What's That About?
By Les Mottosky
A wild sport is rising in popularity; nearly by the week. It's pushing the limits of the human spirit, potential and endurance. The societal shift of 2020 and the storytelling-fuel of social media has the extreme-ish sport of ultra-racing in a period of explosive growth.
Running experienced a massive resurgence as the result of gyms, yoga studios and cross-fit gyms shutting down in the Spring of 2020. And it hasn't slowed down. Even a form of cross-fit has adapted and expanded to include a focus on running. A new competitive fitness sport called Hyrox has woven a five mile run into the lifting pushing, pulling and puking.
Nearly all categories of running have grown in recent years. Including those ultra-races. These generally sell-out in minutes and on race day, hundreds of runners gather at a start line at a ridiculously early hour. Common distances include 50 KM, 50 miles, 100 KM and 100 miles, where athletes run mountain trails, desert flats and even some roads. Depends on the race and where it is.
One of the more extreme races is called the Cocodona 250 in Arizona. The race is generally held first week of May and race organizers recommend runners have completed at least a competitive 100 miler to enter.
The most recent race has garnered a lot of attention in an already lively community.
For good reason too.
In a sport typically won by men, the 2026 Cocodona was won outright by race veteran Rachel Entrekin. More than that, she set a course record of 56 hours 9 minutes and 48 seconds. And maybe most remarkably she did all of it on 19 minutes of sleep! She took her first – what Rachel calls 'dirt nap' – at about the 200 mile mark, after she began hallucinating and even falling asleep while she was running! She laid down on the side of the trail for 300 seconds, bounced up feeling refreshed and got back after it.
Entrekin attributes her dominant performance to a top-notch support team driven by care and urgency, an experimental fuelling and nutrition strategy (which included – of all foods – ramen), her familiarity with the course and delusional self-belief.
But it might be more than that.
According to author David Hawkins book 'Power Vs. Force', when an individual sets out to achieve a goal with the intention of doing it for someone else – in addition to personal ambition – their success rate goes up.
Turns out, Rachel Entrekin stepped up to the start line with three goals for this year's Cocodona. None of which were personal. She wanted to see the ultra-racing community crush three new achievements:
• for the women’s competitors to finish close to the 60-hour mark
• a woman to place in the top three overall
• to have three women finish in the top ten
All three happened.
What a human. What an athlete. What a woman.
We'll give the last word to the extraordinary Rachel Entrekin:
“I just think that it’ll maybe make people think twice before they decide that a man is going to win, I hope it makes people think twice.”
Les Mottosky
Adaptation Strategist // I help organizations turn creativity into their competitive advantage by aligning leadership, culture and strategy to unlock adaptive innovations.
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