. But all the people around me were just having a blast out there. The dichotomy of the super challenging event contrasted with people's strong mindsets and positive personalities were keys in drawing her into the ultra running world. That's what hooked me to the sport for sure. Speaking of which, she would now meet her future husband, Kevin, who will help contribute with these challenges. He had just started running basically. And this whole ultra world was new to both of us. I'm like, will you come pace and crew me for this hundred mile race? You're going to have to explain. I didn't know that was something people did. Now Courtney is targeting the hundred mile distance. The premier ultra distance. The run rabbit run race in Colorado would be her first target. So what happened over the course of that race? So I went faster than my body was ready for. Suddenly it was like this new beast of a journey that I wasn't ready for. And it got really physically hard and quickly then in my head, I spiraled into this just negative self-talk and like dark place of doubting myself and thinking, oh no, my legs are already hurting. I'm only at mile 40 of this hundred mile race. You know, I'm not made for a hundred miles. You're like, you're a joke out here, you know, just call it. Finally, I convinced myself to throw in the towel and give up at mile 60 because I thought I wasn't cut out for a hundred miles. And then I just had to sit there for hours. Oh my God. Hunkered under like borrowed sweatshirts and blankets. Watching all these runners come through as I waited for, you know, the random ride out that was going to happen. They looked like they went a hundred miles and I was like, but they did it. Like, why did I give up so fast? So then I was like driving home on Sunday after that race weekend. Then I got a fire lit under me where I was like, that's not how this is going to play out. I Googled races that I was going to do the next year to help me get ready because I was doing a hundred mile race then. And it wasn't going to be an option of quitting. Then is that when you got more serious about training actually for a hundred? Yeah, absolutely. Before school, I would get in a run during lunch. I would maybe sneak out for a 20 or 30 minute run. And then after school I would get in whatever miles I still wanted. 2013 Courtney would continue training and racing before once again tackling the hundred mile challenge. Only this time on a track in a timed 24 hour event where the goal is just to cover as much distance on a track in 24 hours as you possibly can. Then later in the year, she completed a official hundred mile race, not a timed event at Lake Superior. She discovered and learned how she can use the mind to actually overcome the limits of the body. In that next hundred mile race, I cried for the last 10 miles of it because it hurt so bad. Most people would be satisfied with this, but Courtney was just getting started. But I knew right away that it was a thing I wanted to try again. You want to feel that again? Yeah. Over the next couple of years, she would gradually become very competitive at these lesser known ultra distance events, placing first, second, or third in almost every one. Developing her abilities and cultivating her experience along the way. 2016 Courtney returns to Run Rabbit Run, the race that broke her four years prior. However, now she ignored all doubts and won the event along with several others that year. 2017. What did that moment look like when you said, I'm going all in? We were just like, what if the day was wide open to run and train and get better at it? What would happen? And my school has been super supportive through all of this. And they were like, go see what you can do without the 7am to 7pm shift. You know, like, see what you can make of this. And let us know if you want back in teaching ever. We've loved it ever since. It's been awesome. Now, even the world beyond ultra marathons had to take notice now. Of all the races you've done so far, what would you say is your favorite? The Moab 240 was really, really fun. And it also blew my mind that our feet can bring us 240 miles. It's one big 240 mile loop. Yeah. Oh my gosh. Yeah. Beat everybody in the field. Since then, she's blown up across social media, being featured on the Joe Rogan podcast. And how long did it take you to run 238 miles? It took just under 58 hours. That is so crazy. And you beat the second place person by a staggering 10 hours. You could have taken a nice restful eight hours sleep. And you were so far out early. I'm like, no way. Got in a fine meal at a restaurant. There's no what? Had a glass of wine. And there's no who? Took a shower and brushed your teeth. Because I hadn't heard your name. And I'm like, what? I hope not. This chick beat me by a day. How could some woman be that far ahead of everybody? She beat me by a day. Are you ready? Can you talk about the Run Rabbit Run race that you won? So I had blood dripping down my face, like stumbling along. Totally couldn't see the trail. And you still won? Yeah, managed to finish and hold the lead. You're a savage. You should give seminars on how to be a savage. That is crazy. About two months after the Moab 240, she would enter into another 24-hour timed event in Taipei, Taiwan. Almost breaking the record by running a staggering 159 miles in 24 hours. The world record was 161 at the time. Then we go to California to race the Western States 100, the most competitive ultramarathon in the USA, stateside. Lake Tahoe. Despite serious dark moments, Courtney walks away with a 200-mile race win. You have had success on the track. You've had success in 100-mile racing. You've had success at shorter stuff, 50 miles. What's the deal? It's a race that I can sign up for. My answer is yes. Put me in. Next, across the Atlantic Ocean to the town of Chaminade, France, for a little event known as UTMB. What does that stand for? Ultra Trail Moab Walk. Right. Is that the most famous international race, do you think? Yeah, I would say for Mountain Trail Ultra. So it's a 100-mile race around Mont Blanc. But seeing that scene at that race, it's unreal. And you're just like, it's like celebrating like Princess Diana, you know? I mean, it's like this huge crowd and everybody's looking at you and you're doing this thing. It's just like, it seems incredible. Courtney, Chaminade is yours tonight. Back home in America, they're all waking up to a new American UTMB champion. She goes on the track, kills it. She goes in 240 miles through the mountains, kills it. You can't find a better female on the female side of things, someone who can do it better than that. Something that Courtney has learned and that she's gotten really good at is that when you think your body is telling you to stop, like maybe you don't need to stop. In this past couple years, it's been just like not letting myself have an excuse to stop. I wonder, like, what is the limit? Like, what is the limit of a human? Yeah. In terms of like, I mean, you said that when it was over, you were wrecked for days. You couldn't sleep. You really weren't eating well. But when you cross that finish line and if someone said, okay, the real finish line is another 80 miles, you just would have kept going. Yeah, if that was real and I had 80 more miles to cover, I would figure out how to do it. What if it was 180? How many more miles did you think you have left in your body? Do you wish that the races were like 300 miles? Absolutely. 400 miles? Yes. The longer, the better, right? Yeah, keep going. I know when you were on Brogan, there was some discussion about a 500 mile race. I finished the Moab 240 a few years ago and realized that 240 miles is possible. So what would be the next natural thing to test out and to try? And 500 sounded like a good answer to that question. It's 2020 now. Right, like all the races were canceled. So you were going to tackle this trail, which takes you from Durango to Denver? Correct. 500 miles? Yeah. So Courtney tackles what is known as a FKT attempt. That is short for Fastest Known Time, where she will attempt to cover a particular route in the fastest possible time and set the world record for that route, allowing the challenges to go way beyond the scope of a typical ultramarathon distance between 50-200 miles. This can go way beyond. In this case, 500 miles through the mountains of Colorado. The previous record that she was trying to break was eight and a half days roughly. This is a race against time, not other people. I remember commenting to my crew at one of the stops like, everything feels amazing, but my lungs just are being lazy right now. I thought they just weren't turning on like the rest of it, but I figured they just needed some more hours, you know, and then they would be, they would realize what we were doing. Well, I'm wheezing and coughing. That's the hand we're dealt this time. We're gonna, you know, deal with it because that's what you do in an ultra. So I was planning to take it all the way to Denver. I think one of the keys to finishing an ultramarathon is just being a little bit stubborn. You kind of have to be because a lot can and will go wrong and you have to be willing to like keep fighting through whatever comes your way. Sleep wasn't possible anymore because every time I laid down, I was just like wheezing, like I was breathing through a tiny straw. I mean, is there a point where you're just tissue would just give out? Maybe, yeah. And then finally they were like, we got to just go to this hospital nearby and get you checked out. I couldn't breathe. So like I couldn't really talk and string together these thoughts for him because my lungs just weren't working like they were supposed to. You had to be put on like oxygen, right? Yeah. I hadn't fully accepted that it was the end until, yeah, they admitted me and I had IVs and oxygen and then it became pretty clear. But then the doctor, you know, kind of painted the picture of this could have gone really far south if they hadn't brought you in. Right. If it wasn't for her crew mates, she would have carried on. This attempt ends in the hospital. The next year in 2021, she is fully recovered and returns to Colorado. This time for a iconic race known as Hard Rock 100. And you're getting ready to tackle a pretty auspicious double. You're going to do UTMB in August or in Hard Rock 100 in July first, right? And then right on the back of that a month later, UTMB. Yeah. She has a goal of trying to compete two iconic 100 mile races in one summer. I don't, I mean, it's just a fun challenge. I think they're like six weeks apart. And then the race started and like something was off almost immediately for me. My stomach was just not having anything. This time I was just like, well, we'll just keep smiling and running like you're having a normal type race. And like on the inside, it was like nothing normal was going on and it all just like stopped and there was nothing else left. Another problem that can't simply be solved by willpower. It's not the first time this has happened or even the second. Let's go back to 2019 where she attempted to win the Western States 100 for the second time. So in 2019, I ended up dropping out of Western States with a hip injury. And I think what happened that year is I ramped it all up. Like I'm going to do more climbing. I'm going to do a faster pace. I'm going to do more miles. Like everything went up except no recovery or extra body maintenance was added to it. So I just asked too much without giving anything back to myself. And it led to an injury. The ability to push through pain has allowed Courtney to break the limits of what was previously thought possible. That very same attribute had continued to escalate to a point where it had actually become destructive. Courtney would finish hard rock a year after this attempt. So I have learned the lesson that like I'm not made of titanium. I'm not invincible. So there is a line there and I've been over the years trying to get better at just reading the signals my body is giving me. So when it's giving the warning signs, I'm actually listening to them instead of just glowing right past them and thinking that I'm better than those warning signs. Do you feel like you're at your peak or you have, you can get better or your peak was passed? What were you at? What, I mean, what would you think that someone would answer to that? Who would say their peak has passed? If you could pick three characteristics that either you have or a successful athlete would have, what would those three characteristics be? Like persistence. I think patience is important. And internal drive. It's not going to go smoothly and you're going to get knocked on your backside, you know, in this pursuit and you have to just keep clawing forward. I think in any sport, keep at it even when it feels hard or you feel like you've reached, you know, the maximum you could ever achieve or, you know, whatever the thing is. So you're saying you're not at your peak, you're getting better. I mean, that's the hope. She gets into some really dark places and you can tell that, you know, things are getting very, very challenging, but she just refuses to give up. She keeps pushing forward and finds another gear somehow every time and just, you know, gets it done. So where do we go from here? Welcome to the 2023 Western States 100 presented by Hoka Broadcasting, live from the track at Placer High School in Auburn, California. My name is Dylan Bowman, joined for the third year in a row by my friend and colleague, Corinne Malcolm. A couple of things are definitely lighting the fire for me to be here. One is that I didn't finish in 2019, and we were able to line up this Western States hard rock double, and that has me super excited to make sure I finish Western States so that double can actually be a double. Why is it important to go 100%? This is the life I'm getting to live, and so if this is the thing I'm doing, I want to do it full gas. Otherwise, if I'm not going to invest myself fully in this thing, then I should turn and go down a different lane and find my next passion. Like, while I'm here and while my body is able and I love it so much, why not just dive full on and see? Courtney achieves her long-standing goal of winning two of the most iconic ultramarathons in one summer. However, six weeks after hard rock, there is another race. UTMB's after that, so I wonder what it would take to have a summer of wins of the most prestigious ultras in history. Could that ever happen? I'd be willing to try. Two weeks after hard rock, I went for a little jog and it felt okay, and I was like, Kevin, we got to do this. If we don't try, we'll never know. Nobody has ever won all three of these races in one summer. All three races are 100 miles each and are extremely competitive, and they all happen in just a two-month time span. Western States happens at the end of June, hard rock, July, and UTMB at the end of August. I don't want to be sitting on my rocking chair when I'm 95, like, wondering what if or what could have been if I had just given it a little more. What three things would you want to teach people? The biggest one for me, I think, is that people are capable of way more than they give themselves credit for. People are selling themselves short and setting their bars too low of what they could actually do if they went all in on something, you know, whatever they're psyched about, to just see what happens if they invest a little more time and energy into it. They can do whatever they're trying to do and do it even better than that. And you keep in mind that, like, you're the driver of your own life, and so you get to make these decisions and you get however many years on this planet that you've got left and to make the most of those. Courtney DeWalter becomes the first human in history to do the unthinkable, winning all three of these races in one summer. You're creating space for other people to see greater possibility in themselves. That's kind of what keeps me coming back to ultras, is wondering what's possible and, like, when we doubt ourselves, what we could actually do if we just tried. And what about for yourself? What is the draw to, like, the Colorado Trail? The whole journey through ultrarunning has wondered, what else is possible? Starting from that first 50k on, then this is my next thing of, like, is it possible and what does it look like to do it?