While there is a lot of hype being generated about the starting lineup for this year’s Cocodona 250— a 250-mile foot race that goes from Black Canyon City to Flagstaff Arizona—there hasn’t been nearly as much mention of the “other” competition. Yes, we have the Sedona 125 and the Mingus Traverse and some other races rolled into Cocodona-week. There are approximately 1500 runners slated to run across piles of rocks in AZ in varying distances, and if all goes well, collect a belt buckle at the finish line at Heritage Square in the center of downtown Flagstaff.
That’s the story they want you to pay attention to.
If you’re into trail running and ultrarunning and multi-day events, then Cocodona 250, now in its 6th year, garnishes a lot of media attention in this hyper-niche world. If you go on social media, you’ll see influencers logging their long-runs in or showing what they’ll be putting in their drop bags. They might be flexing pictures of themselves doing some deadlifts or sauna sessions and dropping hints that they’ve been “logging in a lot of vert.” If they really have come capital, they may even be highlighting their pimped-out crew vehicles and at the very least, that they’re sponsored by Mount-to-Coast or wearing Janji’s newly released snakeskin sun hoodie.
Don’t be fooled. These are diversionary tactics.
Because the real reps are not taking place on the trails or in the weight room or sauna. They’re taking place where no one would even think to look. Inside sweaty middle school gyms, or on gravel driveways and in the dark corners of public parks. The real reps are being logged in behind churches or at YMCAs after hours. The competitors for the real Cocodona podium are less concerned about their jog bras and they’re compression socks than they are their mouth guards or whether or not to wear their “LeBron XXIII ‘Masked Menace,’” shoes or lace up their Kobe 111 Low Protro’s?
The runners have been donning their headlamps but it’s to shoot free throws and practice their layups. Some of them have callused hands and carpal tunnel syndrome from the number of shots they’ve been taking from the 3-point line.
They’re bribing their children and spouses and neighbors to play HORSE with them late into the night. They’ve gone from wearing an over-priced SATISFY running shirt to sporting a sleeveless tee, flat hat and a pair of shorts that hang down to their knees. Their loved ones are getting nervous, wondering if they’re having a mid-life running crisis. One husband was overheard telling his wife, a top contender at the Cocodona 250, that he doesn’t know who she is anymore. “Aren’t you supposed to be getting more vert in or a tempo run today? Didn’t you say you wanted to ‘fast-pack’ the course one last time? Why are you still in the driveway chucking that deflated basketball against the house? What’s happening to you?”
I’ll tell you what’s happening folks. It’s the curse of mile 108. It’s the Mingus Basketball Association, the MBA. This is the BIG GAME, something more than a silly 250-mile run that has some of these endurance athletes laying awake at night wondering if they have what it takes to get on that free throw podium, to see their name on the leaderboard, to walk out of Flagstaff, not only with a belt buckle, but with a little bit of pride that they might have lost in grade school when they didn’t make the Junior Varsity Team. Heck, some of them didn’t even make the modified basketball cut.
You see, the real reason Courtney Dauwalter, the greatest ultrarunner of all time, ended her race at Mt. Mingus aid-station, at mile 108 last year, was not because she had suffered injury or hypothermia or went out too hot (one and a half hours ahead of record pace,) and red-lined her way out of the race.
Investigative reporting has learned that she and her crew were shooting videos of the basketball court by Mingus Mountain Christian Camp (where a critical aid-station is set up for the Cocodona 250.) Kevin Goldberg of the Distance to Empty Podcast, had been talking smack during the lead up to the race about how he was going to nail some shots at Mingus and defy the laws of ultrarunning (which require that those in this sport have no hand-to-eye coordination.) The European ultrarunners being an exception because of their dexterity with grabbing and reinserting their trekking poles into their quiver mid-run.
Courtney is never one to back down from a challenge. After scouting out the court and securing some footage she went back to Colorado where she and her husband and crew chief, Kevin, put up an exact model of the Mingus basketball court. It was cracked and off-camber in several sections. There was one area, particularly near the three-point line that was sloping. Once they got the specs dialed in the GOAT (Greatest of All Time) has been shooting hoops for hours a day ever since. Yes, she set a PR (personal record) in the Twin Cities Marathon, narrowly missing an Olympic Qualifying time at 41, and there was that UTMB race, Chianti 100-mile that she won, but the bulk of her training, according to sources close to the GOAT, has been on her 3-point shot. Known for her Nordic Ski background, what many people have missed are the not-so-subtle signs that Courtney’s a baller. Look at her long, shiny, knee-length shorts? Her jersey-styled t-shirts that she wins all of her ultramarathons in?
It’s been right there in front of us the whole time.
Goldberg was true to his word and at mile 108 did shoot some hoops and even made some shots. Upset that he didn’t crack the Top-3 last year, he decided, instead to set up a different type of challenge for these ultrarunners, one where the prize purse was a heck of a lot larger than a belt buckle. We’re talking M.B.A. Jerseys, Mountain-to-Coast shoes, Distance to Empty swag, Janji hoodies. The value of these prizes? Upwards of 100,000’s in ultra-karma dollars.
The MLA will offer the Cocodona 250 runners, all 400 of them, or at least those that make it as far as mile 108, a chance to shoot three shots at the Mingus Court. There are three different shooting ranges, each with an equivocal point value. There’s a 1-point shot, a 5-point shot and a 10-point shot. A lot of strategy is involved in this and crew members have spreadsheets that they’ve been studying to give their runner whatever advantage they can. Goldberg, who is not running this year, but instead, focusing his efforts on the successful launch of the M.B.A., will be planted at Mt. Mingus, one of the highest points of the race at 8,000ft, to officiate the hoop-shooting contest. He hasn’t said whether or not there will be any handicaps handed out of the runners are hallucinating or throwing-up. There will be no lenience given for runners suffering from chafing or blisters as that’s just par-for-the-Cocodona course.
It’s hard to say who will be able to pull-out some 3-point shots and earn a perfect score of 30 in this inaugural year, but I never vote against the GOAT and with Dauwalter’s preparation this past year, she’s a shoe-in for win at the M.B.A. I think that Jeff Garmire, a 5-time Cocodona finisher who has cracked the top-10 each year, could be gunning for the top of the men’s leaderboard at the M.B.A. Garmire, who recently set the FKT (Fastest Known Time) on the Appalachian Trail, also the host of the podcast, The Free Outside, is, like Goldberg, a lanky fellow and, some say, quite a good former high school baller. He will give his fellow racers a run for their money at Mingus. Word on the trail is that he might be more strategic with his shots, rather than going for all 3-pointers. There’re members of the Navajo nation, like Greg Secreto, and Bradon Bowie, that have some long-range talent and of course, do not rule out Andrea Moore. Not only did she run 9 200+mile races last year, while working for UPS, but she also has a storied baller past.
Women’s Top 3— 1) Courtney Dauwalter 2) Andrea Moore 3) Lindsay Dwyer
Men’s Top 3— 1) Jeff Garmire 2) Cameron Hanes 3) Greg Secretero
I’m thinking that if Cam Hanes can hit targets with a bow and arrow, he’s got to be pretty darn good with a target as wide as a basketball hoop!
While running a 250-mile race across the Sonoran Desert and Bradshaw Mountains and Verde Valley into Sedona and the high altitudes of Flagstaff might seem like a lot to most people? Trying to shoot-hoops at mile 108 on the 2nd highest peak of this race, possibly in the middle of the night on no sleep? That’s the real challenge.
Those that have been interviewed on Distance to Empty’s “Flagstaff Bound,” series, were given the opportunity to send their future self a message.
Courtney left a message that has two meanings, one is to encourage herself to become the Queen of the M.L.A. and the 2nd is to make to Flagstaff this year. Here’s what she said.
“Dear Courtney, this is not the end of your race. Love, Courtney.”
— Erin Quinn
Author’s Note: This is a parody but in all seriousness is one of the reasons I love this sport so much. It’s full of fun and whimsy and humility and community. The elites and the rest of the pack all have equal opportunity to pause, throw some shots in a Christian Camp basketball court and laugh at how crazy and how fun this sport is! Let’s go Cocodona runners and M.L.A. players. Way to go Distance to Empty and Kevin Goldberg and Peter Noyes for setting up this competition within the competition. If you haven’t listened to it yet, please check out their Flagstaff Bound Series. My personal favorite was the one with Courtney Dauwalter. She’s so humble, so funny, and out there, just trying to get Cocodona 250 right this year. Go Court and all of the CocoLoco runners and M.L.A. participants.
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