Over the past year, the ultrarunning world has watched in awe as American runner Rachel Entrekin has dominated the sport’s most grueling distances. Known as the “Queen of Cocodona” for her three consecutive wins at the punishing 250-mile race in Arizona, she made history this spring by winning the event outright—beating the entire men’s field by over an hour. But her remarkable season was far from over. Just recently, Entrekin made her highly anticipated debut at the legendary UTMB race in Chamonix, France. Trading desert heat for the brutal, technical climbs of the Alps, she proved her versatility against a stacked international field, taking an incredible second place in the women’s race with a time of 22 hours and 15 minutes.
To find out what drives one of endurance sports’ rising stars, we turned to writer Rebecca Byerly. Rebecca had a front-row seat to Rachel’s history-making performance this year, as she was out on the trails pacing another runner at Cocodona. In this in-depth profile, Rebecca explores Rachel’s rise to the top, her unique approach to training, and the joy that fuels her through hundreds of miles.
The post LISTEN: The Relentless Pace of Rachel Entrekin appeared first on Outside Online.
