Cocodona 250 has begun its 2026 edition. Aravaipa Running's 250-mile point-to-point ultramarathon set off on Monday morning from Black Canyon City, sending a deep international field on the long, baking march north through Arizona's Bradshaw Mountains and high country to a finish on Flagstaff's Heritage Square. With the start gun gone, the leaders are now picking their way through the first canyon sections and into the long, exposed climbs that define day one.
All eyes have been on Courtney Dauwalter, who returns to Cocodona looking for the finish line that eluded her last year. Dauwalter led the 2025 race through 77 miles before stomach issues forced her out at around mile 108, and the 41-year-old made a deliberate point of confirming her 2026 return as soon as she had recovered. She is the highest-rated woman entered this year, and on day one will look to settle into the patient, metronomic pace that has won her the Tor des Géants, UTMB and Western States in years past.
The men's race is similarly stacked. Course-record holders and proven 200-mile finishers are mixed with first-time Cocodona starters who have arrived on the back of strong Black Canyon and Bandera campaigns earlier in the season. The first time-trial check at Crown King and the long climb up to Mingus Mountain in the small hours of Tuesday will, as ever, be where the race begins to fragment, but for now the front-of-the-field is doing exactly what 250-mile racing demands: running well within itself.
Live tracking via TrackLeaders is available at trackleaders.com/cocodona26, and Aravaipa is again running its in-house broadcast effort across the route, with crew chasers, drone shots and frequent course-side check-ins from major aid stations. Last year's Aravaipa coverage was widely credited with bringing 250-mile racing to a much wider audience, and the production team has indicated this year's broadcast will lean even more heavily into the long-haul storytelling that suits a multi-day race format.
For neutrals, the standout sub-plot heading into the second night is whether the 2026 weather window will favour the front-runners or punish them. Temperatures in the lower elevations were forecast to climb into the high 80s Fahrenheit on day one before the route lifts up into cooler ponderosa pine country towards Jerome and Mingus, and how the leaders manage the swing from desert heat to mountain cold over the next 36 hours will go a long way to deciding the 2026 podium.