Extremely-trail dynamo Courtney Dauwalter is able to sort out her second race of the 12 months—Mt. Fuji 100-miler in central Japan, which begins on Friday. All eyes can be on Dauwalter after her 2023 season, when the Colorado-based athlete grew to become the primary individual to win Western States 100, UTMB and Hardrock 100 in the identical 12 months. Dauwalter is returning to Mt. Fuji after first tackling it in 2018. “Might be enjoyable to (hopefully) see how a lot I’ve grown & discovered about working 100 miles within the final six years,” she shared on Instagram.
Mt. Fuji 100 is the fourth occasion within the nine-race World Path Majors Sequence, following the Hong Kong 100, Black Canyon Extremely in Arizona and Transgrancanaria 126K within the Canary Islands (which Dauwalter gained in February). Runners will traverse 7,574 metres of elevation over the 166-km course, working by the foothills of Japan’s highest mountain. The race originated in 2012 and has seen some esteemed athletes taking the rostrum over time, together with Individuals Dylan Bowman and Krissy Moehl, France’s François D’Haene and Fuzhao Xiang of China.
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In February, Dauwalter kicked off her season with a return to Transgrancanaria to triumph for the second 12 months in a row. Runners confronted important challenges with rain, wind and chilly all through this 12 months’s race, which Dauwalter mentioned made it “100 occasions more durable.” Heading into Mt. Fuji, Dauwalter says she’s able to “take a look at herself” in her return to the occasion; in 2018 she gained in 23:57:48, hours forward of the subsequent girl.
“I bear in mind the climbs being steeeeep and the runnable sections being quick,” Dauwalter mentioned on Instagram of her Mt. Fuji initiation in 2018. “I additionally bear in mind throwing up quite a bit and bonking exhausting round mile 80, slogging my method in to the end.” Dauwalter can be set to return to Hardrock 100 in July, the place she shattered the counter-clockwise girls’s course document in 2023 solely three weeks after taking an hour off the course document at Western States Endurance Run.
To tune in to the reside stream of Mt. Fuji 100, click on right here.
