Dakotah Popehn
Residence: Hopkins, MN
Date of birth: 5/1/1995
Hometown: St. Francis, Minnesota
Occupation: Runner for Puma
College: Northern State University – Aberdeen, SD B.S. in Biology – December 2017
Favorite Pre-Race Meal: Nothing quirky, bagel, cream cheese.
Favorite Pump-Up Song: Orinoco Flow
Funniest Mid-Race Thought: There’s plenty of other less painful ways to make a living.
3,000m
5,000m
5k Road
8k Road
10,000m
10k Road
15k Road
10 Mile
20k
Half Marathon
25k
Marathon
9:27
16:02.16
16:01
27:45
34:57
31:58
49:20
52:57
1:06:02
1:08:04
1:23:06
2:24:40
2024 - Paris Olympic Marathon 12th
2024 - Garry Bjorklund Half Marathon 2nd
2024 - NYRR Mini 10k 8th
2024 - USATF 25k Championship 3rd
2024 - USA Olympic Team Trials - Marathon 3rd
2023 - UA NYC Half Marathon 6th
2023 - USATF 15k Championship 4th
2022 - USATF 20k Championships 9th
2022 - Grandma's Marathon - 1st Place
2022 - USATF 25k Championships - 3rd​
2021 - USATF Half Marathon
Championships - 3rd
2021 - Grandma's Marathon - 1st Place
2021 - USATF 20k Championships - 8th
2019 - USATF 25k Championships - 5th​
2017 - NCAA DII Outdoor Championships 10,000m - 6th
Dakotah is a 2013 graduate of St. Francis High School in St. Francis, Minnesota where she competed in track and cross country. She was also the goaltender for the combined St. Francis/North Branch high school girls hockey team.
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After high school, Dakotah raced on the Northern State University Wolves cross country and track teams. She was a five-time DII National Qualifier, a 2017 DII 10,000m First Team All-American (finishing sixth at the National Championships), and a 2017 DII Cross Country Second Team All-American (34th at the National Championships).
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In the spring of 2018, Dakotah won the USATF Minnesota 8k Championship, she was first at the Women Run the Cities 10 Mile in Minneapolis, and made her debut in the half marathon at the Garry Bjorklund Half in Duluth with a time of 1:16:16. She joined Minnesota Distance Elite in the fall of 2018 and has since skyrocketed to the top of the U.S. road running scene. Dakotah’s first outing at the marathon distance was promising, with a second place finish at the 2019 Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon. Since then she has consistently dropped personal records on the roads with top 10 American finishes in the Boston Marathon (12th 2021, 14th 2022, 16th 2025), New York Marathon (17th 2024), and Chicago Marathon (12th 2023, 7th 2025), and back-to-back wins at Grandma’s Marathon (2021, 2022) .
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Dakotah finished third at the 2024 USA Olympic Marathon Trials in Orlando, Florida, with a time of 2:25.31, which qualified her for the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, France. She competed hard earning 11th place and crossed the line as the top finisher for Team USA.
