After her 100-mile triple-crown trail run sweep last summer, what will Courtney Dauwalter do for an encore?

In a 70-day span last summer, Courtney Dauwalter won (and set two course records) at Western States, Hardrock 100 and  Ultra-Trail du Mont Blanc (UTMB) — arguably the world’s three hardest and most prestigious 100-mile trail run events. Prior to the 39-year-old’s unprecedented trail triple crown, only Kilian Jornet had won all three races — albeit over the course of a lifetime.

So, what’s next for the Leadville-based legend?

After quietly winning both the Transgrancanaria 126k in Spain and the Mount Fuji 100 in Japan this spring, Dauwalter opens her summer in Silverton next Friday, where she’ll go for her third-straight Hardrock 100 title. The grueling loop, which climbs over 33,000 feet, is her primary target for the season.

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Even though she’s done it all, the Minnesota native remains hungry.

“I think I want to just keep finding the challenges that intrigue me and fire me up to keep putting in the work, the training, the time(and) the effort to go after them,” she said at a recent press conference. “There’s not a list of things I want to check off necessarily, but continuing to pour myself into this sport.”

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Tailwind brings back ‘Dauwaltermelon’ flavored sports drink

After last summer’s exploits, Dauwalter spent the final four months of the year “blobbing around my house … not doing much.”

“But I wasn’t worried about it,” she added. “I knew that that was going to happen and was just intending to take as much time as it needed to come back from it.”

In the lead-up to her 2024 season, Durango-based Tailwind Nutrition re-introduced ‘Dauwaltermelon’ to its sports drink lineup. Maggie Guterl, athletes and events manager with the brand, said Dauwalter exclusively used the watermelon and lime-flavored drink for last year’s entire triple crown.

“It was a fun process to develop this flavor with Courtney and our team, getting it just right to invoke that playful feeling on your taste buds without causing flavor fatigue,” she said before adding that the customer service department received countless emails when the limited edition flavor originally disappeared.

“We heard you and thought it was an easy decision to graduate Dauwaltermelon into our permanent lineup,” she said. 

Dauwalter discovered Tailwind at the Rabbit Run 100 in Steamboat Springs in 2017.

“When I first got into ultra running, I had no nutrition plan,” she said. “I didn’t know what I was doing.”

Considering her current resume, it’s hard to believe that until 2017, Dauwalter was a Denver-area high school science teacher who “casually ran before work” because it made her feel better about the day. Since signing with Salomon, Dauwalter has blossomed into perhaps the greatest ultra-trail runner ever — male or female. She’s also the quintessential master-blaster, a perfect example of a person discovering their true talent late.

“I never predicted this chapter in my life,” she said when asked about the latter reality. “I feel grateful every day and I’m just trying to squeeze as much living out of this period of life as I can.”

On May 10, 16 inches of fresh powder couldn’t deter Dauwalter from a morning run up 7th Street in her hometown of Leadville. She and her husband like the simplicity, quiet vibes and huge outdoor playground America’s highest city provides — even if it comes with mid-May snowstorms.

“I think being happy where you are is a huge factor in enjoying your life outside of training,” she said. “And that’s a really important for us.”

Hooking a left off of Ash Street just after 9 a.m., the lonely runner — dressed in a light jacket and her signature basketball-length shorts — climbs past Horace Tabor’s Matchless Mine and hurdles through deep snowmobile ruts as the pavement turns to gravel.

The former Minnesota state Nordic ski champion — who came to the University of Denver on a scholarship for that sport almost two decades ago — passes a man kicking-and-gliding on old waxless skinny skis along the car-groomed gravel road. The GOAT of ultra running smiles, waves and then humbly pauses to deal with a bloody nose in the nearby snowbank, rubbing soft crystals across her tan face.

The image of discipline and toughness hearkens back to Dauwalter’s Midwest upbringing, which taught her to “do anything, regardless of the weather.” It was on the frigid prep cross-country ski stage that a Hopkins High School coach forged her capacity to mentally override the body when it feels like there’s nothing left.

“He was huge on just the idea that there’s always one more gear,” Dauwalter said.

“Learning that at such a young age and having someone believe in you so wholeheartedly that you trust them and go for it — because that’s hard to do when you’re any age, but for sure it’s hard to do when you’re a teenager,” she continued. “‘I feel like I’m about to die and you’re telling me there’s more?’ To push past that (is) hard to learn.”

Even though imagining Dauwalter has more endurance itches to scratch is a hard exercise, one ironically absent accomplishment is a Leadville 100 finish. The backyard ultra is on her to-do list, but this summer she’s crewing for her husband, Kevin.

“I’m still very interested in the longer stuff and how our brains and our bodies can work together to take us over 100 miles,” she said. “What does that look like to move efficiently for 200 miles or 500 miles or whatever that is. So, that’s where I’m putting a lot of my attention is just finding ways to test myself on stuff that’s really long.”

In September, she won’t race, but has “a project” planned instead. While there isn’t a singular feat she feels would leave her satisfied at retirement, Dauwalter hopes her legacy is one that inspired people “to go after something that sounds too hard.”

“We can all find that thing in our lives that we can go after with a little more gusto and raise the bar for ourselves,” she said. “I hope I can be a small example that you can work really hard at something and have a lot of fun doing it. Those things can happen at the same time and there’s no reason to separate them.”