Courtney Dauwalter | Ultra running documentary film exploring Courtney's source of will | The Source

Many

ultra

runners have struggles or addictions and they like what allows us to delve into a cave of pain and I keep wondering what it is that allows Kourtney to Walter to enter her Portland do Walter was the first woman to cross the line this weekend at the 2018 Western States Endurance Racers Courtney do Walter Nadeau Walter set an American record in 24 hour races, won the Moab, okay, yeah, I've heard that before, D I'd rather hear about it, yeah, he beat to all men for 22 miles in which he was successful. success on the track in your own races you've had success in the shorter things 50 miles what's the problem when you talk to her she seems so normal there's no team there like waiting to meet a demon right you know I'm like where are you? demon like, are you getting over that, ha ha, his demons, a calm demon, he's there, he has to be copy at six in the morning, three hours to race time, okay, sure, I mean, I would like to see how fast I can do 200 miles now that I have confidence in my legs that they can cover that distance.

I'd like to see how much more efficient we can be with it. It's not a cup full of you. You finished this. They're just better for the crew. It's a comparison, yes, her job is much more difficult, it's decimal degrees and this was anything and everything can go wrong, so try to plan as much as you can from the beginning, she is doing it often, so my team is my dad. You did it? Mike and Stan, it's like a mullet business in the front, in the back, kick it back, that's the secret sauce, right there, creamy mashed potatoes, and then Mike has done tons of hundred mile races and it

will

help you overcome some. of the darkest times for sure and Kevin is just Kevin.

I think all of her Pacers

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say the same concern is that she will drop them. I'm a middle of the pack guy, you know, and I know it's 200 miles or whatever political, but it's working out fine, do we choose to wear socks or do you think luck thinks it's perfect? Hopefully he doesn't run another six and a half miles or faster like he did at the end of Moab because I almost dropped myself there and I think I get dropped twice a year. It would be embarrassing if the X factors had a dick when I was a kid, he didn't miss one of my sports, it's so great for us to have him here, my number one.

I feel that, as a team, we will be successful if at the end of the race Courtney feels that she did everything she could and got the most out of the race. I think she can do the race in two days. The course record is 58 hours, so we may be in over our heads, but let's do it. try it and if things go wrong and we will fix the problem and solve it. I set goals like that only to hold myself accountable to keep pushing when it gets tough and not so I don't know how to settle. and say oh, okay, we'll just finish it as I want to continue, yeah, like move on and see how fast we can do it, so the goal is, you know, to win this because that will ensure that I keep looking.

The next person I think I'm worried about is any race, it's just that there are a lot of them, okay guys, yeah, she has such a genuine love for being outside and just

running

and pushing herself to see what she can do, you'll hear a talk and it's genuine We talked about it when we ran together just in a summer race, you know, I think it's just curiosity, she's always had the desire to do the best she can, we always told her we didn't care what you did, as long as you did it. you will try You're harder and I might be stuck wear my lucky shirt oh Emily, she had Maliki socks.

She couldn't ask for better people, we're just so grateful we had people who can go 40+ miles, yes we're guessing 1015. warriors, you arrived at 10:30, so wow, like clockwork. I'm so good at guessing, you know, fast, I've been

running

my whole life, she had done her first 50 miles when we met and she asked me if you want to keep up with me for a little while. hundred mile errands like you had to explain like I didn't know that was a thing people did, the 100 mile run didn't go so well, I mean, I was like laying on the side of the trail, just whining and then I decided to quit, Trying to accept the fact that I had just quit got me really excited and at the time I was doing a hundred mile race and quitting wasn't going to be an option so I guess people would say that my rabbit race won 100 kind of caused feeling, maybe people were saying who is this person in long shorts and what is he doing on top of the podium, his

ultra

awards are all hidden and stored, that was It's pretty impressive that Courtney won cotton candy because she loves it what can be bought.

She is so embarrassed that she would never brag about her achievements. It's been really interesting to see her progression. I'm retired professionally retired, so yes, I would be professional. Teaching jobs will always be there and we. I have something I could go back to, it's like living my dream every day. I wake up and I can look at Colorado's Front Range and I choose where I go that day and how long I feel really lucky to be able to do it. that and we'll see how long I have to hesitate and Cucina was definitely ahead of schedule and I think at one point we know that she would arrive at the age stations 2025 minutes earlier than where we expected her, there are some athletes coming. in sport and how to hit, hit, be successful from the beginning, well, with her she's had failures that she's had to learn from, so her progressions were very natural and just amazing, okay, I've done it, she he knows he can do it.

She's fine, so what's the next limit? What limit can I break? It was very hot and I think it was so hot and so sunny and no wind that everyone overheated and she definitely understood that she was struggling to eat enough calories and her stomach was upset because of the heat, I guess anything we can take and I mean , if you want to take what she's pretty nauseous, yeah, yeah, like I ate that big Newton in Leadville, honestly, my biggest concern was that she wasn't going to consume enough calories and she was just going to take a big hit, you know, We were like the suns that will set very soon she will be able to run when it gets a little colder and it will rise again, yes, see you soon, great, okay, see you in a few minutes.

In racing, when things really start to go wrong, you can see the gears turning like she knows I know this feeling that I've been here before and it used to push her to the point where she would get, I mean, sometimes very emotional like yes I started crying but now she is okay and I know this happens and I just need to be strong. She just has the ability to hate life and be able to get ahead. I think she's an amazing problem solver and she can figure these things out. She tunes in to what her body wants and she pays attention to herself, no matter how much we all think she is stupid and doesn't pay attention to anything, she is very in tune with what is happening around her, how are you thirsty? then it also got physical when I was like throwing up, you know, everything I was eating the first day, so I got hit twice with these weird things that usually don't happen until after the first date, usually this was a one-time thing.

She had never been at a low point for so long and she had no reason to. She was great from the beginning. My brain was in a weird state because it was like it didn't process that I was running and doing this, so everything just felt. like it was a bigger effort, you know, Kyle was, you know, she had separated when I picked her up. I had checked where he was and we were about eight miles ahead of him, maybe nine miles ahead of him, right around there and then we got there. To the next aid station we were told he was seventy-five miles away or something like that, but that basically put him five miles behind us or something like that and all of a sudden Courtney says he had gotten within three miles of us, She was like we have to get there. go and she started up the hill and right out of that aid station you do this big climb like four or five miles and it's steep and rocky and she was running it turns out we basically kept the same and a distance that she just couldn't run as strong as he normally felt, you should know.

I feel like if she could have not had stomach problems from the heat, I'm totally sure she could have been running a lot of these things faster than us. We're getting into a harder pace and we were going but you just gotta fight it yeah I'm fine I got plenty of time to drink buddy you crushed it so much all I could do to stay with you buddy so which one Is it the next section? The next section is ten miles and goes up for a while and then down normally on these ults. I ride high and then low and then high again and this one was just like it started and kind of went low and then I sank a little lower and then I stayed there like I couldn't find the other side for the first 20 hours.

I think I was fighting for every mile, which usually doesn't happen, there are usually more highs. Especially in that first park, but I couldn't find her for some reason, I don't know what factors were involved and I learned a lot of hard lessons in those first ones, but every run since then, she's fine. she tunes in more and more and I don't know if there's any secret in this sport but she's figured out how to get through almost anything they just don't feel good because their stomach so I'm upside down so maybe pancakes and maple syrup God You know I would have eaten it because it's forming and it's a lot, I love them, yeah, she came in and we were like, do you want to try some pancakes?

We had two cheese quesadillas and we said: if you want to try it. some pancakes with a little syrup and she says that sounds good, okay, they gave her a little piece and I thought she was eliminating it, so yeah, it's like five in the afternoon, we know it's hot and sunny, we I'd like a cheese quesadilla and there's some pancakes. I think she relies on the fact that no matter what happens, we're still on her team, we still love her to death, this is it, this is frosting, I mean, this is fun. , you know, and if this all comes out like tomorrow, God, did we do it? she has a great time, a lot of this comes from her mom and dad, her humility, her general approach to life, it's too important to enjoy life to worry about the little things, she doesn't do ultras to get interviews and appear on journals. she runs sculptures because she loves to run so when you go about seven days I have to like pick you up so see you tonight at seven uh yeah have fun second place I think she's only like 12 five miles back now that she's been sailing he comes he comes in a battle it would be a lot of fun look she'll probably just want to look at the profile and I have the sheet of my favorite songs cooking so nineteen thirteen and a half six nine hooked up with a coach in high school for cross country skiing his name was Randy Gibbs and he was very good at getting every little bit of talent out of these girls he trained.

In a way he taught them the idea that you can go faster than you think. and you can go further and you think you can and after being with him, she figured out how to go very far, competing in Alaska in the winter and having to deal with the cold where they had duct tape on their faces so they couldn't freeze and everything. those kinds of things and she went through a lot of pain and suffering and learned from a very young age that it's not the end of the world. She came to Sierra Tahoe where her high school cross-country ski coach was out there to see her, I mean, you could see how she lit up, this is a man that had a profound impact on her, his cape boys as an athlete, this is the guy who taught me everything i know about basically going into the cave of pain like that. place where it really hurts he was the one who taught us how to go in there and be okay with it, you have everything I need to know.

I've been down this road here with her, she's a stud, they go and It was really cool that I came back to square one for him to be there with her daughter. Nice to meet you, thanks for coming. I'm not a crybaby, but it was very emotional and really special to see it again in year two. She went from being pretty good to all Son, winning every race, basically like she just realized this. I don't like to go second. She went from someone who didn't really ski. She was a runner, you know? and the next scene when she wins. the state competition and ski people have been skiing for ten years longer than her.

I think that's it, it's a burning will to be the best. She hates losing more than she likes winning it. You know, we had a maybe six-mile lead at that point and we know it. had closed to less than two, she was in the cave of pain because I was with her for 11 and a half hours on the trail and you know there weren't many ups and downs for the unfortunate one of her, it was just a lot of me. I have to do it, you know, they're 19 miles on the segment route spacing urn, she was like well, that sucked, you know whatever, my guy did it.He did very well and she said, Mike, be mad at me for a minute or whatever.

I was like, yeah, I suck, you know, and she's like okay, there's no service, I don't know, it's just so she quickly gave us the update that yeah, she's struggling to sleep and sleeping running, this is all. an adventure, well, that's that difficult. GPL, you know, only tough bosses can do it. Yes, I will give up. Let's put an end to this delusional and sleepless society. It really was a little hard for her. I think she was anticipating it because people had been feeding her information that he was getting. closer and closer and I think when he was about two miles away, they were 30 miles from the finish and she said, "I can't mark this for 30 miles.

I'll just do what I can and if he passes me, so be it." ". We'll try to catch him again he was a lot bumpier and I was anticipating I think it was bumpier than the first half of the race he just couldn't open it or not she just opened it up a little bit you can see each other. The headlights of others, I'm sure I guess I'm super competitive. I mean, if she could have, she would have put up with them and kept them at bay. It had been a very hard day since GetGo itself and we were there for like 40 hours or more. whatever you know when he finally passed away and it was like he didn't know if he could keep fighting so this is the last aid station.

Kyle at the last checkpoint was a little ahead of her, he'll just give it up or go and see if he can. hurry up, hurry up and we hope she's not disappointed or upset. I think she did the best she could. I mean, she wasn't there to give up, she was fighting the whole time and that's how you can ask for the right thing. She just puts herself on the table and suddenly you know something is beating you, someone is beating you, but she's not going to compete with the women's team, other riders and I think she's very special.

Great job Cort and she looks at me and she's like 50. I gotta get in before 50. You want some of that and I need to please 50 our goal is one of those things that really got her excited and she got together remember yeah , seven miles, okay, yeah, I have a new character. I think she just had to establish something like we missed the other goals we had. You know, the other big aspiration we had for the race and we were looking at the clock and I was like 5th, a sub 50, our finish is possible and he did some calculations and said, yeah, but you're going to have to work. so and then I was like, "Okay, let's do this," because I needed a reason at that moment to keep trying really hard because I was hurting so much and that was the perfect carrot, like you know, today we ran in 40 minutes.

Get it, he is the ultimate crew chief and pacemaker. I joke like you know he's just Kevin, but he's like everything. She doesn't have any gifts, but her entire physical abilities come from so much hard work that she has become much stronger because she worked so hard, but that's not the case. I mean, that's where I've seen the most change, but the basis of all that work is that she's so strong, oh man, I'm sorry, this really tells you, Hallett, how surprised I am. She is a truly amazing person. I have seen over the last three years that her physical ability has developed so much thanks to all the hard work that she has put in, where she would go run a hundred mile race and for five and six days afterwards she would be devastated and finally could work later. a week and now it's like she's doing a hundred mile run the next day, yeah, she can't sleep, you know, she's fatigued, her body is killing her, but within two or three days we're doing jolt runs or, you know , running around.

Her ability to bounce back has been simply incredible compared to what she was several years ago. I don't think there's anything in particular that's unique about her per se. I think it's something other people can do. I think she has a genetic gift, she's just wired. a little different maybe something that Courtney has learned and that she's become very good at is that when you think your body is telling you to stop, maybe you don't need to stop and it's kind of challenging but it's absolutely possible for anyone. She's not running away from anything, she's just running into the darkness to see what she can really be.

She was still thinking about her goal of getting there, you know, in less than 50 hours, she was really hoping to get there by 11, so she has less than 20 minutes to get them those last two miles she's close very close Kevin how did it go until the last one? moment when you just push yourself to see what you can achieve I think it went incredibly well Courtney had nothing left when she crossed the line first of all. She didn't let any of us down, so to tell you the truth, we're all excited about Dec, we had a lot of fun.

I don't think she'll ever be satisfied. I mean, she always knows that it's always possible to go faster. I've even seen where she is. She won a race and was frustrated because she didn't do as well as she could have done. We talked about how things were going when she was following her. She said this isn't going as well as it was in Moab, but it's almost refreshing as a reminder. that things aren't always going to go well, they can go very, very wrong, but you can still do great work. I need to come back and do better basically the whole second half.

I would like to change if I could. I do not do it. I don't know, yeah, I mean, situationally, things came up that we had to problem solve, which I love doing, but we just didn't solve them as quickly as I wanted, I didn't solve them as quickly as I wanted, etc. It caused the second half of the race to be a lot slower, but that's okay, that's part of the fun, I'm actually even more proud of her in that moment and it wasn't Moab seeing how hard it was for her and not being able to do it.

Eating for 140 miles is very hard on your body and for her to keep pushing herself and move at this speed, dad was amazing and if there's any lesson I've learned it's that you can never be too surprised at what Courtney can do. I don't think she's found that breaking point yet. There will be some good things to come. Yes, we will see about her. Whitman. She is simply capable. Everyone has a demon. Yes. I don't know. I don't know if I have a demon. I think I don't like to fail and I want to finish everything I start is that the hell you