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Last year the NYTimes had a nice writeup about her https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/05/sports/courtney-dauwalter... - I was following up on that and found an interview she did with Joe Rogan in 2017 after winning the MOAB 240, and some of the stories she tells about persevering through physical fatigue (and hallucinations, etc) is unreal: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8DfjXnIk6c

⬐ have_faith

I've seen the Joe Rogan interview, it's a great listen. Equally off-putting and inspiring as one of my goals is to finish an ultra.

I saw her first at Joe Rogan's podcast[1]. Far beyond the athletic achievement, I was amazed by her humility, how modest was she was during the entire conversation!

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8DfjXnIk6c

⬐ educationdata

Anybody also feel there is some sort of similarity between the way how she talks and Elon Mask?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ycPr5-27vSI

⬐ sysalphUS

I really found her modesty refreshing. If you’d like to hear more, she’s also on the Humans of Ultrarunning Poscast episode 1. One thing that stands out is her absence of formal structure and training plan. She just really enjoys running and does what her body is up for at any given day for in training. http://humansofultrarunning.com/episode-1-courtney-dauwalter...

⬐ feketegy

Well, I don't know about that, on the Rogan podcast at one point she mentioned that one time she actually temporarily got blind of the exhaustion, but still kept running, so clearly her body was not up for it, but she was/is "crazy" enough not to stop.

⬐ sysalphUS

I’m pretty sure that was during the actual 240 mile race. Not training.

Then how did Courtney Dauwalter recently win the MOAB 240 race in Utah by over eight hours on a diet of nachos, candy and beer? She eats far more calories than a normal human could and is establishing new high marks in performance along the way. Not even the Tarahumara have put up her kind of numbers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8DfjXnIk6c

A single hour on the treadmill will burn over 1,000 kcal for most somewhat fit people. It also increases their insulin sensitivity. The truth is most westerners and especially Americans are far too sedentary.

⬐ joelrunyon

She doesn't eat that during the race...

⬐ ardit33

Where did you get that number? Unless you are doing some hardcore HIT, or doing olympic level running, you will never burn 1000 cal in a hour or running. Very few people can maintain 8+ mph for a whole hour.

"Like it or not, running makes for a really great cardio workout: Maintain a six-mile per hour pace, and you'll burn upwards of 557* calories in one hour! And even if running that fast for that long seems like a bit of a stretch, you can still burn an impressive 398 calories per hour by jogging."

⬐ whatyoucantsay

I've done it myself, even when out of shape. The heavier you are the slower you need to go to burn that much. If you weigh 100 kilos and run a 10k in an hour, that's over 1,000 kcal. Lighter people burn less per km but we can run faster, too. HIT burns less but can give a nice metabolic boost.

Check runners world or a calculator of your choice.

https://www.runnersworld.com/tools/calories-burned-calculato...

⬐ rarec

I'm not sure what you're getting at. She doesn't eat/drink those things all the time.

Michael Phelps ate an enormous amount of food too for his training too, and he trained very hard. I sincerely doubt him or Courtney devour that many calories when not in training or trying to run for five plus days straight.

Short term gorging yourself for fuel is sometimes necessary, but it's dishonest to propose that means a diet of nachos, candy and beer is somehow healthy. If everyone was doing the MOAB all the time that's a different story.

⬐ sushisource

You're definitely not wrong, but consistent long term training does keep you at a higher metabolic rate.

I run pretty frequently (nothing like a ultra competition like that, though) and I can consistently eat ~3kcal a day and not gain a pound, even when maybe 1/3 to 1/2 of those days don't involve training.

To be fair, I'm still young, and probably have a genetic predisposition to burning a lot of calories, but I still think it's fair to say that consistent training results in a generally higher caloric intake even when not training.

⬐ whatyoucantsay

The only thing I was pointing out is that people can, in fact, "outwork a bad diet". It's not easy, but it's not impossible either.

⬐ gizmo686

It is difficult to outwork a bad diet. If you are doing a 238 mile long race, you have very different dietary considerations than most people; and quite likely have a diet designed to maximize caloric intake.

A large chocolate shake from mcdonalds is 850 kcal. By your estimate, this is is 51 minutes of work to burn off. Possible, yes. Useful if you need the calories to run 240 miles, yes. Easier than not having the shake in the first place, no.

⬐ SloopJon

One thing I notice from this Trail Runner article about her win is that "she wouldn't sleep much during the 57 hours she was on course," to the point of hallucination:

http://trailrunnermag.com/people/news/courtney-dauwalter-win...

I gather this was the first year for this event, so the other racers may have been more conservative in that regard.