Rachel Entrekin at the finish line in Arizona. (Anadolu/Getty Images/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Link to article: https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2026/05/17/how-rachel-entrekin-won-cocodona-250/
By Jason Nark
Rachel Entrekin was already known as the “Queen of Cocodona” when she arrived in Arizona last week for one of America’s most punishing ultramarathons.
Then the 250-mile race started. Entrekin, a two-time women’s champion in the event, found herself running again with the elite males, and she began wondering: “Why not you?”
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Then she pulled away, crushing the course record by seven hours, beating every man and woman in the field and providing another example of how multi-day races have erased gender lines.
Now, at 34, Entrekin’s the king of Cocodona, too, or maybe something more than that.
“One of my pacers has determined that I must be from another planet,” Entrekin said in an interview this week, still buzzing from her historic win.
Entrekin began running in 2009, as a student at the University of Alabama, before starting a career in physical therapy. She eventually started competing in half marathons, then full ones, before hitting longer ultramarathons in the Southeast and descending into what she called “insanity.” When she moved to Washington state and looked up at the vistas, she found her calling.
“I love running up mountains,” she told the “For the Long Run” podcast in February.
Today, Entrekin is fully sponsored and has won or placed in about 100 ultras, regularly beating men. At Cocodona, that meant finishing in 56 hours, nine minutes and 48 seconds. Kilian Korth, the men’s winner, finished 78 minutes behind her.
Passing Korth and other top runners at mile 60 was a test of Entrekin’s “why not you?” philosophy.
“I thought about my résumé — that I’ve won this race twice already, and that I won lots of other 200-mile races and other 100-mile races. I’m just as qualified to be at the front of this race as they are, so why can’t it be me?” she said. “I thought, ‘I think I can do this, so why not?’”
The Cocodona 250 is among the most punishing races in the country. (Cheyanne Mumphrey/AP)
Cocodona, which debuted in 2021, begins in the Sonoran Desert and weaves north through red rocks, pine forests and mountain ranges. It has quickly become a measuring stick for some of the world’s best ultrarunners.