In early May 2026, famous runner Rachel Entrekin ran the grueling and painful Cocodona 250, which is a 250-mile race classified as an “ultra marathon”. She not only finished first in the race, but also beat the second-place man by an hour, and beat the former world record by almost 2 hours.
These ultra marathons are extremely grueling running races, and barely anybody can even finish them. The Cocodona 250 is one of the hardest ultra marathons. Entrekin had to run across the deserts, mountains, and forests of Arizona. Runner have to travel not only in length but also in altitude, going up the hills and down into the valleys. In fact, they changed in elevation so much that it was equivalent to climbing a 7.35 mile tall mountain!
She has run many ultra marathons and has won many of them, including the Cocodona 250 last year. Her performance and speed in this race, however, was especially surprising to her. She not only got first place again, but beat her last year time by nearly 8 hours. She broke the world record by 2 hours, and she was 1 hour and 18 minutes faster than the second-place man.
She stated that she was just as qualified to be in the front as anyone else. Additionally, she said, “I think I can do this, so why not?”
However, it still wasn’t easy. She had to run for almost two-and-a-half days straight. She only took occasional naps, each not more than seven minutes long. Additionally, she only slept for 19 minutes total throughout the entire race. Because there weren’t any beds around, she just slept on the ground. She had to eat and drink regularly. She occasionally ate mashed potatoes for the run, and even told BBC, “You would get tired of chewing.”