BadWater Ultra Marathon Is Over For 2005

It gets lost in the shuffle of that guy named Lance, but an important annual race was held this week and the winners have been crowned.

Scott Jurek, whom I blogged about recently winning his 7th straight Western States Endurance 100 race, not only won the Badwater 135 mile ultra marathon he set a new course record of 24:36:08. That is an average pace of 10:56 per mile. See its not that bad to run slow!

Pam Reed, whom you may remember became the first person, male or female, to run 300 consecutive miles without stopping, was the first woman across at a time of 30:29:55. Not to take anything away but she has been an overall winner in the past. It doesn't appear that my favorite ultra endurance runner and 2004 winner, Dean Karnaze competed this year.

For those who don't know the course this is a short description of badwater;

While an ultra-marathon is defined as any race with a distance longer than a marathon (26.2 miles), Badwater is a grueling 135 mile race beginning in Death Valley (Badwater, California, elevation 282 feet below sea level) and ascending to 8000 feet by the race's end which includes an 18 mile stretch where the elevation rises over 5000 feet. With temperatures reaching 125 degrees in the middle of the day, the Badwater 135 is perhaps the nastiest race in the world.

Dean mentions in his book Ultramarathon Man, which I read, that the soles of his shoes melted unless he ran on the white stripe of the road. It gets so hot that he ran in a white suit with full hood to avoid the sunburns. And that the bread on his food would be toasted the moment it was handed out the window to him.

I for one would love to have the ability to do this race. It is invite only so I won't hold my breath. However, in early spring of each year at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico is the annual Bataan Death March Marathon which is just your garden variety 26.2, except for the fact that its run in the desert through the missile range and if you stray off course you could end up surrounded by unexploded ordinance. I entered this race in 2002 but couldn't go because a million dollars worth of new equipment arrived a week early and it was my project.

Maybe I will look at it again in 2008, as I am planning on doing Wildflower with Kahuna, Robo Stu and Head Doc next spring 2006 and will probably do Ironman Arizona in the spring of 2007.