Rachel Entrekin made ultramarathon history this week, becoming the first woman to win the Cocodona 250 outright.
The 34-year-old crossed the Flagstaff, Arizona finish line in 56 hours, 9 minutes, and 48 seconds, breaking the overall course record while finishing ahead of both the men’s and women’s fields.
"I think I basically wept from the second I got off the single track until I crossed the finish line," Entrekin said afterwards.
Known as one of the toughest endurance races in the world, the Cocodona 250 stretches more than 250 miles across desert terrain while featuring 38,791 feet of elevation gain — and a high point of 9,241 feet.
Entrekin has already established herself as a top marathoner after winning the women's division in 2024 and 2025. Last year, she also set the women's course record at 63:50:55, finishing fourth overall.
This year, however, she returned to shatter the overall course record of 58:47:18 set in 2025.
Even with that pace, Entrekin still managed to take brief breaks.
"I slept five minutes, then seven minutes, then seven minutes," she said. "My goal was to only have dirt naps."
Entrekin outlasted a field of elite runners while being supported by a six-person crew that included her parents. Men's champion Kilian Korth finished second overall, after trailing Entrekin late in the race.
Despite the historic achievement, Entrekin remained grounded throughout the event. Some post-race coverage noted she stopped to pet dogs and thanked volunteers while continuing to extend her lead.
Entrekin's victory caps a remarkable three-year run, after becoming the first woman to win the Cocodona 250 outright.
Kenya's Sharon Lokedi defended her Boston Marathon title on Monday, leading the 2026 results with a dominant wire-to-wire performance. The Boston Marathon winner clocked 2 hours, 18 minutes and 51 seconds — the fourth-fastest women's time in race history.
Lokedi led an all-Kenyan podium sweep at the 130th Boston Marathon, with Loice Chemnung finishing second at 2:19:35 while Mary Ngugi-Cooper claimed third at 2:20:07.
"I was very tired, I didn't know if I had it today," the celebrated distance runner said afterwards. "But I felt like this was it. I was either going to go or I was going to stay."
The defending champion forgot her watch on race day. She borrowed one at the last minute, but subsequently never checked her splits during the race.
"I knew I was going fast, I just didn't know how fast I was going," Lokedi said.
Arizona native Jess McClain stole the Boston Marathon results spotlight by shattering the US course record. She finished fifth overall in 2:20:49, breaking Shalane Flanagan's 2014 mark by 1:13.
McClain improved her time by 1:54 over last year's seventh-place finish. She topped the US field for the second consecutive year.
"To run the time that I knew was in me, at some point in the wheelhouse of what I can do, is really awesome," McClain said after.
Three other US women's runners cracked the Top 10 on Monday. Annie Frisbie finished eighth at 2:22:00, Emily Sisson placed ninth at 2:22:39, and Carrie Ellwood rounded out the Top 10 at 2:22:53.
London Follows Boston Marathon on 2026 World Majors Calendar
The 2026 season continues this weekend, as the London Marathon — the next World Marathon Major on the calendar — kicks off on April 26th.
The 2025 New York City Marathon not only crowned its champion on Sunday, the race also saw a new course record as Kenya's Hellen Obiri crossed the Central Park finish line with a time of 2:19.51 — shattering fellow Kenyan Margaret Okayo's 2003 record by a full two minutes and 40 seconds.
Returning to the top of the New York marathon field after first winning the race in 2023, 2024 runner-up Obiri led a Kenyan contingent that swept the podium, as 2022 winner Sharon Lokedi trailed by a mere 16 seconds while 2024 champion Sheila Chepkirui claimed third with a time of 2:20:24 — all three blasting through the previous course record of 2:22.31.
"We had a very strong field," said Obiri following the race. "[I told myself] let me try to do my best, let me push."
With her championship, Obiri claimed both the $100,000 winner's check as well as an additional $50,000 in prize money for breaking the course record.
Though the 2025 New York City Marathon marked the second straight year that Kenyan runners owned the podium, Fiona O'Keeffe also made history by setting a a new US course record with her fourth-place finish.
Finishing the five-borough race in 2:22.49, O'Keeffe shaved nearly two minutes off the previous US record of 2:24:42 — set in 2021 by Tokyo Olympic bronze medalist Molly Seidel.
"I can't take too much credit for the time — that was all on the women ahead of me," O'Keeffe said, sharing the spotlight with the runners who pushed her on Sunday. "Grateful to be back in the marathon. Feels like coming home."
Kenyan runner Sharon Lokedi shattered the women’s course record at the 2025 Boston Marathon on Monday, finishing the 129th edition of the race in 2:17:22 — more than two and a half minutes faster than the previous record set by Ethiopia's Buzunesh Deba in 2014.
The victory marked the 31-year-old runner's second major marathon championship following her 2022 New York City Marathon win.
After finishing second in the 2024 Boston Marathon behind fellow Kenyan Hellen Obiri, Lokedi avenged her runner-up status by overtaking the back-to-back defending champion in the final kilometer of Monday’s race.
"I'm always second to her and today I was like, 'There’s no way,'" Lokedi said of her rivalry with Obiri. "I just have to put it out there and fight 'til the end and see how it goes. I'm so glad I ran that fast and she was right behind me. We all fought and wanted this so bad."
All of this year’s top three finishers broke through the course record pace, with Obiri and Ethiopia's Yalemzerf Yehualaw joining Lokedi both at the finish line and in the Boston Marathon's record book.
Along with her $150,000 winner's check, Lokedi will pocket an additional $50,000 for claiming the fastest women's time in Boston Marathon history.