After running for 60 miles through snow, up steep, root-filled switchbacks with thousands of feet of elevation gain, Courtney Dauwalter entered what she calls her pain cave. For the next 40 miles of the Western States 100-Mile Endurance Run through California’s Sierra Nevada, she imagined she was holding a chisel and chipping away at the furthest reaches of her pain, while staying focused on every step she took. By the time Dauwalter crossed the finish line in 15 hours, 29 minutes and 33 seconds, she had obliterated the women’s course record by more than an hour and had run the 23rd-fastest time, by anyone, in the race’s 45-year history.
To put Dauwalter’s time in perspective, it would have won the men’s division of Western States — arguably the most competitive 100-mile race in the world — every year from 1978 through 2009. Scott Jurek won Western States seven times (most recently in 2005) but never once ran as fast as Dauwalter did this year. She beat a 1994 Western State record set by Ann Trason, who won the race 14 times, by more than two hours.
Dauwalter is one of the most colorful characters in ultrarunning. She is known for her love of candy, nachos and beer, as well as her loose shorts and her vivid on-course hallucinations, which are illustrated on hats…
