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In a shock to utterly nobody, Courtney Dauwalter led wire-to-wire to win the Good Côte d’Azur by UTMB 100-miler on October 5. She additionally capped off an undefeated season that included decisive victories, course information, and crashing males’s podiums on the Transgrancanaria 126K, Extremely Path Mount Fuji 100-miler, and Hardrock 100.
It may very well be boring, routine, habituated. Nevertheless it’s not, and there’s a quite simple motive why. Dauwalter was ostensibly right here to qualify for subsequent summer season’s Extremely-Path du Mont-Blanc. “All” she needed to do was win. (Truly, she didn’t even have to win, she simply wanted to complete within the high three.) However Dauwalter didn’t simply win. She went to the depths of the effectively—or as she would say, the “ache cave”—to obliterate the sector by 5 hours. 5 hours! That’s almost a 25 % distinction in time between her and second place Enrica Dematteis of Italy.
Not solely that, she threw down a valiant combat for the general title.
The truth that she got here up simply wanting that honor is about as near “failure” because the 39-year-old from Leadville, Colorado, will get as of late. And naturally, her race was a convincing success.
Finally, she ran out of actual property, crossing the end line on the Promenade des Anglais in downtown Good, France, in 21 hours, 35 minutes, and 57 seconds, lower than quarter-hour behind males’s winner Cristofer Clemente Mora from the island of La Gomera in Spain’s Canary Islands. Mora, 38, isn’t any slouch at operating, by the way in which. He runs professionally for Hoka and has excelled at the whole lot from the Run the Rut 50K, which he received in 2016, to fifth at TDS in 2023 and a victory final 12 months on the Puerto Vallarta México by UTMB 100K.
However like most ultra-trail runners, Mora has contended along with his ups and downs. He dropped out of three UTMB World Sequence races this 12 months earlier than lastly nailing it in Good. Not Dauwalter. The final race she DNFed was the Hardrock 100 in 2021 as a result of she was puking her guts out on the aspect of the path. She rose from the ashes by successful Extremely-Path du Mont-Blanc simply six weeks later and has by no means appeared again, including quite a few prestigious titles to her palmares since together with: the Hardrock 100 and Diagonale des Fous in 2022, her jaw-dropping Western States 100, Hardock 100, and UTMB triple crown in 2023, and her slew of victories this 12 months.
It’s a resume anybody aside from Dauwalter could be thrilled to perform over a lifetime. And but she appears to assault every race with the fervor of an unknown rising star determined to show herself. In a sport crammed with unpredictability and threat, she rises to the problem again and again.
That’s to not say the whole lot at all times goes proper—Dauwalter, at all times gracious and composed in victory, can be unafraid to reveal her soul on the race course. She informed us by way of blue lips on the end line of UTMB final 12 months that each step of that almost wire-to-wire win was onerous. The factor is, she’s simply so significantly better than almost everybody else that her margin for error is so large, she will work by way of deep lows and nonetheless win by hours.
Dauwalter’s dominance by no means will get outdated exactly as a result of she provides it her absolute all even when she doesn’t need to. She mentioned this race was “très difficile” in comparison with even a few of her different through-the-night wins from this 12 months.
“This course is basically distinctive I believe,” she continued. “The terrain you get to cowl. The rocks, the roots, the rain in a single day. I discovered it very tough, and I’m very joyful to be right here now.”
So relatable, within the least relatable approach doable. She’s emblematic of the runner battle, the human battle, within the type of a path operating god.
How Dauwalter Dominated Good Côte d’Azur by UTMB
Maybe the toughest a part of Dauwalter’s day got here earlier than the beginning gun occasion went off. As she made her method to the beginning line, she graciously stopped for selfies with throngs of adoring followers and even fellow racers. So it was in all probability a reduction when the beginning gun went off at 12 P.M. on October 4, and Dauwalter and a subject of almost 600 took off from the ski village of Auron within the Maritime Alps at 5,200-feet.
She went out with the lead males as they made their approach up by way of the wind-swept mountains previous the Refuge de Rabuons and to the highpoint at over 8,700 ft. Clad in her quintessential lengthy, saggy shorts (this time emblazoned with tropical options reminiscent of palm bushes) and an outsized vivid orange brief sleeve T-shirt, she traced the enduring ridges of the Mercantour massif in Mercantour Nationwide Park and in the end hit winter.
However a little bit of rain and flying snow was no downside for the previous Nordic skier. As the boys round her placed on coats, she stayed in her tropical garb. Is she even human? It definitely didn’t appear to be it as she floated down the technical mountainside and flitted by way of help stations together with her attribute calm effectivity, placing on chapstick as her husband Kevin added contemporary smooth flasks to her operating vest. (None of her help station stops all through the race hit two minutes.) After which it was poles again out as she headed into the evening and up the Col de Madeleine and into third place general.
Because the solar rose over the Mediterranean Sea in the direction of the end line, Dauwalter had already lined over 85 miles of the relentless mountain terrain. Shades on, she moved into second on the ultimate grunt over the Plateau Saint-Michel and navigated the slippery rocky trails alongside the coast and concrete staircase-laden trails by way of the higher Good space. It didn’t look simple—Dauwalter gingerly picked her ft up over rocks and roots, shuffled down tight staircases, and grimaced in focus (or dare we are saying ache?) as she rounded the marina in Good. However as she handed cheering followers with lower than a mile to go, she cracked a smile.
At 9:36 A.M. Dauwaler broke not solely the tape, but in addition the ladies’s course file by almost six hours. She instantly circled and clapped for the followers lining the end line.
“I really feel actually fortunate we obtained to come back expertise this race, this course, this place,” she mentioned. “After I came visiting that final hill and noticed the ocean and I might begin to see Good I used to be thrilled. Tremendous psyched on the complete subject. I hope individuals will come cheer for different runners coming in right this moment.”
This victory not solely caps off one other epic season, it units the stage for maybe an much more attractive 2025. The one different title within the sport to come back near Dauwalter’s degree of dominance is, in fact, fellow American Katie Schide. Since her victory at UTMB in 2022, Schide, too, has slayed ladies’s fields and vied for males’s podiums. She actually cemented her standing as Dauwalter’s solely competitor by breaking Dauwalter’s course file at UTMB this summer season. We will solely hope now that Dauwalter has certified for the 2025 version of the 107-mile lap round Mont Blanc that we’ll see a revision of the head-to-head showdown we’ve all been ready for.
Better of the Relaxation
In a testomony to the unfettered development of the UTMB World Sequence over the previous two years, most Good Côte d’Azur races contained just a few huge names with a fast drop off in depth. There are just too many UTMB World Sequence races, along with the remainder of the races within the sport, to help aggressive subject at each.
So unsurprisingly Jon Albon of the U.Okay. cleaned up within the 50K, crossing the road in 4:15:31—eight minutes forward of France’s Simon Paccard. This 12 months’s Zegama champion Sylvia Nordskar of Norway received the ladies’s race in 5:08:48, 5 minutes forward of Italy’s Camilla Magliano. Valentin LaCroix of France took dwelling victory within the 100K in 11:19:04, and Norway’s Ingrid Due-Gundersen received the ladies’s race in 15:02:49. Simply 5 weeks after his astonishing win at UTMB, Vincent Bouillard cleaned up within the 20K (1:32:07). French compatriot Marie Nivet received the ladies’s race in 1:48:04.
Whereas Dauwalter hopefully kicks again subsequent to the waters paying homage to a blue slushie, there’s no relaxation for the weary for UTMB staffers world wide. The UTMB World Sequence continues subsequent weekend on the Kodiak Extremely Marathons by UTMB in Massive Bear Lake, California, and likewise at TransJeju by UTMB in South Korea, the place many extra runners will pour their hearts into qualifying for the UTMB World Sequence Finals in Chamonix, France, subsequent August.
In the event that they’re fortunate, in a 12 months they might discover Dauwalter subsequent to them on the beginning line.
