Erin Quinn

It’s a Wrap

After spending almost 7-full days running from Superior Arizona to Patagonia AZ, climbing 41,000 ft and descending 42,000 ft, facing freezing, sleet-speckled nights and oven-hot days, Carolyn Cunha, 62 years old, of Bozeman Montana, was the final finisher of the Arizona Monster 309-mile race. Out of 284 runners that began the race on April 4th in one of the three start-waves (11am, 12pm and 2pm) 208 completed the race. That’s a high percentage for these 200+mile point-to-point races, particularly in an inaugural year when there are so many unknowns. Out of the 55 women that began the race, 39 finished. The fact that this was a new race, a 309-mile race and one that that traversed through some of the more remote sections of the Arizona backcountry, the stoke was high for all of those who were able to finish the journey, whether it took them 86 hours, like Pete Mortimer, the overall male winner, or it took them 169 hours and 33 minutes, like Cunha from Bozeman. It’s a mind-blowing accomplishment and one that will take the victors days and weeks and months and maybe even a lifetime to put into perspective. They were stripped bare in the desert and they only had their two feet to guide them forward. Head lamps probably helped as well. The finish line photos, captured by Destination Trails that put on the race, showed just how much this rugged course took out of these runners. But only time will begin to show the amount of confidence and soul sustenance the desert and the sunrises and sunsets and the silhouettes of the Saguaro Cacti were able to give back to them. It was a tribal feeling towards the end with finishers, race volunteers, family and friends and those just coming out to see what a 309-mile running race was all about. They formed a tunnel and welcomed Cunha in. Anyone who dared to step up to the starting line of this race deserves some respect, because the challenge ahead was more than daunting. It was a quest into the heat and the light as well as the cold and the darkness. Ultrarunning doesn’t miss a spot inside the soul, it finds all of the corners and wakes them up and urges them to be felt. Beauty, pain, loneliness, oneness, vulnerability and an overwhelming sense of love and gratitude. There is a special place in the world of ultrarunning for the person that finishes last or DFL (dead fucking last.) This person completed the same race as everyone else, and they did it within the time frame allotted but they were out there, battling whatever elements and challenges there were for longer than anyone else. We pay attention to who did it the fastest, but the person that did it the longest also has a remarkable tale to tell and a journey that in this case was twice as long. The 62 year old, appears to have started doing trail races when she was 39 but only in her late 50’s and early 60’s did she begin to take on longer distances like the Way Too Cool 50-miler and the Black Canyon 100K. To go from 65 miles to 309 miles? At 62? That requires hats to be tipped, horns to blow, salutations to be made, and of course, a beautiful, handmade belt buckle that she will hopefully remind her of the courage she showed out there. Congratulations to all of the runners. The desert is sleeping and hopefully the runners are too.

The Final Push

There are currently 17 runners still out on the Arizona Monster Course with less than 6 hours remaining on the clock for them to get to the finish line in Patagonia AZ. The weather swings have been dramatic including snow, sleet and wind at night to scorching, unrelenting temperatures during the day. The race is also completely exposed on the Sonoran Desert save for some aid-station tents and the shade a Saguaro cactus might throw their way. The live-tracker has Carolyn Cunha of Bozeman, Montana at mile 291. The majority of the 17 runners that are pressing forward, against the clock are between mile 291 and 304. Surprisingly, there was only one DNF in the night, despite being 164 hours into a 309 mile race bringing that total up to 71 who decided to tap out before the clock stopped running. They have until 1pm (MST) today to get to the finish line. The desert winds and the cowbells are ready to bring them home.

Update Day 7

It’s been a wild night in Patagonia with dozens of more runners crossing the finish line of the inaugural AZ Monster 309-mile race–one of the longest point-to-point foot race in North America. Out of the 284 runners that began this journey into the heart of the Sonoran desert 104 have finished (at the time of this post,) with 70 DNF’s (did not finish) and another 109 still out there somewhere between mile 252 and the finish line at mile 309. Those runners, battling the heat, exhaustion, blisters, hallucinations, chaffing, nauseous, mouth sores, swelling and more have approximately 24 hours to go until the cut-off at 1pm (MST) on Friday, April 11th. There are three aid-stations left to go along the course. Currently the live-tracking has approximately a dozen runners reported to still be at the Oak Tree aid station at mile 251.7. That gives them 15 miles to get to Apache Springs aid station at mile 267.3 and then the final stop, 22 miles south to the Casa Blanca aid station at mile 289.1 before that last push to the finish line.

Andy Glaze, the firefighter from California and ultramarathon influencer extraordinaire has kept his large social media followers abreast of this foray into the unknown, documenting hallucinations, hard-fought sections of the course, aid-station fare, hydration and cooling strategies and talking to robot-dogs that ended up being other racers sleeping along the trail. Covered in sunblock, Glaze crossed the finish line last night, showed his followers his new belt buckle and said he was signing-off and going to sleep.

Wes Plate, a 200+mile veteran and documentary ultra-filmmaker also crossed the finish line right around midnight with his parents crewing him. Cowbells are sounding and shoes are melting. One picture posted by Destination Trails seemed to sum up some of what the runners were feeling. There is still a full-day to go and another night to be had along the Arizona Trail. Updates will follow. All of the runners on the course have already gone further than any other point-to-point ultramarathon course in North America when they tipped over that 250-mark. A few of the runners that crossed the finish line in Patagonia last night have Cocodona 250 in less than a month. These include Glaze, Plate, and Andrea Moore (just to name a few.)

Updates will continue until that last runner has crossed the finish line.

Top 3 Females have crossed the 309 Mile Finish Line

The top 3 women have crossed the finish line of the AZ Monster 309-mile foot race in Patagonia, AZ,. Ann Tisdell of West Virginia was the first women to complete the 309 mile course in a 105 hours and 14 minutes. Tisdell led the way for the majority of the race, averaging close to 70-miles per day in the blazing desert heat. She came in to the sound of cowbells and cheering sometime in the middle of the night, looking strong and lucid despite having just run and won, the longest race in North America. She was followed by Jessi Morton-Langehaug, 46 of Bluffdale, UT, who secured 2nd place with a time of 107 hours and 28 minutes. Like Tisdell, Morton-Langehaug, is no stranger to the 200+mile races as she has taken 1st place at the Moab 240 and the Tahoe 200 in previous years and has taken 3d place for the Cocodona 250 back in 2021. There was a long embrace with her mother and other friends, family and pacers as she righted herself and smiled for the camera. Not an easy task after spending 6 days running through the Sonoran desert for over 300-miles. The 3d place female, Jodine Coe, 32, from Boise, Idaho, came through the finish-line as the sun was rising in a time of 112 hours and 1 minute. Coe does not have as many 200+ mile races under her belt as Tisdell and Morton-Langehaug have, but she was 7th at the Tahoe 200 this past year and 4th at the Bigfoot 200 back in 2022. 3d place at the AZ Monster is certainly an impressive way to start of her year. Congratulations to the top 3 female finishers. There are 35 runners, out of the 284 who began the race this past Friday, who have finished the 309-mile course thus far. Out of the 55 women who began the race that are 33 still out on the course, some of them within striking distance of the finish line including Carol Northrup, 58 and Tandi Sherlock, 49.

On the men’s side, there are 33 who have finished and another 137 still out on the course from mile 210 all the way to mile 304, trying to get it done before the clock runs out. They have 170 hours or 7 days and 2 hours to finish which will require them to get in by 1-2pm on Thursday, April 10th if they started in the non-competitive waves that went off at 11am and 12pm on April 4th. If they were in the “competitive” wave, that set off at 2pm last Friday, then they would have until 4pm tomorrow to get to the finish line. Some ultrarunning influencers/documentary-makers and podcast hosts are still out on the course including Andrew Glaze, Wes Plate and Andrew Marvin (of Happy Endings Podcast.) Glaze has been keeping his followers updated with hallucinations, trail angel stories, videos of Javelinas in Tucson and naps taken under a highway bridge, where he could shelter from the 90 degree heat. Wes Plate’s parents are crewing him and giving his followers updates as he hits each aid-station and heads out with a wave and a smile. Both Glaze and Plate are currently in the 260+ mile range. Distance to Empty podcast host, Peter Noyes, has finished the race and raised upwards of $2700 for Children’s Cardiomyopathy Foundation (CCF) on behalf of his son, Everett who has Cardiomyopathy, a congenital heart defect. Distance to Empty Podcast is dedicated to the ever-growing 200+mile races.

The top 2 male finishers are in. Pete Mortimer, of Flagstaff, averaging over 83 miles a day, has crossed the threshold of the AZ Monster Finish Line in a time of 86 hours and 33 minutes. He was followed by Taylor Spike of Oregon, who finished in 88 hours and 23 minutes. Top 2 in under 100 hours. Unbelievable. Out on the course the middle-of-the-pack and the back-of-the-pack are still grinding, covered in sunblock, hallucinating and trying to keep moving forward. Ann Tisdell of West Virginia is still in 1st place for the women’s race and is at mile 262.

Out of the 284 runners who began this epic, inaugural 309-mile run, 55 of them were women. Of those 55 women, 41 are still on the course, climbing mountains, battling heat and exhaustion, trying not to topple over into the cacti and using deep reserves to keep moving towards the finish line in Patagonia, AZ.

There are some familiar female faces in the 200-plus mile world, making their way through the Sonoran desert. Andrea Moore, 47, of Flagstaff, AZ is no stranger to the 200+ mile distances with two Cocodona 250 finishes as well as the Bigfoot 200 and Moab 240. She’s been averaging close to 60-miles per day and is on day four, moving towards the 230-mile marker. DeShawana Joe of Tremonton, Utah, is closing in on that 200-mile marker. Another fan-favorite, DeShawana Joe is a mother, a proud Native American woman and someone who has found both solace and community in ultrarunning. She runs in honor of her daughter. SoRaya, who was tragically killed by a distracted driver in September of 2023. DeShawana has talked about her daughter’s spirit guiding her and running along with her during last year’s Cocodona 250. She has a great support team out there her family and friends in Utah are rooting for her. She’s shown nothing but smiles almost 200-miles into this race.

Jess Greene of Colorado, a regular Moab 240 competitor, has pushed pass the 200-mile mark and is making her way towards the Piston Hill Aid Station. Greene also helps run an aid-station every year at the Tahoe 200 and posts pictures of morning kettlebell workouts and running with her hair free, unencumbered by hair-ties and hats. She also has a big following on social media where her Instagram handle is @randomhappythings She is someone who always has a smile on her face while running along the trail, despite whatever highs or lows she’s going through.

Authors Note: This is a quick analysis made from whatever materials are available from the live tracking of the race and various reports on social media. The race is ongoing and what is reported here will be changing in real time. Updates will be made on Day 4.

The Arizona Monster Day 3 Recap

Things are heating up at the Arizona Monster—Destination Trail’s inaugural 309-mile ultramarathon that runs from Superior AZ, to Patagonia AZ (almost to the border of Mexico) through the Sonoran Desert.

The race began Friday, April 4^th in waves with the runners expected to move slower heading out on the Arizona Trail at 11am and the “competitive field” leaving at 2pm. Not only have temperatures been scorching the runners throughout the day, but the battle for the podium has been fierce.

There are three Arizonians in the front pack right now with approximately 30 miles to go.

Pete Mortimer, 43, of Flagstaff, AZ (originally from the UK) is now in 1^st place at mile 282 with Ryan Sickles, 42, of Chandler, AZ hot on his tail at mile 278. They are being chased by the bow-hunter and podcaster, Cameron Hanes younger brother, Taylor Spike, from Oregon, who is in 3rd place just a hair behind Sickles at mile 277. Spike has a long beard and a grizzled look that could put the fear into some of the Javelinas that are all over the course. Not far behind Spike is another ultrarunner from Chandler, AZ, Joshua Locke, 39 who is at mile 272. These four have been jockeying back and forth through the past 3 days of the race and it’s likely to end in a showdown as they get closer to the Mexican border.

Mortimer has a storied history of ultramarathons and either winning or getting on the podium in brutal races including 2^nd in the inaugural Cocodona 250, after famously vomiting from dehydration at the Crown King aid-station on the livestream. He’s also claimed 1^st place at the Mogollon Monster—a 100-mile race put on by Aravaipa as well as Cruel Jewel 100 in Georgia and the infamous HURT 100 in Hawaii. Snickles has approximately 12 races on his Ultra Signup resume but nothing that would necessarily position himself to be in as good steed as he currently is, 270-plus miles into a 309-mile, multi-day race through southern Arizona. You have to love a dark horse. Spike’s ultrarunning career includes dozens of big mountain races in Utah, Montana, Oregon, Idaho and overseas in various UTMB competitions. He certainly has the experience and the chops to be at the front of the pack. Locke has an impressive number of ultras as well, with many of them in Arizona and several front-of-the-pack finishes.

It’s anyone’s game at this point. It becomes a question of who can keep rallying throughout tonight and into tomorrow morning when they’re likely to get to that finish line. Despite all four of these men, with the exception of Snickles, having extensive ultrarunning backgrounds, there’s nothing that can really prepare someone for a 309-mile running race. The Cocodona 250 by Aravaipa and the Moab 240 (which some years can log in well over 250-miles with course changes) were, until now, the longest point-to-point races in the North America. There is little known about the Arizona Monster as it’s a new race that provides a GPX map for a phone and/or watch and the elevation gain and loss of each section. From what we’re learning from runner’s social media posts, pacers, and the DT owner, Candice Burt herself, is that the runners have faced extreme heat during the day, snow and freezing temperatures (at least on night one) and a 16-mile, 6,000ft climb up Mt. Lemon and down Mt. Lemon that brutalized feet, quads, spirits and may have captured a few souls.

Once they got past that section, they eventually made their way to Tucson AZ where they were treated to a 40-mile-long stretch of bike path. There were runners able to hit some fast-food restaurants and get some burgers and iced-tea and the ultrarunner influencer sensation, Andrew Glaze, even had fans delivering him popsicles as he made his way along the bike path. Glaze has run all 5 years of Cocodona 250, as well as running 100-miles a week for more than 4 years straight. He’s a firefighter and posts daily about his runs and “feeding his legs,” and reminds people to “do hard things,” and “smile, or you’re doing it wrong.” His enthusiasm for the sport and his consistency is unflappable and he’s made his way to mile 170 at the time of this article. He’s certainly a fan-favorite and has a lot of people rooting for him. Wes Plate, who has run more than 10 200-plus mile races and documented them all on his YouTube channel is also at mile 170 in the race, being crewed by his parents and has a huge fan base following him as well. Chad Bruce of California is always in the mix as is Chadd Cosse of New York City and the Everyday Ultra podcaster, Joe Corcione, who started out hot but has faded quite a bit in this last day and a half. Hopefully he’ll have one of those ultra-resurrections that are always possible when a race is so long that one can die and be reborn several different times.

The women’s race has been led, predominantly by Ann Tisdell, a 200-plus mile race veteran who has had podium finishes at both Cocodona 250 and Moab 240. While she does well at managing herself and her pace in these desert ultras, Tisdell, an ultrarunning coach with CTS is actually from West Virginia. From the videos and pictures posted on various social media sites, she’s been hot, cold, hurting from the rugged terrain but is still in control and moving her way confidently towards the 230-mile mark. At press time both Tandi Sherlock, 49, of Prescott, AZ and Jessi Morton-Langehaug of Utah were tied for 2^nd place at mile 223. Not too far behind them is Carol Northrup, 58, from Prescott, Arizona, a regular Cocodona 250- participant who has come in Top-10 twice at that race. She’s a great climber and I would not count her, or anyone out at this point in the game.  80-miles is still a long way to go in a 309-mile race and anything can happen.

We’ve learned that there are some long pacing sections from marathon distances to upwards of 60-miles at a clip with no way to rotate out, making this race not only a test for the runners but for their pacers as well. We’re at a new crossroads in the ultra-world where 200 used to be unthinkable and now we’re having runners pushing up against, and possibly pushing over the 300-mile mark in a number of hours. It continues to be a wild ride just watching what we can from afar.

There’s also been some scuttlebutt about the Destination Trails owner, Candice Burt, going public with a dispute she had with a person she had contracted to do the livestream who quit, a week before the race, after some heated text exchanges, stating he could not work with someone like her. She claimed he took money from her company and would not give it back and made a police report and published information about him on her social media account (with 20K followers.)

This situation became the subject of a short, somewhat satirical podcast by Jeff Garmire of The Free Outside, (one of my favorite podcasts,) with a TMZ-styled broadcast about the skirmish. Beloved ultrarunning Instagram meme-maker, Tony Darracote @yaboyscottjurek has been lambasting (mostly through memes, but also some informational and non-satirical posts) Burt and Destination Trails for their handling of the live-feed contract dispute and characterizing her race as an unfolding disaster. There appears to be a some sort of contentious history between Darracote and Burt, but what that story is, has not been made 100 percent clear.

Burt was the woman who pioneered the point-to-point 200-plus races in North American when she created the Tahoe 200 in 2014 and the Bigfoot 200 in 2015, followed by the uber-popular Moab 240 in 2017—all of which have lotteries to get into and a loyal following. The success of these three races and the increased popularity of them paved the way, in large measure for dozen or so 200-mile or 200-plus mile races, like Cocodona 250 to follow. It’s not really one vs the other, it’s more about the sport evolving into a 200-plus mile era which is the wild west of this extreme endurance sport.

Meanwhile, Burt is running up and down the desert trails at all hours of the day and night to provide updates on the runners, interviewing those in the front pack and posting beautiful sunset and sunrise shots from the Arizona Trail. While this is going on the background, there are 284 runners who began this wild and epic journey and foray out into the unknown who are pushing themselves to the edge of what they believed was possible and then they push themselves some more. They have 7-days to finish this race and we are coming in on Day 4 soon. There have been 53 DNF’s reported thus far. The runners are going to the well and hopefully they’ll find some water to help them keep on keeping on. The volunteers are putting in endless hours to help these runners stay fueled and hydrated and safe. This is one for the ages. Right now, my money is on Mortimer and Tisdell but my heart is with all of these runners as they make their way through the Sonoran Desert towards that finish line in Patagonia. First racers across the finish line expected tonight!