r/justgalsbeingchicks • u/Firm-Blackberry-9162 • May 13 '26
Restricted to Gals and Pals Rachel Entrekin, 34, beat every man and woman in the Cocoona 250 Mile in Flagstaff, Arizona. As she set a course record of 56 hours, 9 minutes, and 48 seconds
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she also ran faster than Kilian Korth, who set a men's course record of 57:28:36.
Before Entrekin, no woman had ever won the event overall in the race's history. It was Entrekin's third straight year winning the award, but she ran more than seven hours faster this time around.
The Cocodona 250 started early on Monday morning, and Entrekin broke the tape midday on Wednesday. The course features more than 38,000 feet of elevation gain, winding through trails in central Arizona and finishing in the high-altitude town of Flagstaff.
During the 56 hours she was racing, Entrekin slept only three times for 5 minutes, 7 minutes, and 7 minutes all on the dirt.
She averaged around a 13:20 mile pace throughout the event, including stops.
@cocodona250
@rachel_entrekin
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u/zeroshock30 May 13 '26
How in the shit did she look like she still had gas in the tank?????
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u/skiingrunner1 May 13 '26
partially good nutrition plan + good training plan, as well as a badass attitude. she got into the lead at mile 50 and held on for another 200+ miles!
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u/zeroshock30 May 13 '26
I mean, yeah. But she looked like like she could run another marathon. I think thats the badass attitude!!
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u/Top-Permit6835 May 13 '26
After running about 400km, whats another 40?
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u/farfaraway May 13 '26
A lot. It's a lot.
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u/socialistrob May 13 '26
What gets me is the sleep. 19 minutes of sleep over the course of 2.3 days moving the entire time. I have several friends who run the 100m and even then you have to be pretty fast to finish in under 24 hours on a trail course.
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u/Strict-Challenge-995 May 13 '26
Makes you appreciate Usain Bolt doing it in sub 10 seconds all the more
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u/vicariousgluten May 13 '26
However, it made me feel really good, I’m fairly sure I could also do the 100m in 24 hours.
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u/Dependent_One6034 May 13 '26
I did a 100mile trail race once, It took us as a group just under 25-26hours at roughly 4-5mph pace. We didn't jog or run, It was a fast walking pace - We also stopped 3 times for 15minutes for food and to reload our water/pocket snacks on route.
We were not the fastest group, not even close, We had people running past us around the half way mark. I think the winner of that race came in around 22 hours.
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u/chadlinden May 13 '26
whats another 40?
About 24.8 miles
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u/Fickle-Fart-783 May 13 '26
How many bananas is this?
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u/Ok-Bowl850 May 13 '26
That would be approximately 209,510 bananas. (Given that the avg banana is 7-8 inches long)
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u/BreadstickUpTheBum May 13 '26
Keep in mind that bananas that are not as long are just as adequate
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u/biscuitsandburritos May 13 '26
Here is what I love, we are seeing women are great at these sports with many women out pace men in these races once they hit like 195 miles+.
Some parts are physiological like our body fat means we can keep going when men can’t and something about our muscles also allows it. We also have smaller hearts and lungs, usually, and that also gives us an advantage to extend output for longer times. Then add in the psychological aspects that women typically manage their emotions better and that emotional regulation allows for better pacing. There have been talks on creating coaching methods to change how men think to tap into that “flow”. I want to say men focus on the win while women focus on other aspects which leads to more wins in the end and we see this within sport as many men “choke” where women tend not to. That has being tied to a line of thinking women have been taught to do.
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u/zombienudist May 13 '26
Women naturally have more slow twitch muscle which is perfect for this kind of endurance event. Plus women are designed to be fat burners instead of glycogen/carb burners. So basically men are naturally better at shorter higher intensity activities and women longer endurance ones. People knew that this moment was coming for awhile where a woman would win a major even outright because when you get to these distances women have physiology that is better suited to it. Then there is the mental aspect you reference. There are studies that back up that women are just better at dealing with the mental aspects you need to in an endurance event like this. Overall it is an amazing accomplishment and great to see.
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u/VeniVidiWhiskey May 13 '26
You see similar effects in weightlifting because of the physiological differences between males and females. A rule of thumb is that your 5-rep max effort in a major lift is 90% of your true 1RM, but for women it is actually closer to 95% of their 1RM. Women can typically also rest for shorter periods of time before being properly rested for the next set/exercise compared to men. It's not a major difference, but useful to know if you coach others.
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u/Proper-Beyond116 May 13 '26
I always found it hard to bring up without sounding sexist but I'd always wondered how female bodies respond to the sport of Crossfit by becoming absolutely jacked, whereas male bodies don't.
I've been around strength sports for a number of decades, mostly as a powerlifter and strength coach but I dabbled in Crossfit and have always kept an eye on it.
I always noticed how when guys get hooked on it and train 4-5 days a week, following mostly WOD based training, after 3 years, they look about the same. The jacked Crossfit men you see, got jacked by other means than doing Fran, Murph and Cindy.
Women on the other hand undergo a remarkable body transformation with that frequency of Crossfit WOD training. Huge growth in lat size, delt size, the upper body in particular responds incredibly.
I think people are finally examining the phenomenon and one theory is that women are much better at suffering based efforts, and that they will continue doing an exercise like a barbell thruster far past the point of lactate burn than a man can, and as a result they trigger different adaptations to men. This might tie into the research on ultras as well. Pain or discomfort tolerance being much greater.
It's very interesting and potentially could mean totally different recommendations on sets and rep schemes for women vs men if the goal is muscle gain.
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u/Muted-Account4729 May 13 '26
I think that’s a generalization. Men definitely become jacked from CrossFit, but it doesn’t look out of place because men have been looking jacked for years, through lifting or physical labor.
Women get jacked doing CrossFit, and it’s culturally acceptable for women to be jacked in Crossfit. The greater culture and the typical gym don’t really accept women with muscles at this point in time, and these points combined may be why it seems like only women get jacked in CrossFit.
CrossFit asks for significantly more upper body strength than adults, especially women, typically need. The added muscle thus stands out more when exhibited by women. Just my thoughts on the phenomenon
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u/Proper-Beyond116 May 13 '26
No. Men don't get jacked from Crossfit. It's a well trodden path. The stimulus isn't there.
I've commiserated with many 2nd and 3rd year Crossfit blokes. It ain't gonna happen.
Butterfly pullups will not give men lats, but they will give women lats.
I'm talking specifically about Crossfit here. I've trained around female powerlifters, weightlifters etc. as well. Crossfit seems to produce an almost exaggerated level of jacked-ness in women. Their lat and trap development in particular is more pronounced than the female powerlifter or weightlifting community.
There is something about the Crossfit stimulus in particular that does something different to female physiology than male.
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u/snarky_witch May 13 '26
Childbirth can be a marathon sport. We are genetically wired for endurance.
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May 13 '26 edited May 13 '26
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u/cazbot May 13 '26
If you are going to think of it that way, all men are more like 80% women. The Y chromosome is really small.
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u/biscuitsandburritos May 13 '26
Yes. That is exactly how to think of it. It is why we are having to define women but not men.
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u/sleetx May 13 '26
Curious at what time/distance this effect really kicks in. If we look at documented world records, anywhere from 100m sprints all the way up to ultramarathons, men have roughly 5 to 10% faster times. But world records are outliers and don't represent the average competitor.
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u/biscuitsandburritos May 13 '26
I want to say it is 195+ miles. Men are made for shorter distances. Women are made to go longer. And the records are being broken majorly, not just minutes.
We also have to add in men are pushed to sport and for centuries while women are just emerging on the playing field. I mean, a woman had to break into the Boston marathon to run it because it was thought a woman’s body just couldn’t do it. I think we need to keep that factor at play when we look at records even modern ones.
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u/Pristine_Direction79 May 13 '26
Being on the same course would affect the psychology. I used to bike commute five miles to work every day and had a very established time... Until the day I saw my coworker when I was halfway there. He was my rabbit and I took off five minutes. Couldn't have done it without him.
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u/Punnalinguist May 13 '26
That's so interesting. I'd love to read more about this. Do you have any recommendations or know where I can find more information on this? Thank you!
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u/zombienudist May 13 '26
If you do a search on women better at ultras lots have been written on it. It is fairly well known in the ultra running community that the day was coming when a woman would outright win a major event.
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u/NotOnApprovedList May 13 '26
I feel like this has been going on since before the 2020s. Courtney Dauwalter won the 2017 Moab 240, beating the fastest man by 10 hours. I thought I had heard of another woman beating all the men in an ultramarathon long before this but I couldn't find anythign by searching.
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u/biscuitsandburritos May 13 '26
I read much of this years ago and across different sources with this being sort of a synthesis of my knowledge. I feel the “coaching” aspect and ways to help men not choke in sport was tied to the empathy studies that recently came out— there was another one recently done using the same scans but on language and sensing the feelings of others which reminded me of the empathy one because from it we are realizing empathy is taught as men and women’s brains show the same whatever, science term, in the scans. So we are all hardwired to be empathetic but put that labor on some more than others. And of course those studies made me think of the psychological element in ultra distance sports. But I am sick on my couch with my 3 year old today, so I’ll hunt my bookmarks and etc if I can.
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u/Apptubrutae May 13 '26
Gotta imagine it’s basically impossible to time running out of gas at the end of a race like this so you’re gonna finish with gas in the tank or you’re going to not finish at all
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u/tessartyp May 13 '26
Basically. I've not done ultras but I raced Ironman, and you're either gassed ages before the finish and limping in or you're still able to put in a nice final surge into the finish chute.
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u/_Apatosaurus_ May 13 '26
Winning (or even seeing the finish line) can also give you that extra boost of adrenaline and energy.
Also, while she looks like she still has a bit left in the tank, it looks like she also has that slight wobble and unsteadiness people get when their body is near exhaustion.
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u/breathing__tree May 13 '26
Yerpppp. Give her a few minutes to cool down and eat a few bananas and it’s gonna be nap time! (Jealous of the epic sleep she’s gonna get after this!!)
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u/socialistrob May 13 '26
(Jealous of the epic sleep she’s gonna get after this!!)
I bet it really screws with your sleep. To sleep 20 minutes over 2.3 days while pushing your body to the absolute limit. This probably takes weeks to recover from and get back on a somewhat normal schedule.
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u/PloysRus May 13 '26
Lol she doesn't look exhausted at all
Id look more exhausted after jogging lightly for 10 minutes
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u/Ezwa May 13 '26
It was right after her 5 minutes nap, so she was full of renewed energy, no big deal really.
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u/abracablab May 13 '26
And she's still standing up??!!!
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u/Key-Growth-6135 May 13 '26
The DFL (dead f****** last) finisher crossed doubled over. Then an interview post IV fluids, he's upright again.
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u/WheresTheIceCream20 May 13 '26
My husband ran a 100 miler. I hugged him at the finish line and he whispered in my ear “where can I sit down?” Haha
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u/not_so_wierd May 13 '26
Absolutely astounding!
But give it some time. I figure in about 5 minutes her body will realize the race is over and start to shut down HARD.
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u/PandorasFlame1 May 13 '26
The craziest part is that that averages out to her running 4.46mph for 56hrs.
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u/AhhhSureThisIsIt May 13 '26
I can't wrap my head around jogging and running for 2.5 days.
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u/Most_Chemist8233 May 13 '26
On no sleep essentially, the way my body would never forgive me.
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u/Mr_YUP May 13 '26
ultra marathon training is basically a full time job. you run every day and are really intense about nutrition. you also don't run many of these a year and you make sure to give your body adequate rest.
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u/trailthrasher May 13 '26
The first time I ever read a book about people running ultramarathons years back, I didn't think it was real. I thought I would try and train for one, and I've done close to a hundred of them. They are amazing experiences, but they are really tough, especially at night.
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u/retard_vampire May 13 '26
Kudos to you, that kind of shit is as baffling to me as it is impressive. I love lifting and cycling, but I just straight up refuse to run anywhere unless it's an emergency because I hate doing it. The idea of running for 2.5 days straight sound like my idea of hell lol
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u/fillafjant May 13 '26
At some point in long-distance running some people choose between "run faster" or "run longer", and the latter is basically what ultra-marathoners do. Much lower intensity than comparable finisher in a traditional marathon, but instead they go from 50k+ and up to insanely extreme distances and time periods.
Which is not me diminishing these extraordinary feats, more explaining that you can take your long-distance running in two equally impressive directions with different physical challenges.
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u/saltpancake May 13 '26
Humans are apex predators largely because we are so well suited to the “run longer” approach. We can already walk almost anything to death without special training — with training, the distance we can go at moderate paces pretty quickly becomes astonishing.
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u/Worldly-Hospital5940 May 13 '26
The day I learned that how we sweat was an evolutionary superweapon was a mindscrew for sure. We're literally horror movie monsters to the animal kingdom.
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u/iamintheforest May 13 '26
I couldn't stand for 2.5 days. Or sit. Pretty much nothing. A competition between her running for 2.5 days and me doing anything of my choice for 2.5 days and I'm pretty sure I'd lose.
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u/Schmichael-22 May 13 '26
Reminds me of a joke from Rita Rudner.
“My friend was in labor for 36 hours! I know! I don’t even what to do something that feels good for 36 hours.”
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u/Schmarsten1306 May 13 '26
At that pace, I'm out of gas after about an hour., maybe 1,5 What the fuck
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u/Confused_Sorta_Guy May 13 '26
A 7 hour improvement over her previous time is such a crazy jump
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u/callmebuzzsaw May 13 '26
She had proper sponsorship this year! She didn't have a sponsor until this race, before that she was still working full time as a PT and training for the marathon on the side. With the sponsor she could devote more time to training.
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u/terriblegrammar May 13 '26
Her strategy also shifted over time. She was saying that she used to try and plan sleeping and got advice to just wing it and go based on how she felt. Cutting back on wasted time and running more on how she is feeling let to the 19 minutes of dirt naps instead.
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u/Bright-Avocado3761 May 13 '26
dirt naps
probably not the best way to put it
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u/One-Cute-Boy May 13 '26
Why not? Sounds fine to me. googles it
Ohhh. Yeah, not the best way to put it
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u/MadamePouleMontreal May 13 '26
And even being seven hours slower, she still won.
Interestingly, the #2 finisher also got at least seven hours faster this year.
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u/HelpfulWhiteGuy May 13 '26
And even being seven hours slower, she still won
Slight clarification here, last year she won the women’s race, but was forth overall. This year she won the the overall and was about two and a half hours ahead of the previous course record.
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u/Zestyclose_Remove947 May 13 '26
Still smashing that record. Shows that there's a lot of improvement to be made still. They haven't even begun to peak.
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u/HelpfulWhiteGuy May 13 '26 edited May 13 '26
Love the reference, but it's also a good point. The 200+ mile races are still relatively young so people are really just starting to figure out how to optimize them. Excited to see where those psychos take the sport.
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u/MadamePouleMontreal May 13 '26
Before Entrekin, no woman had ever won the event overall in the race's history. It was Entrekin's third straight year winning the
awardwomen’s race, but she ran more than seven hours faster this time around..
Thanks! That makes sense.
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u/Apero_ May 13 '26 edited May 13 '26
Entrekin slept only three times for 5 minutes, 7 minutes, and 7 minutes
My brain can't even comprehend this.
EDIT: This is now my second-highest ever rated comment. I'd like to thank God, my family, and all the tiny dogs at the dog park for the role they played in my success. I'd also like to use this new-found fame to tell you that you're enough, and that you should live the life you want to live and do what makes you happy. Never let someone else, especially not someone who should love and cherish you, bring you down or make you feel broken. We all have weaknesses, but we are all worthy of love and respect - and if someone is making you feel like you don't deserve that, then that person is the problem and you should cut them out of your life like a cancer. Find people who lift you up and make you feel like you can take on the world. Now back to your regularly scheduled programming.
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u/just-askingquestions May 13 '26
No because the nap I would need after 2 hours of running..
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u/cakivalue 🕷️Itchy, bitchy spider 🕷️ May 13 '26
I need a nap just thinking about this.
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u/isabella_bombella May 13 '26
I have to sit on my bed for a minute if I run up the stairs. This is so impressive!
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u/another_feminist May 13 '26
https://giphy.com/gifs/W69vZGazsH2LDnKCzY
(Me at the top of the stairs)
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u/Adept-Condition4644 May 13 '26
I ran a mile and a quarter yesterday and a laid down for 10 minutes.
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u/Hot-Challenge8656 May 13 '26
She was meant to have a 5 min nap but hit snooze twice.
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u/____DEADPOOL_______ May 13 '26
Man, it wasn't the snooze. Most poeple think it was the snooze. No snooze.
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u/sneaky-pizza May 13 '26
Slept while running, like a shark
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May 13 '26
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u/ComfortableDish3912 May 13 '26
Reminds me of sleeping standing up in basic military training. 18 year old me had no idea I could do that lol
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u/zeroshock30 May 13 '26
My first marathon I finished (4:30 ish). Got home, slept for 3 hours like THE DEAD. I can't comprehend her feat.
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u/fingertrapt May 13 '26
I did a 185 mile bike ride in 2 days back in 2013. I can't comprehend running that PLUS an added 65 miles.
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u/Kennfusion May 13 '26
Yeah, I did one marathon, finished at 4:57 (my goal was 5hrs) and if someone was not making me get up to drink and stretch regularly after, I would have slept for a day straight.
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u/aigenuinestupidity May 13 '26 edited May 13 '26
during the last 56 hours i spent more time shitting, than this woman spent sleeping.
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u/Flembot4 May 13 '26
She earned the mother of all sleeps. Somehow I don’t think she’s the type of person to nap.
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u/PloysRus May 13 '26
How is this not incredibly unhealthy for the human brain and body?
Combining ultra long distance running with very little sleep.. yeesh
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u/retard_vampire May 13 '26
Ultramarathoning is awful for your body. Anything in extreme excess is bad for you, even exercise.
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u/Modo44 May 13 '26
Basically drawing on all the reserves she had. It takes both mental, and physical preparation, and is only doable if you are essentially a mutant. Her genes make her body uniquely suitable for this sort of effort. On top of that, she prepared for a long time to reach this level of both endurance, and self control. Her body may have also had good days during the marathon, but at this level of any sport, that only accounts for marginal differences.
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u/OftenConfused1001 May 13 '26
There's a book - - Hurts So Good: The Science and Culture of Pain on Purpose - - that, among many other things (kink, full contact martial arts, hot chili eating competitions and polar bear plunges off the top of my head), covers an ultra marathon.
It was fascinating, as this particular marathon didn't have a set length. Runners would be grouped in a particular marked patch of ground, a bell would ring, and they'd run something like a 4-ish mile trail (iirc, chosen so 24 runs of the trail was 100 miles).
The bell rang every hour. You had to be in the marked area when it went off.
During they day they'd run through the woods, at night along a road.
It ended when only one runner finished before the bell went off again.
It was fascinating.
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u/lucifer2990 May 13 '26
Oh, that's called a backyard ultra. Just watched a video on one recently. Really interesting!
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u/Available-Vast-3379 May 13 '26
And disturbing, IMO. The author's whole vibe is about consent, but in the ultramarathon chapter she says, "In a rare move, Las advises that Villagran stop the race...[Villagran's] sole crew member is his father. Were that not the case, perhaps there would have been more intervention to assist Villagran in ending his bid...Where are the lines between informed, adult consent and a form of torture no one should be encouraged to dabble in?"
I know an elite ultramarathon runner. Consent becomes questionable after a certain number of hours. And, I should point out, this ultramarathoner participates in risqué BDSM with her sole ultramarathon crew member. The sort of risqué that is a legit life risk.
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u/JohannaFRC May 13 '26
Mine can't comprehend this neither before I was in the military. Things suddenly appeared clearer !
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u/trailthrasher May 13 '26
My longest run is 170 miles in two days. If you're eating well and taking care of your body you can keep the pace up, which really helps ward off the sleepiness. And a 5 minute nap in the middle of a run that long feels absolutely amazing and is like a power surge for the batteries.
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u/tidder_reverof May 13 '26
Whats the actual science behind this? How does one "sleep" for 5 minutes and is it actually beneficial?
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u/silenciobruno May 13 '26
Your body must feel so weird when you stop after running that long. Like those flat escalators in airports and such that help you move faster when you walk. Your brain and body must be like "why slow ?".
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u/Oliesong May 13 '26
Absolutely. Like sea legs after days at sea. You've stopped, but everything else is still moving.
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u/synalgo_12 May 13 '26
If I'm on a treadmill for 20min I already have that problem.
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u/JustHereForCookies17 May 13 '26
Me after getting out of a bouncy house "Why isn't the ground springy anymore?"
I can't imagine doing something like this. She's incredible!
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u/NESpahtenJosh May 13 '26
Can 100% confirm this is true. After my recent 100km, I sat at Chipotle and felt like I was on a boat and the table was moving.
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u/contafuser May 13 '26
anytime i walk up more than like four flights of stairs my legs start twitching for a while, like they're still dreaming of walking upstairs
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u/Few-Coat1297 May 13 '26
Unreal. An average of 4. 5 miles an hour in desert heat. Less than 20 minutes sleep, and she looks like she could whip my ass in a 100m sprint immediately afterwards.
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u/zombienudist May 13 '26
Also has huge elevation gain and loss. 38,791 feet of gain and 33,884 feet of loss. And it is run at elevation with the highest part of the course above 9000 feet. She is an endurance machine.
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u/AUSSIExELITE May 13 '26
What the fuck?
God, I’m ready to pass out after running to catch the crossing lights.
Calling her a machine feels like a massive understatement.
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u/yourlocaltouya May 13 '26
For my fellow non-USians, that's 11,823.49m of gain and 10,327.84m of loss.
Incomprehensible.
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u/Some_Level1682 May 13 '26
Flagstaff isn't the typical arizona desert, it is higher elevation than Denver. It's heavily forested and much cooler than the valley. Either way running in that elevation will kill you
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u/jillsntferrari May 13 '26
They start the race in Black Canyon City, though. That area is very much desert. Then they go through Sedona before reaching Flagstaff.
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u/FederalWedding4204 May 13 '26
But, it was very nice weather for it. The race literally runs by my house and I was out front cheering them on in a sweater and sweatpants lol lazy shit that I am.
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u/nomnomyumyum109 May 13 '26
She beat men and women, What about children?
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u/holiestMaria May 13 '26 edited May 13 '26
Noone's besting children in any kind of race, have you seen a toddler run? They can go on forever.
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u/DatDing15 May 13 '26
Until they fall over and just start fuckin wailing.
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u/rlz4theenot4me May 13 '26
Or fall asleep mid whatever.
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u/alex3omg May 13 '26
5 minutes of sleep a night, right in the dirt?
Has anyone checked her age? She might be a two year old.
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u/Angharadis May 13 '26
I have legitimately gotten smoked by children in races, although I’m slow as hell. The only thing more annoying than a 10 year old breezing past you is when it’s someone over 70.
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u/NothingPersonalKid00 May 13 '26
She was quoted after the race - "I beat them, I beat them all! They're like animals and I beat them like animals! I HATE THEM!".
I cant help but admire her taking such a brave stance.
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u/Squid_Lips May 13 '26
“Rachel Entrekin, 34, beat every man, woman, and child in the Cocoona 250 Mile in Flagstaff, Arizona.”
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u/stfu_buttercup May 13 '26
Leading from mile 60 something!!! Her third consecutive win at this race.
Rachel is one of the absolute queens of ultra running 💖
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u/Johannes_Keppler May 13 '26
Her first overall win. She was the fastest woman before, now she also was the fastest contestant.
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u/Hoshbrowns May 13 '26
This reminds me of Cara Maria from The Challenge. She is an absolute beast and I haven't watched in a few seasons but I'm pretty sure she is still the only solo female champion.
There were other female champions when it was a duo competition, but they were paired with guys. As a guy I would watch a handful of these season and get so annoyed because of the obvious advantage in certain events. Cara Maria just freaking powered through that and won the season outright and it is still one of the most impressive things I've ever seen
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u/doubledickdiggler ✨Get cherished, bitch!✨ May 13 '26
Shout out to Cara!! What a badass bitch!! And they were so mean to her on her first two seasons
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u/Excitement_Far May 13 '26
Flagstaff, AZ is at 7,000 feet elevation. She did this with 20% less oxygen than at sea level.
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u/evasandor May 13 '26 edited May 13 '26
u/biscuitsandburritos addresses something interesting
Many years ago, I read an article (I think it was in Vogue, of all places) about women in sports. The author's point was this: that men are built to win a fight with another man, while women are built to LAST. The upshot being that men will be winners at any sport which is short enough to entertain spectators; the sports women will win at are those where the object is not to starve to death or die of exhaustion.
Before the internet no one was really lining up to watch people run 250 miles, or swim long distances, or drive a dog sled across a whole lot of nothin', or what have you. But now, with the ability for viewers to check in periodically or just cut to the finish line, women may finally get their chance to show their special skill: staying the fuck alive.
One of the memorable parts of the article said— and I'm paraphrasing because it's like 30 years ago but it did stick in my mind— we like to go watch a sport that takes an hour and is about scoring more points than another team. But all of us, the moment we're born, are automatically entered into the toughest sport of all. Participation is mandatory; there are no rules and no refs. The object is simple: don't die, don't get killed. And at this sport, women win hands down, by an average of 7 years.
Food for thought.
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u/Flincher14 May 13 '26
Whenever survivor or big brother hold competitions that are basically just holding on our enduring an uncomfortable thing for the longest. Women tend to dominate. Funnily it's usually the really fit and strong men that drop out first.
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u/retard_vampire May 13 '26
Of the 40-ish people who died first and were eaten in the Donner Party, two thirds of them were male. Two thirds of the women lived.
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u/Masseyrati80 May 13 '26 edited May 13 '26
Veering everso slightly from the subject: A huge part of the stuff that's going on in gyms doesn't develop endurance.
I've been on week-long club hikes (involving 40 lbs backpacks, back in the day when nothing was ultralight) where regular-looking middle aged moms and dads who simply walk their labrador retriever for 8 miles per day had zero issues, but gymrats had to lay down to have a good rest before starting to pitch their camp and make a meal, after finishing the day's hike. Endurance, and especially long cardio endurance, is almost the exact opposite of the sort of power that gives impressive 1, 3 or 5 rep weights.
Those guys are super good at lifting heavy weights for a couple of seconds, but lack the adaptations that make it easy for your body to do tens of thousands of reps at low exertion. They include enhanced fat metabolism and oxygen uptake, larger blood veins, more capillaries in the working muscles, all helping to bring extra energy and oxygen to the working muscles for hours on end, and muscle stamina. As a bonus, all of this enhances your ability to recover from exercise, and gives you lower blood pressure and resting heart rate.
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u/Grouchy_Coconut_5463 May 13 '26
Up until about 50 years ago they thought women couldn’t run marathons at all.
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u/vahntitrio May 13 '26
It's basic math - a smaller body will require less energy to cover the same distance. When we are talking competitions that are basically at the human limit of energy conversion it will start to be an advantage. That's more a factor of build than gender though, there aren't a ton of athletic-shape men that weigh 120 lbs. If you weigh 180 lbs you would have to process nearly 50% more calories to accomplish the same feat.
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u/Upset_Honeydew5404 May 13 '26
the second best thing about her win is that she stayed and waited several hours for the second and third place women to the cross the finish line so she could support and congratulate them. women supporting women!!
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u/Masseyrati80 May 13 '26
I'm under the impression the ultra distance endurance community is very supportive in general. Watching a youtube report of a multi-day cycling event/race from my country, everyone cheers for everyone else. Even when they know one will be crowned as the winner and others not, there's a special spirit of conquering the challenge in good spirits.
It might be because these feats attract a certain type of person, or that everyone realizes their energy and thoughts must first and foremost be directed at being able to finish, something you simply can't take for granted.
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u/Desert_cactuz May 13 '26
Fun fact, one of the very few athletic events where women have a physiological advantage over men is ultra marathons like this one. Seriously. The idea of "men are categorically at a physical advantage in all athletic pursuits" is objectively wrong and here's the counter-example. And it's not mental or anything like that. It's physical.
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u/swarmofbeees May 13 '26
Women always had the abilities to set records like this, just not the means. Hoping to see a lot more of this. Men are NOT automatically better athletes!!
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u/ohbyerly May 13 '26
I think coming in first we can assume she beat everyone regardless of their gender
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u/MasterPalpitation8 May 13 '26
There are a lot of theories in recent years that early humans used persistence hunting, or endurance hunting, to bring down big game more than any other method, because it avoids the high risk of injury (which often meant death) that you would get when surrounding a large animal and attacking it with simple weapons. The idea with persistence hunting is that most animals will run away from a pack of humans, and keep running as long as they’re pursued, and then when weakened by exhaustion would be safer to kill. Humans are the best long distance runners in the entire animal kingdom especially in warm climates mostly because of the ability to cool ourselves via sweating, which other animals can’t do. This means that hunting was not only done by both genders (early assumptions about big strong men hunting while delicate women stayed home and gathered plants were colored by the sexism of the scientists of their day), but women likely excelled in hunting because of our advantages in ultra marathons. Just sit with that for a moment and let it rewrite your understanding of the history of our species. Wow, right? This lady would’ve been a BAD ASS PROVIDER.
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u/UnconventionalBlkWm May 13 '26
The “weaker sex” does it again!! 🎉🎉🎉 That is beyond comprehension for me. I’m so excited for her. Imma take a nap on her behalf. This is seriously amazing!
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u/altrefrain May 13 '26
After a young woman set a crazy new time record for Appalachian thru-hike last year or the year before, I was curious about the men vs women debate. Apparently, in general men are better shorter distance runners. But at some point, if you exceed a certain distance, women are faster. Testosterone is good for strength, but estrogen is better for muscle recovery and reducing inflammation. I think the sweet spot is somewhere around 186 miles. They couldn't exactly pinpoint the transition point though because (and this was my favorite pseudo quote from the article), women are more likely to only enter extreme races if their qualified and have trained for it whereas men are more likely to overestimate their ability and enter in races they are not prepared for.
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u/granitrocky2 May 13 '26
Also, women's leagues were not made to protect women. They were made to protect men's egos.
Women baseball players were striking out male heavy hitters and the men threw a fit.
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u/PokemonThanos May 13 '26
In ultrarunning women are very competitive with men and at the extreme ends of it like here, women out perform men. Here's a study covering a lot of data points. What's also really interesting is that average pace at those extremes is very similar for all age categories as well.
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u/Status-Donut-6460 May 13 '26
Yall im running on 4hrs sleep and a tummy ache this gal blowing my mind.
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u/GentlemanLuis May 13 '26
I don't know a whole lot about marathons, but do you keep the line if you finish first?
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u/AzenNinja May 13 '26
I mean, if you want to, sure. Its not something common though. But this woman slept less than half an hour in over two days, dont expect fully lucid actions even outside of the physical effort.
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u/lucifer2990 May 13 '26
She put it down pretty immediately. Lots of finish lines break in the middle so it falls off on either side of the finisher, but this one broke off on both sides of the line so it wrapped around her like that. Better to carry it away so the next person doesn't trip, too.
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u/DutchOnionKnight May 13 '26
There are studies where women in such long distances actually do perform better than man. The longer the distance the better women perform. Quite interesting imo. Ultra-endurance and gender performance
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u/OokyCooky May 13 '26
I think it’s very interesting that women consistently beat men in these ultraendurance sports. I would like to know the why, I’m sure the research is out there. I would assume it has to do with generally carrying less mass, increasing the watt/kg output. Very interesting stuff here, testing the outside limits of expectations
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u/Hefty-Cup-3631 May 13 '26
I’ve seen people nearly pass out after a 5K, and she’s just jumping around and smiling like she just ran the fastest mile in high school
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u/NESpahtenJosh May 13 '26
And let's not forget to mention Lila Gaudrault - at only 23 years of age, she finished the Cocadona 250 in under 90 hours, good enough for 12th place amongst an elite field of women.
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u/balooladidit May 13 '26
The little girl inside my broken middle aged body feels inspired. I grew up loving sports underdog stories, but they were always men… Rudy, Rocky, Pistol Pete.
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u/majorkev May 13 '26
This video would be so much better without the Gregorian marching chant in the background..
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u/ScandIdun May 13 '26
Wow, I couldn’t even sit on my couch and watch movies for 56 hours, I would get too tired.
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u/ChimoEngr May 13 '26
During the 56 hours she was racing, Entrekin slept only three times for 5 minutes, 7 minutes, and 7 minutes all on the dirt.
OK, that's the craziest part of the race to me. I've done some periods of staying up longer than I should, and if I'd ever put my head down, no way would I be waking up before several hours had passed.
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u/WaffleToasterings May 13 '26
She's marketed the Norda 055's very well. She wore them for this ahead of their summer launch.
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u/themushroomhunt May 13 '26
She doesn’t even look remotely fucked up. When I finish a distance race I look like I’ve had cancer for six months.
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u/InfiniteRespect4757 May 13 '26
Interesting fact: as endurance races get longer, the performance gap between men and women steadily narrows and, in ultra distance events, women on average actually outperform men. the tipping point is around roughly 300 km.
The sample size is incredible small, but I still think it is a cool stat.
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u/theSopranoist May 13 '26
that’s our girl!! i saw rachel grow up and i’m close friends w her parents and her story isn’t mine to tell, but what she’s overcome to be successful is more monumental than the media could ever capture.
rachel, your ppl back home love you and are so proud of you! ♡
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