Calling Cody Poskin a professional ultrarunner is accurate, but it’s incomplete.

At 24, Courier’s first-ever ambassador has already won a 400K through the Gobi Desert, finished second at the Cocodona 250, climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro, kayaked 340 miles down the Missouri River from Kansas City to St. Louis, backpacked 500 miles of the Colorado Trail in 19 days, and ridden a 300cc motorcycle across the country twice. This month, he plans to follow up the Kodiak 100 with the Big Sugar Classic, a 100-mile gravel cycling race, just one week later.

Despite going professional as a trail runner in 2025, we’re quick to call him a Renaissance Athlete rather than a single-discipline one. He’s endlessly curious about what his body can do, remarkably willing to suffer in order to find out, and known to reject some of the common proclivities of the pro world (a training plan, a coach, a particularly rigorous approach to nutrition) for fear they might ruin the joy of the experience.

Cody has built one of ultrarunning’s fastest-rising careers from Cedar Hill, Missouri, a place without mountains, altitude or much of a trail-running community. To prepare for the tens of thousands of feet of elevation gain he regularly faces during ultra races, he runs quarter-mile repeats on a nearby 130-foot hill for hours on end.

He’s ridden a motorcycle across the country to races, slept under an overpass on the way home from Leadville and, until surprisingly recently, had a fairly loose relationship with the concept of race nutrition (read: during the Ultra Gobi 400K, he stopped eating at mile 125 and finished the next 35 hours on water alone).

And yet, the results keep coming. He won his first 100-miler by more than two hours. He’s won 100-mile and 400K races since, and this year took second at the Cocodona 250, shaving more than 13 hours off his previous time and finishing under the former course record. All while insisting he still has a lot left to figure out.

We talked to Cody about choosing hard things, building an unconventional career with whatever he has, the difference between becoming professional and “professionalizing,” and why he’s still, in his words, “just gettin’ started baby.”

We're stoked to announce Cody as Courier's first Journey Athlete as part of the Courier Athlete Collective. Journey athletes are current competitors, creators and adventurers who are actively pursuing meaningful goals, pushing boundaries, and openly documenting that journey. The emphasis isn't on podiums, it's on progression and what it takes to get there.

CHOOSING HARD

[COURIER]: Where did you grow up, and what did life look like there?

[CP]: I grew up in Cedar Hill MO, which is about 45 minutes southwest of Saint Louis. It is a pretty rural area, but also pretty close to major suburban areas. Life was slow and simple. I grew up going to soccer practices during the week and playing in the woods behind my house with my brother and friends. During the summers, we spent a lot of time at the lake and playing sports, just doing what normal kids do.

[COURIER]: When did running go from something you were good at to something you thought you could actually build a life around?

[CP]: The first time I realized I was good at it was during some middle school XC meets. I just naturally ended up in the top 3 at pretty much every race, not knowing what I was doing at all. When I realized maybe I could go somewhere real with this was during my first 100-mile race, the Midstate Massive in 2023. I ended up winning by over two hours, also having no real clue what I was doing. That's when the mindset shifted from hobby to maybe I can go “pro.”

[COURIER]: It’s not just running. You seem to tackle a myriad of endurance challenges. Where does this appetite for suffering come from?

[CP]: I have asked myself this question countless times. The best I can come up with is that since I had such a good childhood - no real hardships or tragedies to overcome - maybe I am seeking out some suffering.

I am so grateful that I get to choose my hard instead of it being chosen for me. But I am a firm believer in testing your limits and getting out of your comfort zone, and for me I guess that is finding new endurance challenges with ever increasing difficulty.

BUILT IN MISSOURI

[COURIER]: You’re competing at the highest level of ultrarunning from relatively flat Missouri. How do you make that work?

[CP]: I think some of it just comes down to God-given talent, which I am so grateful for. But beyond that, I do as much as I can for the environment that I am in currently. I drive to the trails at least once a week to get at least some time on non-road. Beyond that, I have to be extremely intentional with my runs, especially if I am trying to get adequate vertical.

Getting more vertical has been my #1 focus in 2026, seeing how in the past my quads have blown up in the later miles of long races. Although we don’t have mountains here, we do have hills. So I sometimes will spend hours running up and down the same quarter-mile hill at a park near my house with 130ft of elevation gain over and over and over to get my vertical. I have probably put close to 500 reps on that thing this year, just going up and down for hours.

[COURIER]: What does a genuinely hard training week actually look like?

[CP]: I don’t really have “hard training weeks”. I coach myself, which means I pretty much just do whatever I want whenever I want to. That usually comes out to virtually zero workouts and just doing a bunch of miles at a relatively easy pace.

So with that in mind, a “hard” training week just means longer runs and more time on feet. These weeks get increasingly difficult during the summers here when the highs sit right around 100 degrees, and the humidity is sky high. That is truly what makes the training hard.

[COURIER]: Is Missouri a disadvantage, or has being the underdog given you something?

[CP]: Oh it is definitely a disadvantage. No real mountain or trail access, no altitude, no trail community. But that same disadvantage has given me this sense of being an underdog. I take pride in competing up front at races knowing that a lot of my competitors have access to much better training environments than I do.

It also makes me feel like I have a lot of runway left. Like as soon as I move out west and have access to the same training resources that everyone else has, who knows what is possible. I am making efforts to move to Flagstaff as we speak. I hope to be there starting in January of 2027.

THE ROAD LESS TRAVELED

[COURIER]: You’ve ridden a sport bike across the country to races and training trips. Why a motorcycle?

[CP]: Well, from a practical standpoint, it is just a cheap way to travel (via motorcycle). I am a minimalist, so I don’t travel with a lot of stuff, and the motorcycle gets me like 50mpg so I just saved a bunch of money. But it also gave me the freedom of going where I wanted when I was out west at races instead of relying on rental cars or Ubers all the time. It just made a lot of logistical sense. And, objectively, it's badass.

For race prep, it's definitely not ideal. Being crouched up like that for hours on end, being beat up by the wind, and staying that mentally engaged takes a toll. But hey, it's still cool and worth it in my book.

I am pretty good at zoning out and being present once I have started on an adventure. I am so goal-driven and locked into finishing the mission, even if it is exhausting or inconvenient. Once I start an adventure, it is just full steam ahead until I finish.

[COURIER]: You recently slept under an overpass riding home from Leadville, followed by a night behind a dumpster. Extreme example, or pretty representative of how you’ve built this career?

[CP]: (Laughs) I wish I could say it was extreme, but the night after that I slept behind a dumpster in a park. I just don't feel the need to spend the money on a hotel when I am perfectly content dirtbagging it in random spots. When I am traveling alone and have this flexibility, I will likely always do this. The story changes if and when I find a partner to share life with. I doubt I’ll be sleeping behind dumpsters then.

[COURIER]: How much of your career has been built around figuring it out with whatever you have, and has that resourcefulness shaped the athlete you’ve become?

[CP]: 100% of it. I am not much of a planner and really just enjoy setting things in motion and just making it work as I go along. I want to clarify that I come from more privilege than most. I have always had plenty of food and love from my parents. They have been supportive and helped me get to where I am without a doubt. But now that I bear 100% of the costs of my life, I have had to become more creative, and I have found I really enjoy figuring out that puzzle.

There are plenty of problems to solve and tradeoffs to make, and I think there is a part of me that enjoys doing things the difficult way. Even simple things like getting around while traveling. 5 miles away? That's walkable; why would we take the bus? That's crazy. I like taking the road less traveled. I think it has helped my personality shine through to others and also helped me figure out who I really am and what is important to me.

[COURIER]: As more support and opportunity come your way, what about this scrappier version of your life don’t you want to lose?

[CP]: I've been thinking a lot about this in the past year as I have started to have more support. I am almost nostalgic already for the days of sleeping in the back of my car before a race and running with nothing but plain water. But I now realize it is extremely difficult, if not impossible, for me to compete at the level I wish to without changing some things. And I accept that.

As my position in the sport increases, maybe things will get less scrappy and more standard, but for now I really enjoy the lifestyle I am leading. And when I am doing a lower-stakes race or adventure, I still fall back to my dirtbag roots.

BETTING ON HIMSELF

[COURIER]: Before pursuing running full time, what did you think your life was going to look like?

[CP]: I have never really known what “I wanted to be when I grow up”. It has changed a million times, from doctor to lawyer to finance bro to firefighter. Going into college, I was pretty set on becoming a financial advisor so I studied finance and insurance at school. I still really like the subject, but found that I hated feeling “salesy” to my friends trying to sell financial products. I took a regular finance/accounting job after that and found zero love for it, so now here we are, still lost on a real career path outside of sport.

Most recently, I was working full time as an executive assistant at a local HVAC company. I did a bunch of random tasks including payroll, tax reporting, creating budgets, managing investments, and HR tasks.

[COURIER]: When did quitting your regular job to pursue ultrarunning full time become real?

[CP]: My heart was never in my "regular job"; I was constantly daydreaming of being out in the mountains, 80 miles into a 100-mile race, just ripping trail. I had wanted to be a “pro” from the beginning, but at times you feel kind of foolish having that dream while everyone around you is taking the normal “get job, get married, buy house, have kids” path. In this past year, that dream just picked up steam and became more and more of a possibility until I finally took the leap and quit this past summer.

[COURIER]: What scares you most about betting on yourself like this?

[CP]: I am most scared of taking this shot, and then maybe things don’t work out. Then I have to come crawling back to corporate America with a nice multi-year-sized gap on my resume. Then I will find myself back at an entry-level job, slaving away for the man, basking in my own misery. So I guess all that’s to say is I’m the most afraid of failing and ending up right back where I started. But you miss 100% of the shots you don’t take, right?

THE UNFINISHED ATHLETE

[COURIER]: You’re already producing huge results, but you’re still remarkably early in figuring out how to be a professional endurance athlete. Does that excite you?

[CP]: I am very aware of how “young” I am, both in terms of the sport and, like, actually young. But this is one of the things that actually fires me up the most about the sport. I am already having a decent amount of success, and I feel like my ceiling is still so high. I have yet to dial in fuelling, strength work, training on trails, etc.

I have so many stones left to be turned over it excites me. I have already found this much success not eating on any of my runs and doing repeats on the same 130ft hill in MO to get my “vertical” for the week. What happens when I actually dial things in? Guess we’ll see :)

[COURIER]: How much of your approach is training theory versus just... vibes?

[CP]: I am a student of the sport for sure. I listen to podcasts and generally enjoy learning about things, but I would say the vast majority of what I am doing is based on feel and personal vibes. I don’t have a coach and really don’t think I or anyone else truly needs one.

I run on feel and keep the spirit of adventure alive, which brings me a lot of joy in the sport. I think if I were to add too much structure, it would suck the joy out of the sport for me, and that would shine through in my race performance. I am willing to sacrifice some potential gains for keeping the joy alive.

[COURIER]: Of everything you could “professionalize,” where is the biggest opportunity?

[CP]: I am not a data nerd. I enjoy looking at the metrics, but I don’t obsess over things, so I think technology and wearables are a moot point for me. I use my watch to track miles and vert and navigate; that's about it.

As for the rest of it, there is room to improve for sure. Nutrition is a huge one. In previous races, I have topped out under 100g of carbs an hour and then usually shut everything down about 60% of the way through the race and just tough it out to the finish line. For the Ultra Gobi 400K, for example, I stopped eating entirely at mile 125 and then consumed nothing except water for the next 35 hours. Lots of room to improve there (laughs).

I also still run 80% or more of my training miles on roads. When I can move out of Missouri and spend more time on trail climbing actual mountains and living at elevation, I think lots of things are going to change.

In 2024 I ran the Leadville 100 and was drastically underfuelling. It was at that race I discovered what drink mix was - I had no idea that you could mix nutrition into your water as a way to get more calories in. I’m drinking water anyway, so why not get nutrition in at the same time? Seems pretty basic, right? But to me, at the time, it was a revolutionary discovery.

[COURIER]: Does it excite you to think about what happens when you put more professional-level resources around what you’re already capable of?

[CP]: For sure I am super excited to see what happens when I “professionalize.” Even though I am technically a pro, I still don’t really feel like it. Most of that is just internal imposter syndrome bullshit, but to an extent, it’s because I don’t do what I see most “pros” doing.

I am not getting bodywork done or strength training or doing these massive workouts. I am simply just running. And I’m not really sure I want to swing too far in that direction. Sure, there is room for improvement, but there are a lot of things about the “professional” side of the sport that do not appeal to me, even if it means sacrificing performance.

[COURIER]: You took 13 hours off your Cocodona 250 time year over year. Does a result like that change how you think about your ceiling?

[CP]: The ceiling is high with or without the Cocodona finishes. But taking 13 hours off my own time year over year really does light me up. I still made so many mistakes in year two, and it makes me so excited to take another crack at things in 2027.

[COURIER]: So what does the next-level version of Cody Poskin look like?

[CP]: I don’t know because I don’t think anyone ever truly gets to the “fully realized” version of themselves. There will always be room for improvement. But for me, if I can get out West, live and train at elevation with a group of runners who are also super passionate about this sport, I think the rest will follow.

I fully intend to be one of the most competitive people in any field I line up in. Maybe not a shoo-in for the win, but always a contender. Whether it is a multi-day event like Cocodona or a local 50k, I want to compete up front and always be in a position to win.

[COURIER]: When you think about everything you’ve accomplished already, does it feel like you’ve arrived, or does it genuinely feel like you’re only just beginning?

[CP]: We’re just gettin' started baby :)

 

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