A year after winning the three most important 100-mile races in the world in 70 days, Courtney Dauwalter (USA, 39 years old) returned to Chamonix, where she had spent her last drops of agony, to cheer on her friends. There she was at dusk in a duck costume. That recipe – Western States, Hard Rock and Ultra Trail de Mont Blanc – consolidated her as the woman of impossible challenges, a revered figure, not to be envied by Kilian Jornet. “I am just a person who tries to squeeze the maximum happiness out of everything I do.” This is how she defines herself from the comfort of a chalet, giving her body a break, the only one capable of withstanding this triple, a path so hard that she does not plan to repeat it. But her mind does not rest. “At least, I give myself the opportunity to think that any crazy idea is possible.”
Dauwalter tells how trail running, a sport she didn’t know about for half her life, improves the functioning of her mind and body. “I started to wonder what was around that corner, what that route would be like, what the forest would look like at dawn. How do I get to that summit? In short, it gives me a lot of happiness and I use it as a way to explore what things I can do.” The result is a perpetual smile, perhaps the result of so much suffering overcome, the extremes of emotion. Her formula. “I’m not an expert in happiness, but perhaps many obstacles are in our attitude. Not all moments of running 100 miles are good, there are many very bad ones, but what we do in them determines the rest of the race. When I reach those points – and I do – I try to calm my brain, accept the situation and start thinking about changing it. Can I do something? Or do I have to let time pass?”
There was no moment like the last two hours of the last UTMB, a pain that generated empathy. And she was comfortably leading the race. This is how she survived: “Taking one more step was all I could think about. I couldn’t think about 100 meters, a mile or the next refreshment stop. Our brains are very powerful and mantras work for me, being positive. What we tell ourselves in those hard moments matters. And if I repeat it over and over again, there is no room for negative thoughts. That’s what I did in those last hours. And it was more than two hours. [ríe]”. A message on a loop: “Robot, robot, robot. I was thinking about how they work. You can go one step further, you know how to do it. So do it.”
As time goes by, she appreciates the feat more. “I was so exhausted that I wanted to get home as soon as possible, but I feel lucky to have had the opportunity to attempt all three races in one summer. My feet and my body carried me to those finish lines and created memories along the way with people who are important to me. Coming back here has been more special than I thought.” The same smile, a different kind of happiness. She runs, but she is not alone, starting with her husband, Kevin Schmidt. “We both think that life is about making memories and sharing them. It is very important for us to do it together. It is not so much about running, but about how many memories we are making now so we can feel them in 50 years.”
This is how they fell in love with Gran Canaria, the island where they arrived in 2023 to escape the snow in Colorado and be able to run. It was the lottery of the Transgrancanaria, the ultra that crosses the island, as their victories in the last two years have been a global attraction. “It was an unexpected love! I love running from one point to another and crossing the mountains. We went before to explore the island and this year we did the same. The people are incredible, that is the community feeling of trail running. For some reason, when you go to an ultra you have the feeling that you are running with a band.”
She doesn’t wear the medal, but she is to blame for the fact that there are more women with the number, even if they are still a minority. “I would like there to be more, absolutely. Looking around at a race and seeing the same number of women as men. The sport is growing, there are more and more people trying it, I feel like it’s a really cool time to be in it.” She doesn’t have the magic formula, but she throws down the gauntlet. “Maybe not in an ultra, but exploring the trails in your neighbourhood.”
One of her mantras is that she doesn’t compete with women, but with human beings. That’s why she claims top positions in the overall rankings, such as her seventh place at the 2021 UTMB. It’s her life without limits, something she reflects on with the Mont Blanc glacier before her, that image that terrified a people for centuries and that became the spearhead of mountaineering at the end of the 18th century. “That’s a great point of view. Trying the difficult, why not? For me that’s ultra-running: trying something that sounds too crazy and seeing what happens.” And her body has found the other side of the equation. “I don’t like it when they have to inject me! [Ríe]“That’s a limit for me.”
Someone who doesn’t ask about the top ten things to see in a city: “What are the mountains like where you live? Are there any ultras?” And a life full of challenges to explore. “I’ve never done mountaineering or ski mountaineering, there are many things that could be there if the opportunity presents itself.” Those are the ideas that always give you the opportunity to think about. Maybe, who knows, a trail off Earth. “Get off the planet? That would be amazing! I’d love to travel to space!”
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