#1027 - Courtney Dauwalter

Joe Rogan (0:03)

Five, four, three, two, one. Welcome Courtney.

Courtney Dauwalter (0:06)

Thank you. Thanks for having me.

Joe Rogan (0:08)

First of all, how did you do what you did, and how are you right now?

Courtney Dauwalter (0:12)

We're just jumping right in.

Joe Rogan (0:13)

Yeah, let's just jump right in. For people who are just tuning in to, Courtney won the Moab 240, which is a 238-mile endurance race through the Moab, right?

Courtney Dauwalter (0:24)

Right.

Joe Rogan (0:25)

In Utah.

Courtney Dauwalter (0:26)

Deserts, canyons, mountains.

Joe Rogan (0:28)

And how long did it take you to run 238 miles?

Courtney Dauwalter (0:31)

It took just under 58 hours.

Joe Rogan (0:33)

That is so crazy.

And you beat the second-place person by more than 20 miles, right? What was the distance?

Courtney Dauwalter (0:43)

Yeah, I'm not sure the distance. I think it was around 20 or so. It was about 10 hours.

Joe Rogan (0:48)

How did you do that? And you are, how old are you?

Courtney Dauwalter (0:54)

32

Joe Rogan (0:54)

That's young for these kind of races, right?

Courtney Dauwalter (0:57)

Yeah, that's true.

Joe Rogan (0:57)

Because these kind of races, usually it's like grit and anger at the world that gets you through.

And you're only 32, you're young, and the way you're winning is like so crazy. And you've only been doing this like big time races like this for a short amount of time, correct?

Courtney Dauwalter (1:15)

Yeah, that's right.

Joe Rogan (1:16)

How long?

Courtney Dauwalter (1:17)

I've been running ultra marathons for maybe seven, eight years, but getting pretty competitive in the past couple of years.

Joe Rogan (1:26)

So how did you start out?

Courtney Dauwalter (1:29)

The race?

Joe Rogan (1:29)

How did you start out running? Did you start out in high school?

Courtney Dauwalter (1:33)

Yeah, back in junior high, high school, I ran cross country and track, and continued endurance sports through college and tried some marathons. And then it was just like a natural segue into trail racing.

Joe Rogan (1:47)

But it's just the way you're beating these people is insane. You're not just beating them. You're like demoralizing people.

I mean, you beat the second- place person by 20 hours or 20 miles. That's so crazy. 10 hours, you said?

Courtney Dauwalter (2:05)

It was about 10 hours.

Joe Rogan (2:06)

That is insane. You're both start at the same time. Ready, set, go. You're finishing 10 hours ahead. Like you could go to sleep, get eight hours sleep, have a nice meal, like sit down, and then just show up, clean and showered and everything like that. Oh, you're finishing now? How cute.

I just slept all night.

Courtney Dauwalter (2:31)

Yeah, it was it was cool. I mean, it was a cool adventure to to travel with your feet for 238 miles was, I mean, it was brand new territory for me, so I didn't know how it was going to go.

Joe Rogan (2:43)

Well, it's pretty much brand new territory for all the runners, right? This is like the first ever 240 MOAB 240

Courtney Dauwalter (2:48)

Quite a few of them had done a bunch of 200 mile races before.

Joe Rogan (2:51)

Yeah, there you go. Let's picture you hoofing it.

Courtney Dauwalter (2:54)

Hoofing.

Joe Rogan (2:55)

Crazy.

So what is going on? Why are you so much better than everybody else?

Courtney Dauwalter (3:03)

I think I had a good day out there.

Joe Rogan (3:06)

Get out of here. You had a good three days.

What? You're trying to be too nice. No, but really, like objectively, like how are you so much better than everybody else?

Courtney Dauwalter (3:18)

I don't know that I'm physically better than any of them, but I have been really trying to learn how to like tap into my brain when it physically becomes hard, because I think our brain can help us overcome so much and it's so powerful. So kind of that mind over matter thing. And when it physically becomes impossible to try and switch gears and to like have it be a mental thing and just keep pushing.

Joe Rogan (3:46)

So what are you doing to do that? Like have you studied some forms of meditation or?

Courtney Dauwalter (3:52)

No, I think just experience. Like I keep on doing these races that put me in uncomfortable physical states.

And then I try and keep in mind that like my brain can help me overcome this physical pain if I just keep going.

Joe Rogan (4:09)

So that's it. Just stay tough.

Courtney Dauwalter (4:12)

Trial and error, yeah.

Joe Rogan (4:14)