While her ultra running colleagues were trying (and failing) to break her Western States record, Courtney Dauwalter proved she's back on top form in the Dolomites with a win at the 120k Lavaredo Ultra Trail by UTMB.
The Colorado-based runner maintained an easy lead on the Italian course over Alyssa Clark (US), Marina Cugnetto (Italy) and Karolina Wierzchowiak (Poland) for the majority of the race, crossing the finish line in 14 hours, 14 minutes and 40 seconds, just five minutes shy of Rosanna Buchauer’s 2024 course record.
"She looks like she ran a 5k," jokes one follower on an Instagram post from UTMB showing Dauwalter looking fresh as a daisy.
First place is where you can usually find the 40-year-old star, but this one follows a disappointing – and very unusual – DNF at the Cocodona 250 in May. Dauwalter is best known for handing down course records at the hundred-mile distance in her trusted Salomon S/Lab Genesis shoes, so it's not a shock to see her smash half that distance, but good to see her back.
Not long after Dauwalter, Clark arrived in second place in 14:43:51 and Wierzchowiak rounded out the podium more than two hours later with a finish time of 16:19:57 after Cugnetto dropped at around 90k.
In the men's race, it was another US runner, Ben Dhiman, who took the win and laid down a new course record in 11:49:16. We previously saw the Pyrenees-based runner take first in the Grand Raid Ventoux by UTMB 100k in April. He was followed by Raul Butaci (Romania) in second place and Italy's Andreas Reiterer for third.
The Lavaredo Ultra Trail by UTMB was launched in 2007 and takes trail runners across a UNESCO World Heritage Site, gaining over 19,000ft (5,800m) in elevation over 75 miles.
