excellence, actually Best Of: Courtney Dauwalter — Inside the (Joyful) Mind of an Elite Ultrarunner
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Dec 25, 2025 
Courtney Dauwalter, an elite ultrarunner famed for her record-setting wins, shares her unique insights into endurance and joy. She reveals her experience tackling three iconic 100-mile races in just ten weeks, emphasizing the importance of curiosity and a growth mindset. Courtney also discusses her innovative mental strategies, like the 'filing cabinet' method for problem-solving, her transformation of suffering into opportunity, and how she incorporates joy into her intense training, reminding us to embrace challenges with enthusiasm.
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Use Failure As A Puzzle To Solve
- Use heavy events to identify tweaks for future performance instead of beating yourself up about limits.
- Ask what along the path can be changed to make the last portion feel stronger next time.
The Post-Triple Decompression
- After her triple she experienced a deep physical and mental decompression, likening her mind to 'pudding' for weeks.
- She spent September largely resting and avoiding hard thinking while her systems recovered.
Micro-Chunking Changes Time Perception
- Bigt's Backyard Ultra forces you to focus on digestible one-hour chunks and erases normal sense of time.
- That micro-chunking lets inexperienced athletes surprise themselves by accumulating 'one more' loops.