Rachel Entrekin makes history in ultramarathon, beats every man in 3-day race
Rachel Entrekin, 34, set a course record of 56 hours, 9 minutes, and 48 seconds, beating her previous time by 7 hours.
“Why not you? ” — That’s the mantra Rachel Entrekin repeated in her head as she made ultramarathon history. Entrekin, 34, beat every man and woman in the Cocodona 250 Mile on Wednesday in Flagstaff, Arizona.
As she set a course record of 56 hours, 9 minutes, and 48 seconds, she also ran faster than Kilian Korth, who set a men’s course record of 57:28:36. Before Entrekin, no woman had ever won the event overall in the race’s history. It was Entrekin’s third straight year winning the award, but she ran more than seven hours faster this time around.
After starting the race early Monday morning, Entrekin didn’t finish until Wednesday afternoon. Making the feat even more difficult, the course’s location forced Entrekin to endure the respiratory difficulties of high altitude. Flagstaff is elevated more than 38,000 feet.
Over her three days of domination, Entrekin reportedly stopped for sleep on just three separate occasions. Each nap was less than 10 minutes long for a total of 19 minutes of shut-eye, yet she somehow kept waking up to average a 13:20 mile pace — including the stops she took. To lead the pack, Entrekin said she had to will herself past negative thoughts.