To many watching the livestream it looked another super-smooth Courtney Dauwalter masterclass as she won the women’s race at Hardrock 100 in emphatic style over the weekend.
It was her third victory in a row in the event, all of them new course records.
The ultrarunning GOAT finished more than three hours clear of Camille Bruyas in second – and took fourth overall as Ludovic Pommeret also set a new best time for the men.
‘It was a hard night’
But in a typically entertaining interview afterwards with Dylan Bowman on the Freetrail Podcast, which is embedded below, she revealed it was anything but easy.
It was after she’d ticked off the 14,048 feet summit of Handies Peak, the highest point of the course, that things literally started to go downhill.
She explained: “Handies went pretty well. I was with Mike [Ambrose]. He had just started pacing, so we had high energy and I was getting the lowdown on his whole day with my crew and what he had been up to.
“But by the time we got into Sherman [after 71 of the 102 miles], I climbed aboard the puke train and just stayed on that for the rest of the race!
“It kind of led to just a whirlpool of depleted energy and dry heaving all over Pole Creek [81 miles in and at an altitude of around 11,000 feet].
“It was a hard night.”
Leadville 100 comes next
Looking at her race as a whole she added: “It felt like the start was hard. And then I had a middle section that went fairly well, where things were clicking. And then the end section just tanked again.
But in typical Dauwalter style, she very much took positives from the tough times, explaining: “It was a really hard day. But those are the cool ones too, those memories will sit really high with me.”
And when asked what’s next, first up is crewing her husband Kevin Schmidt on home territory.
She explained: “Kevin is running the Leadville 100 which is extra special and exciting as we live in Leadville so it feels like a hometown, backyard race for us.
“That will be a highlight of August.”
Raising the bar
Dauwalter of course has rewritten the ultrarunning record books – including an unprecedented Western States / Hardrock / UTMB treble in 2023.
And asked what drives her to seek out new challenges, she added: “As far as my inspirations or motivations – it’s always just seeing what’s possible.
I just want to keep finding the things that sound just a little too crazy and trying them.
“And then hopefully that bar of crazy just keeps raising.”
Her exploits continue to inspire not only thousands of others, but also her rivals.
Recently Katie Schide went relatively close to Dauwalter’s Western States record, which had appeared untouchable.
