In 2023, Courtney Dauwalter became the first person, male or female, to win the Triple Crown, the three most iconic 100-mile races in the world, in a single season.
Ultrarunning, with races ranging from 50km to 250 miles, is defined by type-A personalities: meticulous, rigid, detail-oriented, even obsessed. Courtney Dauwalter, 38, is the exception to the rule.
Dauwalter does not have a coach or a strict training plan. She’s never been on Strava and doesn’t plan races far ahead of time. She runs in long shorts and baggy clothes because, she says, they are more comfortable. She eats candy while training and drinks beer afterwards, because that’s what makes her the most happy.
“My diet is to eat the things that look good in quantities that feel good,” said Dauwalter. “My fuel tank is based on joy. If I’m happy, the engine works way better.”
While her philosophy may sound casual, the results say otherwise. In the last decade, Dauwalter has won more than 50 ultras, often in dominant fashion, and is widely considered the greatest of all time.
Over the summer of 2023, Dauwalter became the first person, male or female, to win the Triple Crown in the same season. The triple consists of Western States 100, Hardrock 100, and UTMB, three of the most grueling, competitive and iconic ultras in the world. Only one other athlete, Kilian Jornet, has won all three in the span of an entire career.
Yet, despite a barrage of accolades, Dauwalter says winning the Triple Crown didn’t change her outlook at all. “I don’t think of it as an inflection point. I don’t think about any of my wins that way. No race is perfect. There is always something to do differently next time. I always hope to finish a race knowing I gave everything I had that day, but be able to tinker. I’m motivated by the puzzle.”
The puzzle, so to speak, is her secret to success. Like most highly successful people, Dauwalter is motivated by the process, not the results. However, her process is anything but traditional.
“After I wake up, I have two cups of coffee and go through an informal full body assessment,” Dauwalter explains. “Where’s my head? How are my feet? How are my lungs and what is my stress level? I listen to what my systems are saying, before I do anything else.”
Without a coach or set training plan, Dauwalter trains entirely on feel. Her days are structured loosely, which allows for adaptability. She makes decisions intuitively, like how many hill repeats to run or how big her loop should be that day. “After checking in, I make an idea of what workout I’m going to do. As I head out on my run, I keep doing the system checks to see how I’m feeling as I start moving. If I feel good I may hit the gas pedal, if I don’t I might hit the brakes.”
Dauwalter started this year with a win at Transgrancanaria 126k in February and followed it with a win at Mount Fuji 100 in April. In July she won Hardrock for the third year in a row, but claims that none of these races were as easy as she would have liked.
“After last summer I was more tired than I’ve ever been, so I took a lot more time off than usual. I usually take about a month, but I took a lot of months to chill,” says Dauwalter. “I was exhausted physically and mentally.” The longer break meant she lost more fitness, which made her return more challenging.
“I ran Transgrancanaria in 2023, so it was easy to compare the two races. It was a lot harder this time,” says Dauwalter, despite winning by more than an hour.
After winning Mount Fuji, Dauwalter felt like she was back on track. “Training was going well and I felt good going into the race, but Hardrock was one of those days that the gears didn’t line up. In the first few hours I knew it wasn’t going to be smooth. Everything took a little more effort than it should have, so I just kept reminding myself to be patient and to let time be our friend.”
Still, Dauwalter broke her own course record by two and a half minutes. She hopes to race again this fall, but doesn’t know which race it will be. “I’m just enjoying as much as possible right now, not thinking about what comes next. Instead of trying to predict the next chapter, I just want to live in this one.”
This wasn’t always Dauwalter’s philosophy. She had never heard about ultrarunning – let alone thought about being a professional – until she was in her twenties.
“Growing up you see this progression in front of you. You play the board game of Life and learn you’re supposed to follow the steps,” says Dauwalter. “I believed in a linear path. Choosing ultrarunning was like turning onto a side road. That’s when I realized I was writing my own book.”
In 2017 she left her full-time teaching job to take a chance on ultrarunning. “It was just a hobby so choosing it full-time was kinda crazy. I didn’t have a way to help pay for bills at the house, but I didn’t want to be 90 and wonder ‘what if?’” This type of curiosity was formed as a kid.
Growing up in the suburbs outside Minneapolis, Dauwalter was part of a close-knit, active and hard-working family. “The grades were always less important than if we tried our hardest,” Dauwalter says. “My parents emphasized that if we were going to do something, we should give it everything we had.”
As the middle child, Dauwalter was close with both of her brothers. “We went to the same school, through the same phases, and even shared a car together,” Dauwalter jokes. “We all played on the same soccer team and they didn’t treat me differently because I was a girl. They never lowered the bar for me.”
In seventh grade Dauwalter joined the cross-country team, which quickly became her biggest passion. In her first year she made the varsity team and qualified for the state meet. “We had amazing coaches all the way through high school. The guys and girls teams trained together, like a family of best friends.”
Dauwalter’s coaches fostered a culture around working hard, but not at the sacrifice of fun. “I remember belly laughing while doing hill repeats. They encouraged us to not lose sight of the goal, while having fun.” This mentality made a big impression on Dauwalter and has become one of her core ethos. Even when deep into a 100-mile race, Dauwalter is known for her big smile and an infectious sense of joy.
After graduating college, Dauwalter signed up for her first marathon, not expecting it to go well. “I thought 26 miles would kill me, but it didn’t, so I started to wonder how much longer I could go?”
Curiosity led her to ultrarunning, but success didn’t come immediately. In 2012, Dauwalter dropped out of her first 100-mile race, which initially made her doubt herself. “I remember thinking I was a joke for trying it, but that moment was a key part of my path. It taught me about the mental side of ultrarunning and how important the things you tell yourself are, especially in the hardest moments.”
Years later, Dauwalter’s mental fortitude is what truly sets her apart. She cherishes visits to what she calls “the pain cave”, the mental place she goes when she reaches her physical limit. She visualizes an actual cave, walks in, picks up a chisel, and starts chipping away. If needed, she’ll stay in the cave for hours.
“Going into the cave is my whole purpose of signing up for a race. I don’t go there in training, so I feel lucky to visit in a race,” says Dauwalter. “On the start line, I want to get into that cave as quickly as I can and spend as much time as I can, making it bigger.”
Dauwalter sees the same cave every time, returning to the exact spot she left off and keeps chipping away. Visiting the cave is a tool to keep moving forward and believing in herself, not a distraction. By focusing on swinging the chisel again and again, Dauwalter sends signals to her legs to keep going. Although unintentional, the pain cave is a near perfect allegory for the process of ultrarunning. It’s a craft that takes years of dedication and consistency to master, just like digging a huge cave.
While the pain cave may sound dark and grueling, Dauwalter says it’s better framed as curiosity. “It’s impossible to do a 100-mile race perfectly, with so many variables and so much time at play. There is always something to learn, if I stay curious and keep moving the puzzle pieces around. I love that feeling. I love that I get to keep figuring it out.”
