For Harold Bennally, a Navajo ultrarunner and race director for Moccasin Working, finishing the 2026 Cocodona 250 Mile was a purpose that had been years within the making.
He accomplished the 250-mile race in Might, and after we converse not lengthy after, he understandably has post-Cocodona blues. He’d needed to do one thing prefer it since he was a child, sitting listening to his grandfather’s tales of long-distance operating as a drugs man within the Navajo tribe. Working was how his grandfather traveled for work, to go to completely different communities, and to get provides for the household. Touring over nice distances on foot captured Bennally’s creativeness.
Harold Bennally on the end of the 2026 Cocodona 250 Mile. All pictures courtesy of Harold Bennally.
The depths of Bennally’s connection to the Cocodona 250 Mile course, to the act of touring an extended distance on foot, are extra distinctive than most. The race course passes by way of land that has been traditionally stewarded by the Navajo individuals, and touring such a distance on foot brings to thoughts the Lengthy Stroll, when, between 1864 and 1866, the U.S. authorities compelled hundreds of Navajo from their properties in northeastern Arizona and northwestern New Mexico to an internment camp at Bosque Redondo in jap New Mexico. They walked a distance of round 300 miles, and plenty of died en route.
In 1868, after signing the U.S.-Navajo Treaty, the Navajo individuals walked again to their homeland, now solely a fraction of its authentic dimension. “In order that they did that journey twice,” Bennally says. “And simply, all of the lives that they misplaced, and the elders, the children, the infants, you recognize, all these individuals…” He displays on the privilege of having the ability to run Cocodona by way of selection. “If they’ll do these issues, and I’m right here as we speak, I can do that.”
Bennally received a spot in Cocodona through a program powered by Rising Hearts, an Indigenous-led group, and the model Kahtoola, which joined forces to award scholarships to athletes who won’t in any other case be capable of take part in occasions as a result of monetary limitations. Bennally was truly supplied a spot in 2021, the inaugural yr of the race, however he says he handed on the chance as a result of he didn’t really feel prepared from a coaching standpoint.
Over the next years, Bennally educated for 100-mile races, he crewed different Native runners at Cocodona, and accomplished the Sedona 125 Mile, which covers the final sections of the 250-mile Cocodona course. When he felt able to tackle the complete 250-mile race, he utilized for the scholarship, and by January 2026, he had a spot.
Working Origins and Navajo Roots
Bennally didn’t get into ultrarunning till round 2012. He says he ran a marathon on his option to coaching for an extremely, after being satisfied by a childhood pal to do the 2013 Elephant Mountain 50k in Phoenix, Arizona. The warmth was a little bit of a shock to Bennally after residing and coaching in Web page, Arizona, and he says he grew to become dehydrated quicker than he was anticipating, so the final 10 miles had been a little bit of a wrestle. However he completed, and was eager to do extra. Bennally had all the time been acquainted with the Western States 100 and Hardrock 100, and commenced getting into qualifying races to see what he might accomplish.
However after his father handed away in 2015, his relationship to coaching and racing modified. “I type of misplaced the motivation to truly race a race,” says Bennally. He was operating to complete, operating to easily get pleasure from it, and he targeted his energies on race directing. The delivery of Moccasin Working was impressed by his father, and extra on that later, nevertheless it was additionally an opportunity to reconnect to the tradition he grew up in.
Bennally earlier than the beginning of the 2025 Sedona Canyons 125 Mile.
Bennally grew up in Web page after his household moved there for his father’s work, however his youthful years had been spent along with his paternal grandfather in a hogan, a conventional Navajo residence. “At the moment, there was no operating water, no electrical energy,” recollects Bennally, “so we did every little thing by kerosene and used to haul water into our place by 50-gallon barrels, and that was our water for per week or two.” There was additionally a ranch with cattle, horses, sheep, and goats, and Bennally discovered to assist maintain them. He went to elementary faculty in Web page, however spent each summer time again on the ranch along with his cousins, following the sheep or studying to drive a stick shift automobile. “That’s the place I discovered to drive,” laughs Bennally. How outdated was he at this level? “My cousin and I had been like, I don’t know, seven, 9 years outdated.” They discovered to drive on the dust roads as a result of it appeared simpler than strolling to comply with the sheep.
Bennally’s relationship along with his grandfather was formative. He traveled collectively along with his father to attend ceremonies his grandfather was performing, serving to households all through the Navajo Nation. They went to Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, and even Washington, and Bennally got here to grasp quite a lot of the Navajo teachings by way of ceremony and straight by way of the Navajo language.
What occurs through the ceremonies, I ask. “It depends upon what the affected person is there for, so it’s not all the identical,” says Bennally. “There are completely different conditions that folks undergo, and both somebody’s simply had a passing, or somebody’s getting married … or perhaps a child has simply been born, or a feminine is simply getting into her womanhood, her first time getting her interval, or when a man is able to come of age.”
Bennally on the end of the 2025 Speedgoat 50k.
Working is an enormous a part of Navajo tradition, Bennally tells me. It’s a part of morning prayers, involving a run to the east towards the rising solar earlier than daybreak. Bennally says that, as he understands it, you run to greet the solar, then, when the solar comes up, you cease and do your prayer with white corn or corn pollen, then flip round and run residence once more within the gentle of the day.
Bennally sought deeper that means within the ritual, and for him, operating at nighttime and being greeted by the sunshine is a metaphor for all times. “You don’t know which route you must undergo work, no matter it’s, by way of what life is,” says Bennally. “You don’t know which option to go till that gentle comes up, and also you see the sunshine, and also you now know which route you’re going. In order the solar comes up daily, you recognize the route you’re stepping into life: You’re going to the delivery of the brand new day.” Nature is telling you which of them option to go. “There’s all the time going to be a light-weight out of any type of darkness,”
Bennally says, and that gentle provides readability to selections and to seeing which manner is sweet or dangerous.
Sadly, Bennally says, the variety of individuals capable of carry out ceremonies and cross on Navajo practices and traditions is diminishing. Individuals are shifting away from the communities, shifting to the cities, and pursuing formal schooling. Folks of his personal age have stayed within the communities to maintain the land, the animals, and their grandparents, and they’re nonetheless carrying on the ceremonies. “I don’t know the way for much longer these practices and teachings will probably be continued to be handed on,” says Bennally.
Moccasin Working
Bennally now lives in Phoenix close to South Mountain and says he was transferred there by the corporate he labored for in Web page, and that his father labored for, too. “I stay in that spot simply particularly to coach for hills,” smiles Bennally, and he has a detailed and private relationship with the South Mountain trails after coaching there daily forward of Cocodona. His days are lengthy. Along with a full-time job and his coaching, he’s the race director for Moccasin Working. Sufficed to say, sleep is minimal, however he says that being a race director is one thing he has all the time needed to do, and that he needs to have the ability to do it full-time.
Bennally was impressed by his coaches in junior excessive and faculty to pursue a life-style and profession much like theirs. “My coaches paved that path for me,” he says. “I needed to be that type of particular person.” He was fascinated by their work as occasion coordinators throughout hometown meets and different occasions, and he needed to discover ways to do it for himself. But it surely wasn’t till his father handed away in 2015 that he realized he wanted to chase his dream. “After realizing how brief life could be,” says Bennally, “I used to be identical to, ‘Okay, effectively, I can’t simply hold sitting round dreaming about one thing, I simply would possibly as effectively exit and do it.’”
The Moccasins Working crew.
Over a weekend in April in Arizona, Moccasin Working hosts the Mountain Sheep Canyon Run 10-mile and 5-kilometer races, and Antelope Canyon half marathon and 8-mile races. Navajo tradition is strongly tied to the races, and they’re open to anybody seeking to really feel extra grounded in nature and to study extra concerning the tradition. Morning prayers are carried out earlier than the race begins, and entrants obtain conventional jewellery handmade by Bennally himself, in addition to t-shirts printed along with his personal design. “Just about every little thing simply comes from the desk in my residence to the race,” says Bennally, “and everyone will get to take it residence, so it’s an enormous problem.” Jewellery has traditionally been used for commerce in Navajo tradition, and right here, runners obtain as a commerce for his or her entry charge and participation.
The spirit of commerce continues: Bennally helps with a operating program for Native youth in Web page to offer again to the neighborhood. There’s a program for middle- and high-school college students, and so they’ve not too long ago began a cross-country program for elementary faculty college students. “It’s a brand new door that I want I had once I was rising up,” says Bennally, explaining that when he was rising up, there have been many Navajos within the space who had been actually gifted runners, however monetary points had been a barrier to becoming a member of the cross-country or monitor crew. “I feel it might have been an important alternative for them, for his or her life, to proceed to get extra educated, and perhaps they might have had a unique life now,” displays Bennally.
Bennally on the end of the Black Canyon 100k.
This system Bennally helps with supplies younger individuals with a possibility to be a part of the crew and neighborhood with out worrying concerning the assets wanted to take part. Bennally highlights that typically there are children on sports activities groups who can afford to be there however don’t have the drive to wish to run. In the meantime, there are children who’re actually gifted and wish to be there, however can’t afford to. “It’s actually night-and-day between them. So now that we do all these things, we’re capable of assist them, hold them impressed to work and to be a part of the crew.” This system is proving to be a hit. Simply this yr, 4 members of the graduating cross-country crew have earned faculty scholarships. “So I’m very proud and glad that they received to do these issues,” smiles Bennally.
The Way forward for a Group Spirit
By way of Bennally’s personal operating, he’s persevering with to chase Western States 100 and Hardrock 100 qualifiers however can also be qualifying for the Boston Marathon once more after operating it in 2015, 2016, and 2019. Bennally has loved operating races simply to complete, however he’s starting to wish to be aggressive once more. “It feels good, I miss being in entrance,” he says. His brother has been instrumental right here, urging him to go for Boston as a result of he needs to look at him race there once more. The primary time Bennally ran Boston was quickly after their father died, so this seems like a poignant want from a sibling.
Bennally ending the Boston Marathon.
For Moccasin Working, Bennally needs to placed on an ultramarathon subsequent yr however can also be at the moment balancing the rising prices of occasion manufacturing. Allow costs have gone up, as have the prices of the stones for his handmade jewellery. However it appears that evidently these challenges are simply obstacles to endure in Bennally’s dream, and to staying true to the core values of Moccasin Working. “I attempt to make issues actually value it to have the expertise of Navajo operating.”
There’s a calm, compelling air to Bennally, nevertheless it’s clear that none of what he’s attaining is coming simply. Though he obtained a scholarship to race Cocodona, he nonetheless wanted to purchase new gear. Resourcefully, he took pre-orders for necklaces that folks might purchase to assist him, which he would make after the race. Once we converse, he has simply despatched out the final batch of necklaces.
Bennally on the end of the Javelina 100 Mile.
Even with the difficulties, Bennally exudes gratitude. It’s a widespread theme in our dialog: He’s grateful to individuals who have helped him get to Cocodona, to those that assist him placed on his races, and to those that make the youth program attainable. He’s grateful to his mother and father, grandparents, and ancestors. The spirit of neighborhood is palpable in him, with operating as its cornerstone and celebration.
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