Barring her ability to set course records at the 100-mile distance, you can almost never tell what Courtney Dauwalter is going to do next, and her latest move is yet another surprise. The Minnesota native is heading back to her home state to compete in a road marathon. Yes, a road marathon.
There have been signs that the ultra running legend, who's won every 100-mile trail race she's attempted since her 2019 UTMB win, is ready for a new challenge. First, she announced she was attempting her first 250 miler at the Cocodona back in January. That ended in a DNF after 108 miles.
Next up, she shared on her Instagram feed that she's been spending more time on her bike around the trails of Leadville, CO where she lives, and was working up to 100 miles on her road bike. Now, she's signed up for the Twin Cities Marathon set to take place in the Minnesota capital on October 5.
Dauwalter's participation in the 26.2-mile race isn't just a tribute to her home state – the Hopkins, MN native is competing as part of a "Best of the Midwest Invitational" field which is drawing eight women and eight men with ties to one of 12 midwestern states to compete in an elite field within the race, and there's some serious prize money at stake.
Dauwalter and other Best of the Midwest runners will compete for the dedicated prize purse totaling $20,000, in addition to being eligible for an overall professional prize purse worth $26,000 (with one prize awarded per gender).
Dauwalter has nearly five weeks to recover from the UTMB finals, which she's running at the end of the month in a bid to regain her crown from Katie Schide, before heading down to sea level for a challenge of a different kind.
How Dauwalter will fare on the tarmac in the sultry Midwest is just about anybody's guess. Will she trade her Salomon S/Lab Genesis shoes for the bouncier S/Lab Phantasm? The pacing at this distance will be a whole different ballgame, but on the plus side, she'll have the altitude advantage and it won't be her first rodeo at the race; she ran it in 2009 (where she came in number 126 out of 3,473 finishers) and again in 2012.
One thing we know for sure is that she's a determined athlete and she'll be running with a smile on her face.
