What A Day
Cocodona 2025 started out with a bang. The speed of the runners out of the gate at Black Canyon Ranch was something to behold when you realize that this is not steeple chase but a 250-mile run through the desert, mountains, canyons and the sidewalks of some Arizona towns and cities.
The hype was high and the Courtney Effect, which is the enthusiasm that skyrockets whenever Courtney Dauwalter, the greatest female ultrarunner of all time (GOAT) is in a race, could be felt around the ultrarunning universe. She left a funny note on her Instagram page of a hand written letter excusing everyone from work so that they could watch the livestream which will run until the last finisher crosses the line in Heritage Square in downtown Flagstaff.
Dauwalter, has lived up to everyone’s expectations, even surpassing that of her crew’s thus far. She reached Whiskey Row in 14 hours and 40 minutes, faster than her crew expected her. She also reached that historic section of downtown Prescott in the daylight—something that has never happened in this race by any frontrunner in the previous 4-years. In fact, she was 1 hour and 45-minutes ahead of course record pace according to Liam of @aidstationfireball. That record split was set last year by Joe “Stringbean” McConaughy in last year’s showdown.
Courtney took the lead over last year’s winner, Harry Subertas, at approximately mile 70 as she flew through the trails leading from Camp W to Whiskey Row. The closest person to her on night one is Dan Green of West Viriginia, who came into the aid-station on Whiskey Row approximately 10 minutes after her. Both picked up pacers. Dauwalter took Max Ambrose; a good friend and pacer and Green grabbed Isaac Wait. Dauwalter has been flying through the aid-stations, stopping for a minute or two to get essentials, put her eyedrops in, have a quick exchange with her crew, maybe grab a new pack or some food and she’s off.
The 2nd place female going into the night was last year’s winner, Rachel Entrekin, who did not even stop at the Whiskey Row aid station but simply said, “I’m good,” and kept on trucking. She is also ahead of course record pace.
3d place female currently is Lindsey Dwyer, a fast 100-mile racer who has turned the jets on the first 70-miles of the race. Georgia Porter, who recently set the Fastest Known Time (FKT) on the Arizona Trail is sitting was in 4th place as the sun set and not too far behind her is the winner of the 2023 Cocodona, Sarah Ostasszewski as well as the 2024 champ of the Moab 240. Mika Thewes, who came in 3d place last year and has won the Triple Crown of 200+mile distances hosted by Destination Trails several times, was being shown as an DNF (Did Not Finish) but that was not official and there is still plenty of time for her to make the cut-off to Crown King at mile 37 by 11:55pm.
On the men’s side, Harry Subertas charged hard at the beginning of the race but was passed by Dauwalter and then Green. The standings as of 9pm had Green as M1 (male #1) Ryan Sandes of South Africa M2, Subertas, M3 Pais Rau, M4 and Michael Versteeg, the Prescott native, as M5. Jack Scott, who was with the lead pack for a while had to stop and take care of a hamstring issue but he’s back up and running again. And so the 250-mile dance begins!
A couple of fun notes. Versteeg is wearing his usual race bib #666, the sign of the devil and Jeff Garmire, who has come in 5th or 6th in ever Cocodona 250 race, has the wildest colored outfit on from Janji and a ponytail on top of his head. I’m giving him best-dressed award.
Courtney was greeted by her friend Kyle Curtain (also Sarah Ostaszewski’s partner) and their dog Fred, as she ran into Prescott along the residential streets. She was hugging people and talking to race director Jamil Coury when she was charging up the mountain of rocks to Crown King.
Big Media, as I’m dubbing it, which includes all of the ultrarunning podcasters, are all in good shape. Garmire, of The Free Outside Podcast and Kevin Goldberg, being referred to as “The People’s Runner” of the Distance to Empty Podcast are both in the top 15. Andy Jones-Wilkins of Crack a Brew with AJW, is looking steady and spirited on mile 60 and is crushing the race thus far. Then there is Cameron Hanes of the Keep Hammering Collective and Podcast who is also sitting in the top 15 and Finn Melanson of the Singletrack Podcast is sitting in 12th going into the first night of race, which could last up to 125 hours or 5 days for many of the back-of-the-pack runners.
Andy Glaze and Andrea Moore are keeping people up-to-date with their Instagram. Jamil has been running up and down the Bradshaw Mountains interviewing people and taking pictures and now he’s running up and down Whiskey Row as he tries to track the leaders and interview them in real-time.
Chris Worden has taken over the livestream being run by Aravaipa and Mountain Outpost which has had more than 6,000 viewers at any one time since the race began. There are also professional runners and people in the endurance space that are hopping in the chat like the documentary filmmaker, Billy Yang or the IFIT and marathon/trail running Icon, Tommy “Rivs” Puzey as well as Sally McRae, the “Yellow Runner” who ran Cocodona in 2023. The chat is lively and informative and fun and Chris Worden is so calm and cool and steady that he is kind of like the CocoDude.
There is also the Chisholm family that are homeschoolers and thru-hikers from New Hampshire who have 3 members of their family running the race. Brody, who is 18 and came in 11th place last year at age 17 and his mom, Jennie, 48 and his younger brother Elliot Chisholm, 16. Currently Jennie and Brody are both sitting in 14th place.
Jeff Browning, who came in 2nd last year has left Whiskey Row with his athlete and friend, Jesse Haynes, who won the Moab 240 in 2023. Haynes is gritty and two grizzled cowboy runners are ready to giddy up and hit Mt. Mingus.
The lead runners are going to have to navigate through the Granite Dells which are slickrock in the rain and then make their way up to Mingus Mountain which is a 2,700ft climb and gets them to an elevation of approximately 8,000ft. Then they have a rough, single-track and technical descent into the artist enclave of Jerome.
Some might sleep tonight, some might wait until tomorrow to rest and then there are others, like Dauwalter, who may just take a trail nap when she needs one.
On both the women’s and men’s side it is still very early on in the race and a lot can change as they move through the night. This is where people can get lost, hallucinations can start, stomach issues can flare up and things can get cold and tight. It’s been raining and hailing on and off during the race thus far and is uncharacteristically cooler than ever before.
There’s such demand for the live-tracking of runners that the system has been crashing. For all of those that want another way to track their favorite runners go to this link
The livestream will keep up on all the comings and goings of runners from they very back of the pack to the front of the pack all night long and begin again with some fresh coverage as the sun rises on day 2.
Stay Strong Runners, Volunteers, Crew, Pacers and Fans. It’s going to be one hell of a ride.
—- Erin Quinn
Erin Quinn 
Leave a comment