Plus, Dauwalter is a generational talent, he added. “If she has applied the same energy [in training] to a road marathon as other events, she is likely to do very, very well.”
Commenters online speculated about her possible time: Can she break three hours? Dauwalter, 40, now of Leadville, Colo., will arrive at the marathon about a month after an epic 100 plus-mile race in the French Alps: the Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc, or UTMB, which she has won three times.
In 2023, she won three prestigious ultramarathons — a triple that no other trail runner had ever accomplished in a single year. The feat included a record performance at the Western States 100 in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California.
Dauwalter isn’t foreign to pavement or the Twin Cities Marathon, which she has run twice.
The first, in 2009, was her first marathon attempt. She finished in three hours, 17 minutes, and credits the experience as the catalyst for her pro trail career. She also ran more slowly with her brothers in 2012.
Minnesota ultramarathon racer and organizer John Storkamp got to know Dauwalter when she participated in his Superior 100-mile race, held every September on the popular hiking trail up the North Shore.