Rachel Entrekin has become the only person to ever win back-to-back Cocodona 250 championships. She is officially the COCOQUEEN, setting a new course record in a time of 63 hours and 51 minutes. Entrekin, 33, of Colorado, took over the women’s lead after ultrarunning superstar, Courtney Dauwalter dropped out of the race at mile 108 on Day 1. Entrekin quickly charged to the lead as she made her way down the precarious and technical climb from Mt. Mingus to Jerome and never let go. In fact, the nearest female competitor to Entrekin when she crossed the finish line to throngs of supporters at Heritage Square in downtown Flagstaff, AZ, was Lindsey Dwyer who was 33 miles back. Dwyer, an accomplished 100-mile racer was and is having a phenomenal race. Entrekin was just moving at warp speed.
Not only did Entrekin finish more than a marathon ahead of any other female competitors but she did so with a smile and laugh, and seemingly unending reservoir of energy. She sprinted across the finish line, on Wednesday evening as if she were kicking it in for a road 10K. The livestream chat, provided by Mountain Outpost, nearly blew up as Entrekin was making that last left onto Birch Street.
Professional trail-runner, Sally McRae who won the Grand Slam of 200+mile races in 2023 was cheering on Entrekin every step of the way in the live-chat. McRae noted that Entrekin had so much energy that she was hoping for a backflip with a half-twist as she made her way across that finish line. McRae was joined by Corrine Malcolm in the chat and Billy Yang, all 3 of which are ultrarunners, commentators and well known ambassadors of the sport. Entrekin was met by her parents, her crew, her boyfriend as well as race director Steve Adherholt who handed her the Cocodona trophy for the 2nd year in a row.
Entrekin shocked the ultra-world when she won last year, as she had never done a 200+mile race with the exception of Jackpot, a timed, loop-course where she won and ran 190 miles in 48 hrs. No longer a dark horse, she was one of the favorites going in to this year’s race, but still in the shadows of some of the more well known female ultrarunners. Entrekin is not sponsored and talked about what a struggle it was just to pay or the race entry last year. She’s a classical pianist, animal lover and PT who is unsponsored. Becoming the CocoQueen may get some brand attention. If you follow Entrekin on Strava,, you know that she’s been putting in enormous training blocks in the lead up to Cocodona and it looks like it paid off in dividends. She certainly put on a clinic on how to run and take care of herself and finish a 250-mile foot race that had her battling with rain, hail, cold temps, mud and tough terrain with fireworks and flare.
Dan Green, 28 of West Virginia is the new Cocodona 250 Champion, in a course record (CR) time of 58:47. He ran into Heritage Square in downtown Flagstaff looking like he was just out for an afternoon stroll and not about to wrap up 250-miles of running across Arizona. He was drinking a can of Coors Light as he ran into the finish where he celebrated with friends, crew and family. This is the first time a Beast Coaster has podiumed on the men’s side in Cocodona. Maybe all the rain and mud played into his West Virginian hands.
2nd place male went to the South African 100-mile specialist, Ryan Sandes who also ran an impressive race, finishing in a time of 61:21. Like Green and Entrekin, he crossed the finish line looking fresh and energetic and not at all like he had just run through snow, rain, hail, mud and piles of those Arizona rocks. Moving up the entire day was Edher Ramirez, 39, of Las Vegas, NV. Ramirez was surrounded by his family and children as he almost missed the last left turn to get into Heritage Square and the Cocodona finisher line in a time of 63:10.
F2 is currently Dwyer and F3 is the 2023 Cocodona champion, Sarah Ostaszewski They still had approximately 30-miles to go as day turned into night. These miles can be long and require naps and various forms of resuscitation and even resurrection. Both Dwyer and Ostaszewski have remained as F2 and F3 for the past two days. There is a tight group of women behind them that could also be vying for a podium spot and/or the Top 10.
Cocodona 250 is a massive course, that stretches from Black Canyon City, north of Phoenix, 250-miles up to Flagstaff and includes 40,000ft of climbing, technical ascents and descents, long exposed sections. It showcases many of the iconic towns and cities of Arizona as well as it’s vast and varied landscapes that move from desert to Ponderosa Pine forests.
While there are beautiful eye-candy sections like the red rocks of Sedona or the artist enclave in Jerome and even the Ponderosa Pines in the Coconino Plateau, this can be a brutal race on the mind and body and this year the weather flipped from it’s typical scorching desert heat to a deluge of rain and mud.
There’s nothing easy about Cocodona. But the commentators and guests and those in the live-chat spent a lot of time debating one question—what would you rather deal with, heat or cooler temps with rain and mud? Runners have been posting pictures that show fields and roads covered in thick mud as well as their shoes and pants and bodies. Most of the competitors had been preparing for heat and sun exposure in this predominantly desert race. It’s a multi-day trail race through various ecosystems and instead of unrelenting heat, runners were hit with wind, rain and temperatures dipping down into the 30’s at night. Some had crew, but others were relying on drop bags and may not have had adequate rain gear or changes of warmer clothes to take the edge off since they had been busy doing heat training and packing sun-protection gear, SPF and big hats.
There are still a lot of runners out on the course, with their headlamps and poles and hopefully rain gear as they make their way towards Flagstaff.
BIG MEDIA is not disappointing on Day 3. Cameron Hanes, 57, endurance athlete, podcaster, bowhunter and creator of the Keep Hammering Collective is M18 going into the night. Finn Melanson of The Singletrack Podcast has moved into M5 and Kevin Goldberg, of Distance to Empty Podcast, was singing Taylor Swift songs and talking about the new trail up out of Sedona—the Hangover Trail—as being both “sketchy” and “consequential” and wondering why no one had forewarned him of that exposed stretch of technical slickrock that he had to hit at mile 190! Jeff Garmire, of The Free Outside podcast, is being crewed by his aunt and slid into M10 today. Andy Jones-Wilkins, 57, of Crack a Brew with AJW has been moving steadily across this wild and varied course. He was at mile 162 at press time.
AJW was with his pal Chris Worden, co-hosting the Mountain Outpost Livestream during last year’s Cocodona and although Worden misses his studio-husband, he’s had some ultra-royalty with him including Pete Mortimer, winner of the inaugural Arizona Monster 300, Tara Dower, who set the Fastest Known Time (FKT) on the Appalachian Trail this past year. He will have on Jeff Browning, (aka Bronco Billy) tomorrow afternoon and has an open invitation for any of the finishers to come in and talk about what their race was like this year. The livestream has imploded for Cocodona with over 10,000 people watching today as Dan Green came across the finish line. The chat has been lively and Worden is the ever-steady host of the 24/7 feed, answering questions, updating viewers, and uber-supportive all the runners, whether they are front, mid or back-of-the-pack. He’s Cocodona’s Keith Dunn (live tweeter from the Barkley Marathon.)
Last year’s men’s champion, Harry Subertas is currently M4, approaching the finish line. Cody Poskin is M5, DJ Fox is M7, Max Jolliffe is M8 and 2023 Cocodona champion, Mike McKnight, has moved up to M9.
It’s going to be a long night for these runners, their crews, the volunteers and the commentators are all keeping their headlamps on as Cocodona 2025 continues to navigate its way through the dark. Stay tuned. Anything can happen. There are miles to go before they sleep.
SIDEBAR: The Carnage
It’s too early on in the race to have an idea of what the DNF (Did Not Finish) rate will look like but by evening time on Day 3, there were 57 runners who had dropped out and several of them were big names. There was Dauwalter who noted in her Instagram posts that she enjoyed the first 108 of the course and is curious to find out what the last 150-miles might be like but said that her body totally shut down by the time she climbed up Mingus Mountain.
Other notable DNF’s included Jack Scott, of the UK, who recently won the Montane Winter Spine a 268-mile race across the Pennine Way in Brittain. Scott had a pulled hamstring and dropped out fairly early on after leading the charge for a time. Prescott-native and fan favorite, Michael Versteeg, who won Cocodona in its inaugural year in 2021, also DNF’d on day 2, as did Pau Rus, and Jesse Haynes,, both of whom were in the front pack. Callie Vinson, a beloved figure in the ultrarunning community due to her relatability and body-positive Instagram and encouragement for all runners regardless of size, age or pace, also withdrew after approximately 90 miles.
The two Chisholm boys, Brody and Elliot 18 and 16 respectively, started out the race in high spirits but dropped fairly early on while their mother, Jennie Chisholm, 48, is sitting in 6th place right now in the women’s race. The Chisholm family is from New Hampshire and are big thru-hikers as well as homeschoolers and were introduced to Cocodona 2 years ago when they came to help crew a friend. Last year, Brody, then 17, became the youngest person to ever finish Cocodona and came in 11th place in a stacked field. His mom also finished high up in the women’s field last year as well and is still moving well into night 3.
—– Erin Quinn
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