CATRA CORBETT IS AN UNSTOPPABLE FORCE IN ULTRARUNNING AND AN UNMISSABLE ICON ON THE TRAIL.
It would be hard to miss her fluorescent and usually matching athletic wear, bright-pink locks twisted into twin buns on the top of her head, tattoos and facial piercings a blur in the California sun as she whisks by you with a smile (and at least one dachshund running alongside).
Catra Corbett turns heads. She’s impossible not to notice at the dozens of ultras or, if you happen to be in the California backcountry, solo trail excursions she runs every year. Now 56, Corbett, of Bishop, California, holds the FKT for a double run of the John Muir Trail: over 400 miles in 12 days 4 hours 57 minutes. Now she runs it nearly every summer, just for fun.
She is the first American woman to run 100 100-mile races. She’s podiumed in 64 ultras across the country, including placing third at the Beyond Limits 72-hour ultra just this April. She’s the only woman to complete the San Diego 100 10 times, and she regularly orchestrates solo hundred-milers just for the heck of it.
And this year, she plans to be the first person to run the Triple Crown of 200s (the Bigfoot, Tahoe and Moab Endurance Runs) three times.
“She is persistent,” says her friend and fellow runner Mike Palmer. “She’s unique in that most of the time she accomplishes what she says she’s going to do no matter how outlandish it may seem to others.”
However, Corbett wasn’t always a picture of such confident, determined energy on the trail. In fact, her running career didn’t start on a high-school track or a college cross-country team. It began in a jail cell.
In The Beginning
Denne historien er fra Summer 2021-utgaven av Trail Runner.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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Denne historien er fra Summer 2021-utgaven av Trail Runner.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent? Logg på
You Cannot Erase us
Over the years and through thousands of miles of running, I have thought about the words that marked the beginning of colonialism on the land and the end of Indigenous sovereignty.
Inside The Adaptable Mind
How Courtney Dauwalter uses adaptability to stay cool, calm and collected when the going gets tough.
Take it Easy
How to stay at aerobic pace when you live in the hills
Here Comes the Sun
Where pessimism meets its match
Connecting the Dots
How Laura Cortez uses her passion for trails to build community.
Carbohydrate Confusion
When it comes to food and nutrition, we tend to overcomplicate things. Eat this, not that. Run fasted, restrict sugar. Unfortunately, much of the controversy stems from observations and sensationalized media headlines vs. actual data, leaving the consumer more confused from their Google search than they were before.
This Wild Life
ONE MAN’S 92-MILE RUN OF GRIEF AND SELF-DISCOVERY.
Our Town
Trail running is all about the community it fosters and the beauty and diversity within the community. Here’s a look at seven places, and the faces that call them home.
Fueling for Females
Here’s how female runners can use recent research findings for performance breakthroughs
Lose Weight with a Shake
Being a health and nutrition correspondent means that companies frequently send me their products, and ask for my stamp of approval.
