‘A New Challenge’: Courtney Dauwalter Is Chasing a 2:37 Marathon—and a Spot at the 2028 Olympic Trials

Renowned ultrarunner Courtney Dauwalter hasn’t decided which trail races she’ll run in 2027, but she will be back to chasing a new marathon PR and a U.S. Olympic Trials qualifying mark this fall. And she might have an Ironman triathlon on her schedule next year.It’s all part of a quest to keep pushing her perceived limits and pushing through what she calls “the pain cave” in different endurance pursuits.While the Colorado-based runner has achieved most of her success in 100- to 250-mile races, she switched things up last fall and ran two road marathons that saw her lower her personal best to 2:49:54 at the Twin Cities Marathon last October and then down to 2:38:55 at the California International Marathon in early December.She was so inspired and intrigued by her experience running CIM with a pack of fast women who were chasing the U.S. Olympic Trials qualifying standard of 2:37:00 that she’s heading back to do it again on December 6. She was on pace to hit 2:37 in the first half of CIM last year (1:18:33), but slowed slightly in the second half (1:20:22) and missed the qualifying mark by less than two minutes.“That was such a fun side road to take last year, and I knew when I finished CIM that I for sure would be wanting to take another road marathon side road like that,” Dauwalter said. “CIM was a great fit. I also loved just the momentum of that women's pack going for the OTQ. I've never run in a pack like that, and being part of it last year was really, really beautiful. It's insane what you can do in a pack like that versus what you could do by yourself. If you can hold onto the momentum of all that positive forward motion, it's amazing how much faster you can run. It’s super inspiring.”Dauwalter, 41, spent part of last week training in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, before the Ironman World Championship on October 10. She wasn’t there on a tropical vacation, but instead was there on behalf of her main sponsor, Salomon, which is taking over as the title sponsor of the race in 2027.She said it’s very likely that she’ll try an Ironman next year, even though the thought of doing a 2.4-mile swim, a 112-mile bike ride, and running a 26.2-mile marathon in one fell swoop is still a bit daunting. She knows she can handle the distance on the bike and the run, but she admits the open-water swim makes her a little nervous.“I’m 100 percent curious about trying an Ironman, I just have to practice the swimming quite a bit,” she said with a self-effacing chuckle while looking over Kailua Bay.While she might start dabbling in triathlons next spring, for now, her sights are firmly set on making a serious run at the U.S. Olympic Trials qualifying mark in the marathon. She said she’s been able to pick up her training where she left off last fall, even though she spent another summer competing in ultradistance races.JEFF PACHOUD//Getty ImagesDauwalter is widely considered to be one of the greatest ultrarunners of all time.After placing second in the Cocodona 250 in Arizona in May and winning the Hardrock 100 in Silverton, Colorado, for the fourth time in July, Dauwalter entered the 107-mile Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc in Chamonix, France, in late August with eyes on winning that race for the fourth time. She started strong and was leading the women’s race early through the first two climbing sections, but she eventually slowed and dropped out at the 50-mile mark because of lingering fatigue.But five weeks removed from that, she’s already back into marathon training with high-volume training weeks and some faster workouts on the roads."After running well at Twin Cities last year, we kind of said, ‘Well, heck, someone already made this time of 2:37 as a goal, so why don't we just put that out there as like the thing we're striving to get towards?,’ And so that was the pace I was always trying to work towards holding at CIM last year,’” Dauwalter said. “And last year I didn't quite get it, so part of the chase of going back to CIM again will be to see if I can hold and stick an OTQ because that would be a fun target to aim for.”Dauwalter said last year’s marathon training was mostly a fun endeavor and a learning process—learning how to run faster, learning how to ingest gels running at fast paces, and learning how to maneuver through aid stations without losing contact with a pack of women.Even though she had to run much faster in training last fall than she ever had, covering the marathon distance wasn’t a challenge because of many years of running ultradistance races.“I actually remember during the road marathons last fall getting to certain mileages and feeling like it was like the home stretch. But those mileages were like mile 13, and I was excited and like, ‘Oh, last 13 miles, Let's go!" And that felt like a really lucky perspective to have because that's not actually the home stretch. For me it’s just trying to get to that fast pace and being able to hold it versus someone who can run a faster pace but needs to learn how to run it for 26 miles. For me, I’ve got the 26 miles, but now I've got to figure out how to get them in much faster.”Last year, Dauwalter primarily trained at high altitude in Leadville, Colorado, which is situated at 10,000 feet above sea level. But she and her husband, Kevin, moved down the Arkansas River Valley to Buena Vista last winter, which sits at about 7,900 feet.She admits it's harder to run faster paces at higher altitudes, so she might consider dropping to lower elevations for some of her training this fall.“I think one of the key pieces of switching and doing some marathon stuff last year was just the mental refresh and reset of something new,” she said. “A new challenge, a new area where I had a lot of room to grow, a lot of things to soak up, a lot of room in my sponge to be a full rookie and really just take everything in. And I think the change-up of routines, the change up of routes, the change up of paces was mentally really helpful leading into another ultra season in the spring.”If she runs a sub-2:37 at CIM, Dauwalter would be able to line up at the 2028 U.S. Olympic Trials Marathon in St. Louis 17 months from now. The top three women at the Trials with appropriate qualifying times will earn spots on the U.S. Olympic team for the Los Angeles Olympics later that summer.“If I have the opportunity to take part in the Olympic Trials, I mean, of course I would want to be there,” she said. “Because what a cool thing it would be to be surrounded by these women who all worked for that same goal to stand on that same start line and just take part in that specific race. That's pretty special.”Find Your Next Running PlaylistBrian Metzler is a Boulder, Colorado, writer and editor whose work has appeared in Runner’s World, Sports Illustrated, ESPN, Outside, Trail Runner, The Chicago Tribune, and Red Bulletin. He’s a former walk-on college middle-distance runner who has transitioned to trail running and pack burro racing in Colorado.