Setting Records and Winning the Cocodona 250 with Rachel Entrekin

0:01Earlier this summer, the Wild Ideas Worth Living team headed to Denver for outside days, where we sat down with a number of incredible athletes and thought leaders. Personally, I was really excited to interview Rachel Entrekin, who just a month earlier was the overall winner at the Cocodona 250, an ultra marathon in the high desert of Arizona. This was Rachel's third time running the race, and she finished seven hours faster than she did in 2025, crossing the finish line after 56 hours, 9 minutes, and 58 seconds. Her win went viral, and suddenly Rachel was everywhere. Runner's World, the BBC, the Washington Post, and tons of other publications.

0:47Today, Rachel is known as one of the top ultra runners in the country. I'm Shelby Stanger, and this is Wild Ideas Worth Living, an REI Co-op Studios production presented by Capital One and the REI Co-op MasterCard. A note this episode contains conversations about eating disorders. Please listen with care.

1:11Over the years, Rachel Entrichen has performed so well at the Cocodona 250 that she's earned the nickname Queen of Cocodona. The course is just over 250 miles long, starting in central Arizona and heading north to the finish line in Flagstaff. It covers nearly 39 ,000 feet of elevation and passes through a wide range of climates and landscapes, from the dry desert heat to icy mountain ranges. Cocodona has been described as one of the most challenging ultra-marathons in the U.S.

1:48Rachel Entrykin, welcome to Wild Ideas Worth Living. Thanks. Hi. Stoked to have you here. Thanks. Yeah, I was stoked to be asked to come. Well, I want to go back to running in the beginning. Like, how did you even get into running? I read that you grew up in Alabama. Yeah, not exactly a run conducive state. Yeah, I guess, I mean, if we want to get really like deep into my personal life, When I was in high school, I was overweight. And I mean, my family didn't have like the most healthy eating habits. And so I wound up as the fat kid. You have to make yourself, I don't know, something else. If you want to like go on dates with people or have a boyfriend, which in high school, that's what I wanted.

2:36And so I developed a personality, I guess, which I'm really thankful for because I have that still. I love you already. Yeah. And so, but it was really disheartening to like, you know, constantly be friends with people who were always getting the people that I had a crush on, you know, like you just do that and enough and it kind of sucks. And so over time that kind of whittled my self-esteem down to nothing. And so my senior year of, I guess the summer between my junior and senior year, I actually developed a really bad eating disorder. um we also had some stuff going on with my family life that just made me want to leave the house a lot and so got a gym membership and I just lived there and that was kind of when I discovered I can do the same thing for a long time and not really get either sick of it or tired um I would do exercise classes for hours hours I would jump on the treadmill for hours and I would just be fine afterwards.

3:35And of course, at the time, I was using it as a means of control. But I also realized that I liked how I felt when I was done, whether it was like the adrenaline rush, or just the sense of accomplishing something. I really liked that feeling. And it made me feel really good, especially important when my life was not so good. And so I eventually went to rehab, I had to take a year off college. So basically, I graduated and immediately went to rehab. and um you graduated high school and then you went high school yep how old were you and what year was this this was 2009 I guess so 2009 to 2010 I was like in inpatient rehab in North Carolina that was also a time when like running and working out was like really put on a pedestal yeah I mean it was like the whole thinspiration crap I mean I was I was very much a victim to that type of marketing.

4:28But yeah, and so went to rehab. And I do remember, you know, when you're in inpatient rehab, like they really take everything from you. And you aren't allowed to do very much physically or otherwise. I mean, you're doing a lot of like eating and therapy and all those, which are very important things to do. But I remember the entire time I was there just thinking, Okay, but I actually think I like running. And I need to figure out a way that I can do this safely when I get out of here. And so I went to rehab once. I kind of faked it because I think that's what you always do when you go to rehab is you fake it so you can get out and then go right back to doing the crap you were doing.

5:09But I did that and I realized, okay, crap, I actually don't want to live this way. I can't do the things I want to do because I'm not healthy enough to do them. So I need to go back and I need to do it correctly. And so I went back, did like inpatient and then outpatient and then the partial program and all the stuff. And I tried to follow the steps as best I could. And eventually I got to a place where I was healthy enough to run how I wanted. And then running became a way, it was almost like self-care. It was like this barometer of how well I was doing mentally. And, you know, over the years, I said it took about five years for me to figure out how to do it healthily.

5:48I was pretty obsessed for a while where like I had to do it every day and I had to be I had to look a certain way in order to fit in with the crowd of people I was running with. And I had to get certain times at certain races and I had to do it all on the roads as fast as I could and all this all the things. And then at my first marathon in like 2010, I guess, or no, I don't remember. But eventually I discovered trail running and trail running and road running are very different things and they can be good for different people. But for me, trail running was the savior that I needed because the people in trail running just seem a little bit more or I guess less stereotypically runners.

6:32I remember the I don't mean to laugh, but I know what you're trying to say. They're a little bit more chill, a little bit more chill. and I wanted, I just, that environment to me, it just felt very inclusive and it felt a lot less invested in things like splits and how many miles per week you're doing and all these, like, it just felt more like vibes as opposed to spreadsheets. I just want to say thank you for sharing your story. I think running and eating disorders, like a lot of times - Are probably homies, yeah. I mean, I think it's a very big part of my story because honestly, the reason, because my parents were very resistant to me running for a long time for obvious reasons like they were scared they were scared um and the thing i kept telling them that eventually i suppose they believed is like in order to compete at the level that i want to compete at i cannot slack off on nutrition it's like a car if you try to run a car fast with no gas in it you're not going to get very far you have to keep putting gas in the tank if you want to go the speeds that i want to go and And for me, it matters so much less.

7:36I couldn't give a rat's ass about what I look like. What I care about is how I'm performing because that is going to bring me a lot more long-term joy than how I physically appear. So when did you actually start competing when you were like, okay, I could do this? I started taking trail running a little more seriously probably in 2017. My first 50K, I think I podiumed. So I wasn't ever really bad at trail running. I mean, I had a lot to learn, but there was some potential, like undeniable potential, I think. But yeah, I moved out to Washington State and then discovered mountains. And that was when I was like, wait a second, I like this a lot more than I like everything else that I've ever done.

8:19I'd visited Seattle because one of my roommates had a residency or a clinical clinical out there. And he was like, oh, you would love it out here. You have to come visit. And so I went out and I was like, you're absolutely right. I love it out here. so I moved out as soon as I graduated but that was when I yeah discovered the bigger mountains and the seasons and the challenges that are associated with like navigating on snow and navigating on glaciers and peaks and stuff because in Alabama you don't really have those things I mean you have challenges like rocks and heat but you don't have potential death from falling in a crevasse.

8:54And so that was a really fun skill set to kind of hone.

9:01When Rachel moved to the Pacific Northwest, her skills and confidence as a runner increased exponentially. She had more trails to choose from, more mountains to climb, and frankly, more athletes around her that were pushing themselves hard. About a year after her first Ultra, Rachel entered a race in Idaho called I Am Tough, which features a 108-mile course with 20 ,000 feet of climbing. In that race, Rachel found her flow and pulled out an incredible performance.

9:35Potentially, to this day, that's the race I'm the most proud of with my execution. You know, I started off really conservatively, and people blasted past me, and I didn't let it bother me. And then I worked my way up to like sixth overall. And I still have the course record. And I remember just thinking to myself, okay, like I finished the race. I didn't feel like I was dying. And it was a hard race. And so that was kind of when I thought to myself, I think I can make something happen. Rachel won the women's field at I Am Tough, and her performance gained her some recognition in the local trail running scene.

10:15She was frequently entering 100-mile races, and when she showed up to a starting line, people paid attention. These ultras didn't bring her fame exactly, but they did teach her how to deal with pressure on a small scale. From there, Rachel took on longer and longer distances until one race in particular caught her eye. The Cocodona 250. Yeah. What made you decide to run that race and like tell me about this race what makes it special where is it what's it like it's a long answer um so I did all those hundreds I decided that I can do this and so I spent the next probably three years doing mountain races or or event not events but like fast stone times around the wonderland trail or around the base of mount hood so I you know I was doing these more and more increasingly challenging things usually with minimal to no support um and then I discovered or I guess discovered is a wrong word because I'd been doing fixed time racing also which is basically where you're given an amount of time on a closed loop and you just basically run circles for that time so 12 hours 24 hours that kind of thing so around the time where I was feeling much more confident on 100 mile courses pretty much any type of 100 mile course I decided well, the way that I can increase the challenge so I can scratch that itch is to go up in distance.

11:44And there weren't a lot of 200s at the time. And I wouldn't have been ready for them anyway. And so the way that I did that was going up into 48-hour racing. So you literally run in a circle for two days. And the first time I did it, it was the hardest thing I've ever done in my life. I think I only made it 150 miles in 48 hours, which is really good, but not going to win. Although I think I maybe did win. I don't remember. But but I mean, I left a lot of I made a lot of mistakes and I left a lot of miles on the table. And knowing that I had so much room to improve drew me to want to do them a lot.

12:20And so I did a couple more. Eventually, I was able to crack the 200 mile mark during a 48 hour race, which is really, I mean, quite good. And that was when, you know, I did that maybe twice. I got 200 plus miles in 48 hours. And then I was like, OK, well, maybe now I'm ready because now 200 mile trail races are much more of a thing. So maybe I'm ready to try one of those. And the one that I really wanted to try was Cocodona. It looked really interesting because you run it's a point to point. So you run from just north of Phoenix all the way up to Flagstaff and you pass through Sedona and Cottonwood and Jerome and all these really cool little towns.

12:58So it was it was almost like a like a tour on foot of Arizona. don't know and it just seemed really intriguing to me okay so the first year 2024 you won the women's race yeah I said and I I was about an hour and a half off the course record for the women that year yeah but the entire race I was in second pretty much um I bonked really hideously I didn't know how to I didn't know how to fuel correctly I don't know I didn't know salt really very well and so I wound up bonking really hard at the halfway point having to take like five hours off And then what does bugging feel like? You just can't move in your brain.

13:33My brain gets really negative. And it's like in that moment, I was thinking to myself, you're only halfway through and you feel like you're dying. So how are you going to do this for another 125 miles? Like it was it was a very dark time. And so my crew consisted of all of my homies who knew me really well. And they recognize, OK, you need a snack and a hard reset. And so they just shoved me in the van and like said, don't come out for two hours, basically, or three. I don't remember. And it was great. It worked. I mean, I reset. I got some sleep. I ate some stuff. And then I think I wound up over salting because I basically spent the next 10 hours throwing up really bad.

14:10But my headspace was better. So it didn't matter because I knew that I wanted to finish. And then but yeah, I was in second or third most of the race. I passed the second place woman sometime around mile 200. And then the first place woman actually wound up. I don't really know what happened, but she had to take a considerable amount of time off course. And so I wound up winning, but it was ugly. I just mentally fell apart. Um, I was really negative. I finished with a really bad attitude despite the fact that I won the race my first time, but I just didn't care about that. I was just miserable.

14:46Um, so yeah, I returned in 2025, mostly because I wanted to rewrite the narrative of how I finished.

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17:00in 2024 Rachel Entrichan won the women's field of the Cocodona 250 an ultra marathon that winds through the deserts and mountains of Arizona she won the women's field again in 2025 this time setting a new woman's course record, but she wasn't done yet. This year in 2026, Rachel didn't just win the women's field. She beat every single runner, men included, and set a new course record. So what changed between 2025 and 2026? First, she finally had sponsors, including a nutrition company that helped her dial in her fueling strategy. Second, Rachel found ways to stay positive even during the most challenging moments of the race.

17:50What were some of the lowlights and some of the highlights of this race? Besides winning, like winning, I don't even think. I mean, it was that was nice, but it was certainly not the highlight. I think the lowest point I had was, I guess there were two things that could be that the answer. A point that was almost like an inflection during the race was when I took the lead at about the 100k mark. So you're 65 miles into a 250 mile race. You have 200 miles to go. And I was running with a very talented group of multi-day athletes and like some of the best 100 mile runners that are out there. And I'm deciding that I want to be in front of everyone.

18:33Like that was a very imposter syndrome-y moment for me. is like, well, who am I to like be in front of, who am I to lead the race this early? Like in my brain, I was just envisioning the internet going crazy. If I, if something happened and I didn't hold on to the lead, like, oh, she started out too fast or like, you know, all the dumb internet troll crap. Like I was just, I was thinking about that. And then I'm glad I was able to kind of pull myself out of that and be like, okay, I've won this race every single time I've done it. And like, for the women, but I've still, you know, I've improved on my time each time.

19:13I've learned a lot about myself each time I've done another 200 miler in which I got second. Like, why can't I lead this race? I have the experience. I have potentially, out of all the front runners, I potentially have the most experience on this course. And so this mantra that I kept in my head for the rest of the race was why not you? You know, it's got to be somebody and why can't it be you? So that was, that was a hard part that turned into a great part. And then I got into another low point around 150, which is when you're going into Sedona. I was running with my pacer, Addy, who's one of my best training partners.

19:56And it just, I mean, God, it got really hard. I wasn't probably fueling as much as I needed to. So mentally, my brain just kind of short-circuited and my feet hurt and my quads were tired and it was like I still have a hundred miles to go um and I just the second place guy Killian Korth very talented very strong athlete also really good at multi-days and I just I don't know in my brain I was picturing him just passing me while I'm like not in a position to respond um and I just got I just got really negative and my pacer was able to kind of recognize because when when things are hard I just get quiet because voicing doesn't really help um so she was able to recognize like hey what's going on back there and so we made a plan to deal with some of my physical discomfort um and you know get some caffeine put some salt you know bandage your feet and then that will fix things and I was like ah yes that will fix things so now my only objective is get to the aid station and everything will be fine.

20:58And that's just what I told myself for the next like 10 miles. And then we got to the aid station and did those things and everything was fine. So had a great rest of the race. But those were the those were definitely the two hardest parts. But Addie actually said something that I thought was really profound. And I'm going to paraphrase it because I don't quite remember. But she said, when you're doing something that's never been done before, it's going to be hard. And that just felt so logical to me. Because in that moment, my brain wasn't being logical. It was being very like negative. And yeah, I mean, nobody has a woman has not won Coca Donut before outright and nobody had run as fast as I had run to that point ever.

21:38So of course, it's going to be hard. Like doing doing unheard of things is not easy or people would have done them already. And so it just it really felt logical. And it made me feel a lot better. You said something that just like, oh, hit me really hard. Why not me? Like, why can't it be me? Yeah, why not? We tell ourselves all the time that it won't be for reasons that are dumb. So why don't we tell ourselves that it could be for reasons that are actually sound? I mean, I had I had the experience, my resume dictated that it could be me. So I just needed to listen to that instead of listening to the other side.

22:09I want to know what it was like coming across the finish line. That must have been so fun. Like you are telling jokes and like having fun with everyone. Yeah. It was, you know, it's funny because everything has really blown up since, I don't know. I mean, since I finished, it almost felt like it was happening to somebody else. I remember hitting, because I did not, one thing I think I do to protect myself is I don't assume I'm going to win until I see the finish shoot. and at Cocodona everything is expanded so for me I was not going to assume I was winning until I hit the pavement in Flagstaff because I'm probably not going to get by a snake I'm not going to trip and fall and die I'm probably going to finish in the place that I'm in once I hit the streets of Flagstaff um and so I just remember like once I hit the pavement it was just like holy crap like we stuck the landing and it felt like half the state of Arizona was like lining the streets and it was it was nuts and I knew my crew was telling me at that point um because we didn't really discuss the fact that I was in the lead for the entire race because that's just I don't want to discuss that I just want to run and I want you guys to help me do that um but that was obviously when they were like you're like about to win and you're not just going to win for the women like you're going to win for everybody and you're setting this course record and like we like it was so cool to be a part of that team that made that happen.

23:39I like tears in my eyes. We're just in a hotel room in Denver. You're like making me cry. But yeah, it was it was I mean, it was insane. It couldn't happen to a better human like you really deserve it. Like, thank you. I hope you're enjoying all of this that comes from it. Yeah, I really love the story arc of this race and me particularly because the first year I did this race in 2024, I had to go fund my way here. Like I had to set up a GoFundMe in order to afford the race, but I wanted to do it. And so, of course, I'm going to figure out a way to do it. And then in 2025, like I rewrote the narrative around my attitude and I learned that I can control so much of that negative negativity.

24:21Like I can I can choose to do something else with that.

24:32if you watch the video of Rachel coming across the finish line at Cocodona she looks like she's having a blast she's chatting with her crew cracking jokes and responding to onlookers who are cheering her on during our conversation she told me her mindset comes down to one overarching idea. Hard and fun don't have to be mutually exclusive.

25:01I love that you're the fun runner. Like that's such a good thing to be known for. I'm curious, when you're in these mind states where you can get negative, like it happens to all of us. For me, it happens like right before I get my period. I just become like such a salty, sandy. How do you take the pressure off? How do you push the little release valve and make it fun and not make it so serious? One of the things that I think helps is identifying that that is what's happening, is I am being negative right now. And that is okay, because what I'm doing is hard. And I haven't been sleeping and whatever.

25:37But particularly, I would say with running, because that's just going to be the metaphor I use. I'm choosing to do this. I'm choosing to do this race. I'm choosing to have this life. And it feels really dumb to complain about something that I'm choosing to do. And so logic for me is very good when it comes to combating negative energy is like, well, just, okay, logically, again, I'm choosing to be here. Logically, I have the resume to do this. Logically, I'm doing something that no one's done before. So it's going to be hard. And that's okay. A lot of negative feelings really don't last much longer than 20 minutes.

26:17And so I have this kind of joke that I call it the 20-minute rule, where if something hurts or if I feel a certain way or if my stomach is going south, give it 20 minutes. And I will literally, I mean, again, I don't use a watch a ton, but I will look at my watch when I notice something. and I will give myself 20 minutes for it to subside before I decide that it needs to be something I address. Because a lot of times, I mean, I remember in Cocodono, my foot was killing me at one point. Like my toe felt like it was, I had a knife in my toe or something. It was just really very painful. But I'm not going to let that bother me because I don't yet know if it's something I need to concern myself with.