With the 2024 Cocodona 250 Mile frontrunners having crossed the finish line in Flagstaff, Arizona, Rachel Entrekin and Harry Subertas are winners of the women’s and men’s races. Both prevailed through truly dramatic and fascinating race stories.
The race began at 5 a.m. local time on Monday, May 6, and concludes on Saturday, May 11. This edition marked the race’s fourth running.
The point-to-point route begins in Black Canyon City and finishes in Flagstaff. The course changes from year to year, but this year’s course is said to be 249.4 miles long with roughly 40,000 feet of climbing and 35,000 feet of descending.
On the course, runners experience the diversity of Arizona’s terrain and climate. In the low desert, runnable singletrack and doubletrack give runners terrain simplicity, but that’s complicated by heat and lack of shade from the sun. The course also visits a couple of mountain ranges, which provide shade and cool temperatures but can bring the challenges of altitude, significant elevation gain and loss, and more technical terrain.
It looks like Rachel Entrekin stopped to smell the flowers on her way to winning the 2024 Cocodona 250 Mile. Photo: Howie Stern
A 250-mile-long race offers nearly infinite logistical challenges, with runners needing to stay on point with hydration and fueling, sleep and other forms of rest, gear management, foot care, and so much more.
While the course has changed significantly in most previous years, the records for the current course are Sarah Ostaszewski for the women at 72 hours, 50 minutes, and 27 seconds, and 69:41:31 for the men by Michael McKnight, both run in 2023, the only time a substantially similar course was used.
With all these variables, the Cocodona 250 Mile was sure to deliver surprises for all runners, including those at the front of the race.
Rachel Entrekin, an ultrarunner since at least 2013, championed the women’s race. After running for most of the distance in second place, Entrekin took over the women’s race leadership late to secure the win. This followed longtime women’s race leader Mika Thewes’ sudden — lengthy, but temporary — stop around mile 233.
The men’s race came down to the wire between Harry Subertas and Jeff Browning. Browning, a veteran of at least 150 ultras, led for most of the race. Subertas, winner of the 2022 Tahoe 200 Mile, started the race more conservatively. Subertas’ smart pacing allowed him to pass Browning to take over the lead with just a few miles to go — in a 250-mile race — to win and set a new course record.
Runners continued to trickle over the finish line at the time of this article’s publishing, ahead of the 125-hour time limit. Read on for more of the race story.
2024 Cocodona 250 Mile Women’s Race
Phew, what a women’s race. Rachel Entrekin took over the race leadership late to win after longtime race leader Mika Thewes suddenly stopped during the third night of racing, around mile 233. Entrekin has won several 48-hour races, including most recently the 2023 Across the Years 48 Hour, where she finished with 212 miles. She’s also a 100-mile specialist, as UltraSignup shows she’s won at least eight 100 milers.
But let’s back up to the race start.
When the women settled into the early miles of racing on Monday morning, Mika Thewes, who has no less than twelve 200-plus-mile race finishes, including two Cocodona finishes, with a third place in 2023 and a fourth in 2021, ran as the race leader. Over the course of that first day, other top women’s runners, Entrekin, Aliza Lapierre, and Liz Canty, closely chased.
During night 1, however, Entrekin passed Thewes to assume the women’s lead. As of mid-morning on Tuesday, around 26 hours into the race, Thewes trailed in second place by about two miles, and Lapierre was the third woman.
Rachel Entrekin en route to the 2024 Cocodona 250 Mile win. Photo: Howie Stern
Around 32 hours into the race, on the afternoon of day 2, Thewes retook the women’s lead, which she would hold for over 100 miles. The pass happened at the Jerome aid station, mile 126 — the race’s halfway point mileage-wise — when Entrekin arrived first, and Thewes arrived second, but Thewes left first while Entrekin stayed in the aid station for a couple of hours, likely to take a nap.
At this midway point mileage-wise, Lapierre maintained third position, despite sharing with the race organization that she was having a rough race thus far. The Brazilian living in Spain, Manu Vilaseca ran a couple of miles behind Lapierre in fourth place, looking like she had the potential to move up in the rankings.
As night 2 arrived, Thewes opened her lead on the women’s field to seven miles, while Entrekin and Lapierre continued to occupy positions two and three.
By daybreak on Wednesday morning, the race’s 48-hour mark, Thewes passed mile 175 and had increased her lead to about 9.5 miles. Entrekin ran in second, while, overnight, Vilaseca assumed the women’s third-place position and was now running right behind Entrekin.
During the day on Wednesday, Thewes increased her lead by a lot. When the race hit 60 hours elapsed on Wednesday evening, Thewes was just under 220 miles into the race with a nearly 20-mile lead.
Behind Thewes, Vilaseca and Entrekin were locked in a close duel all day Wednesday, vying for second and third places. Coming up on Wednesday night and 60 hours elapsed, Vilaseca put some distance between her and Entrekin, running 2.5 miles ahead of her.
Manu Vilaseca took second at the 2024 Cocodona 250 Mile. Photo: Howie Stern
But this trio still had a fair bit of real estate to cover, and anything can — and did — happen. Overnight on night 3, the landscape of the women’s race totally changed. Entrekin passed Vilaseca to take over second place once again. Then, around mile 233, Thewes suddenly stopped, and it was thought that she’d dropped from the race. Entrekin assumed the women’s race lead, which put Vilaseca in second place. Kylee Drugan-Eppich moved up into third position.
In the soft light after dawn on Thursday morning, Rachel Entrekin smoothly ran into downtown Flagstaff, to win the 2024 Cocodona 250 Mile in 73:31:25. At the finish, she took a seat, shook her head, and said, “So easy.”
Manu Vilaseca took second in 78:04:35. Vilaseca has a big ultra resume dating back to before 2011. Her top races in recent years have included a win at the 2022 Bryce Canyon 100 Mile and 5th place at the 2019 TDS. It looks like this is her first finish of a 200-plus-mile race.
Against all odds, at around the 77-hour mark, mid-morning on Thursday, the race organization shared on the event livestream that Thewes had stopped in the night due to an injury from a fall, sought medical attention, and was cleared by both medical and the race organization to restart the race where she’d stopped. So, roughly 12 hours after stopping, she rejoined the race, assuming third place, with Drugan-Eppich moving back to fourth position.
Mika Thewes finished third, for a second year in a row, in 79:30:12, with some super-fast final miles.
Kylee Drugan-Eppich was the fourth woman in 80:04:55, looking fresh and strong during her run to the finish line through the streets of Flagstaff. This looks to be Drugan-Eppich’s first 200-plus-mile race, and it also looks like she has just one 100-mile finish to her name, a win of the 2022 Zion 100 Mile.
Carrie Henderson was the fifth woman to finish in 83:37:40. This looks to be Henderson’s second Cocodona finish; she was sixth place in 2022.
2024 Cocodona 250 Mile Women’s Results
- Rachel Entrekin – 73:31:25
- Manu Vilaseca (Brazil, lives in Spain) – 78:04:35
- Mika Thewes – 79:30:12
- Kylee Drugan-Eppich – 80:04:55
- Carrie Henderson – 83:37:40
2024 Cocodona 250 Mile Men’s Race
Talk about a closing effort: Harry Subertas won the 2024 Cocodona 250 Mile men’s race by taking over the lead in the race’s final miles to set a new course record. Here are the dynamics of how this played out.
From the starting line on Monday in Black Canyon City, Joe McConaughy took the men’s race out, leading for much of the first day and night. McConaughy was the 2022 Cocodona champion, and he holds the current men’s supported fastest known time on the 817-mile Arizona Trail.
Trailing McConaughy throughout the first day of running were top men Jeff Browning, Arlen Glick, Michael Versteeg, Jeff Garmire, Michael McKnight, and others.
Overnight Monday night, on the first night of the race, Browning overtook first-day leader McConaughy to assume the lead of the men’s race. And as night turned to sunrise on Tuesday, and the race clock ticked past 24 hours, Browning had built an approximately five-mile lead.
Browning maintained the same approximate gap on second place during day 2, passing the 150-mile mark with roughly a four-mile lead. Around midafternoon on day 2, some 33 hours in, McConaughy ran as second man, and Glick in third place, only a few miles apart from each other. However, very close to Glick were Versteeg and Harry Subertas, the latter looking super fresh and like he could move up after a more conservative first day and a half of racing.
Harry Subertas won the 2024 Cocodona 250 Mile via a come-from-behind performance where he only took over the race lead with a few miles left in the race. Photo: Howie Stern
When the sun set on day 2, Browning’s gap on second place McConaughy was roughly three miles. By now Subertas had moved up to third position.
At sunrise on Wednesday, as the race clock ticked past 48 hours, Browning passed the race’s 200-mile mark. Overnight, he maintained his lead by about four miles. Subertas, meanwhile, continued to move up, assuming second place, with McConaughy now in third at around nine miles back of second. Glick was now in fourth, just behind McConaughy.
During the third day of racing, on Wednesday, Browning’s lead shrunk rapidly as Subertas in second inched closer. At the final aid station, at mile 242, Subertas was only about 17 minutes in arrears. Then, less than an hour later, when the duo came off the final descent for the final three-mile run from the outskirts of Flagstaff to its downtown finish, Subertas led by roughly five minutes, running at a solid clip, while Browning looked to be walking it in.
Jeff Browning is all smiles after finishing second at the 2024 Cocodona 250 Mile. Photo: Howie Stern
Harry Subertas arrived to the finish line in Flagstaff, Arizona, the men’s 2024 Cocodona 250 Mile champion, setting a new course record in 59 hours, 50 minutes, and 55 seconds.
Jeff Browning took a super solid second, finishing in 60:19:57, just under 30 minutes behind the winner.
Glick made fast work of day 3, moving solidly into third position. At mile 235, he was four miles behind second place, and seven miles ahead of fourth place. Steady forward movement would ensure him the final men’s podium spot, and that’s exactly what he did. When all was said and done, Arlen Glick took third, in his first 200-plus-mile race, in 61:46:57.
In the evening hours of night 3, Joe McConaughy, the 2022 Cocodona champion, finished in fourth place in 64:03:02. Inaugural 2021 Cocodona champion, Michael Versteeg, took fifth in 65:45:20.
2024 Cocodona 250 Mile Men’s Results
- Harry Subertas – 59:50:55
- Jeff Browning – 60:19:57
- Arlen Glick – 61:46:57
- Joe McConaughy – 64:03:02
- Michael Versteeg – 65:45:20
