Hopkins Grad Shatters Women’s Trail-Running Record Through French Alps
A graduate of Hopkins High School continues to amaze in her career as an ultramarathon runner. On Saturday, Courtney Dauwalter broke a women’s record for fastest time at UTMB®, a grueling 171.5-kilometer (101.5-mile) race around the French Alps.
Dauwalter, a 2003 Hopkins alumna, finished the event in 22:30:54. That’s more than two hours faster than her previous record at UTMB set in 2019.
The race is described as a “beautiful yet brutal loop” around the Alps with Mont Blanc at the center passing through France, Italy and Switzerland. The course begins and ends in Chamonix, France. It includes 33,000 feet of climbing.
CCX News first did a story on Dauwalter’s ultramarathon running in 2017. During a post-race interview at UTMB, she provided insight on how she achieved such a difficult feat.
“In my head the whole time is just trying to stay as present as possible,” said Dauwalter.
“So if I would get ahead of myself or behind myself and be thinking about how much farther I had to go or thinking about what happened on the trail 10 kilometers ago, it wasn’t useful for me,” she said.
“And so I would just repeat to myself quite a bit, like ‘stay here, be present right now.’ I think it keeps you grounded and also it keeps you moving forward, because all you have is that one step in front of you.”
Hopkins has churned out some remarkable runners, including two U.S. Olympic qualifiers, Joe Klecker and Joe Fahnbulleh. Dauwalter’s high school teammate, Jennifer Goswami, qualified to compete in the marathon at the 2020 U.S. Olympic trials in Atlanta.
Credit UTMB/Courtney Dauwalter making her way through rough terrain.
Hopkins High School
