Courtney Dauwalter's been training for her first 250-mile race this winter, and it seems like she's taken a leaf out of Jim Walmsley's book – by racking up a new course record while she does it.
On Saturday, Dauwalter took first place and second overall at the Crown King Scramble 50K by Aravaipa Running in Arizona. A video posted to her Instagram page, which you can watch below, shows the cameraman asking her if she's enjoyed "a good little cruise." She responds "yeah, that was cool" but make no mistake – this course runs almost entirely uphill.
Starting from the shores of Lake Pleasant, the course waves through the heart of the Sonoran Desert to the forested Bradshaw Mountains gaining 6,828 feet (over 2,000 meters) in just 31-miles. But needless to say, the reigning queen of ultra running took the whole thing in her stride and looks pretty fresh after a 4:19:49 race, shaving seven minutes of Ida Nilsson's 2019 record.
Just two weeks ago, Walmsley pulled off a similar move, delivering a new record at the Mesquite Canyon 50k. Video of him charging across the desert terrain might have seemed surprising to those who knew he was running in the UTMB Chianti over the weekend, but he pulled off another win by nearly half an hour over Kilian Jornet, so perhaps these 50k "cruises" are the perfect warm-up for the best of the best?
Canada’s Arden Young came in second place behind Dauwalter, while in the men’s side, America's Eric Blake took first in an impressive 4:12:09. Never heard of him? That's because this was his first-ever ultra. We'll be surprised if we don't see more of him in the future.
Dauwalter will be back in her beloved S/Lab Genesis shoes for the Cocodona 250 in early May, after proving herself the undisputed GOAT of the 100-mile race over the last couple of years, and we'll be watching to see how she tackles her latest challenge.
