Rachel Entrekin became the first woman to win the Cocodona 250 ultramarathon, doing so in record time Wednesday before a wildly joyous crowd in Flagstaff, Arizona.
Entrekin completed the grueling race in a course record of 56 hours, 9 minutes and 48 seconds. That is more than two hours faster than the record time set by 2025 winner Dan Green. She finished more than five miles ahead of runner-up Kilian Korth. Entrekin won the Cocodona 250 women’s titles in 2024 and 2025; she smashed her women’s record of 63:50:55 set last year. Entrekin is the only three-time winner of the race.
Entrekin, 34, is from Madison and currently resides in Colorado. She is a physical therapist. Her parents and brother live in Madison.
The Cocodona 250, which began in 2021, begins in Black Canyon and ends in Flagstaff. It began before dawn on Monday. Black Canyon is a little more than 45 miles north of Phoenix, on I-17. Runners have 125 hours to complete the 253.3-mile course.
They get to enjoy climbing through the Bradshaw Mountain Range to iconic towns including Crown King, Prescott, Jerome, Sedona. They scale Mount Elden, a 9,301-foot volcanic dome, before heading into Flagstaff and the finish line downtown. Maximum elevation is 9,241 feet. Total elevation gain is 38,791 feet and loss is 33,884 feet, with 45 percent single-track, 46 percent double-track and 9 percent asphalt (in the towns).
Tracking, Cheering
Word began spreading Tuesday amid the running community as Entrekin took command of the desert course. By Wednesday, the livestream was at times intermittent due to the number of people watching history being made.
She popped out of the aid stations along the route after short stops. Family and friends cheered from afar, with texts and messages firing off regularly throughout the week. Entrekin took short dirt naps, as she called them, and also slowed briefly to pet happy dogs along the way.
“You can choose your attitude, I’ve learned, so I’d rather choose to be positive,” she told Run. “I think I basically wept from the second I got off the single track until I crossed the finish line.”
The Cocodona win caps an insanely successful performance for Entrekin in the last three years. In at least three prior races this year, including a 120K in Italy, she has finished second, 14th and first. The win came in the Coldwater 100-mile run in Arizona in January. She won the women’s division in seven events in 2025 and did not finish below fifth overall in any of them.
Entrekin is sponsored by Norda and Precision Fuel and Hydration. She began ultrarunning in 2013, dialing into the 50K events and others of greater distance. Nestled among her finishes is a women’s title in the 2020 Pinhoti 100, which ends in Sylacauga. She was 12th overall that year and won the women’s crown by almost an hour.
See the Cocodona 250 live results here.
