Welcome!

Here you will find photographs and a written account of my attempt to run the Badwater 135 Mile Ultra Marathon. Death Valley to Mount Whitney on  July 22 and 23, 2003. Badwater is said to be the toughest foot race on the planet and over those two days I discovered why.

Luis Escobar

Two days have past since my crew and I walked across the finish line of the 2003 Badwater 135-Mile Ultramarathon. We are home now and back to normal life. My face is peeling and the swelling in my feet and legs have gone down and I am now able to walk unassisted up and down the stairs to my bedroom. I have been running and racing for more than 15 years. I have seen a lot of races and been to a lot places, but I ain’t never seen anything like Badwater! Everything about the Badwater 135-Mile Ultramarathon is extreme and bigger  than life. The people, the place, the conditions and the event are all served up in epic proportions. As you may know, the race starts at the Badwater basin, which is the absolute lowest point in country. Badwater is 282 feet below sea level and is located in the heart of Death Valley. The finish line is located at the Mount Whitney Portals, 8360 feet above sea level. 

                                                                                                 Badwater at dawn 

Between the start and finish there could be a 90 degree temperature difference in addition to 3 windswept desert valleys, 2 gigantic mountain ranges, 135 long, hot, unforgiving miles and a lifetime of running experiences. Badwater is a big league race course with approximately, 69 miles of flat, 20 miles up hill and 46 down, all are hot. The temperature in Death Valley seems to vary from place to place and is based on the season, time of day, wind speed and direction. It is always hot, but some places are hotter than others. Sunday night before the race as my crew and I sat by the pool in Stovepipe Wells the air temperature was 110, at midnight! It was well over110 when we started running on Tuesday, July 22 at 10:00am.

                    Mark & Lynn Johnson, me, Beverly and Doug Rich                            and we are off............

My fellow competitors are a qualified collection of elite ultra distance athletes from around the world. Race director, Chris Kostman hand selects each athlete from resumes submitted to him months in advance. On the starting line, I could hear people talking in several different languages. There were athletes from, Germany, Monaco, Tahiti, England, France, Canada, Switzerland, Brazil and Mexico. These runners are big time, hard ass, no nonsense kind of people. The extreme of the extreme. Each one has an impressive bio and a list of credentials a mile long. These people mean business. It was more than a little intimidating to line up with runners of this fine caliber. Everyone at Badwater is good. My heart rate was a pounding 161 beats per minute as I stood on that starting line. I was surrounded by an excited group of international running celebrities. These are the same people that I have been reading about for months, and now, here I am lined up with them about to start the longest and most challenging running event of my career. We are standing in the deepest pit of Death Valley, it is 9:59am, 115 degrees, my heart is pounding, the stage is set, time to run. This is Badwater. The race course is paved from point to point; the roads seem endless before you, a long black ribbon on a bed of white sand fading into the horizon miles and miles away. We are required to run on the left side of the road (towards traffic) our pace vehicles drive along on the right. 

                                                                  Major Mark Johnson ready to run

My crew consists of my wife Beverly, Major Mark Johnson (2002- 5^th. place 36 hour 30 minute Badwater finisher) Mark’s wife Lynn and my buddy Doug Rich. Anyone who has ever run an ultra will tell you that it is definitely a team sport. The Badwater event supplies no aid so your crew is essential. At Badwater, without two reliable vehicles, a good pacer and solid support team you will have no chance. Besides the obvious heat, wind and majestic landscape the road becomes your point of focus. I am dressed in white from head to toe. Long sleeves, long pants, a sun hat, dark glasses and a wet towel pinned around my head and neck. The bill of my hat and the towel pulled tight around my face created a kind of tunnel vision. For hours at a time I would be looking straight down seeing only the black road and endless white line that would eventually lead me to finish. About 15 miles from Stovepipe Wells, our little desert caravan had a surprise. My friend and fellow distance runner Greg Pirkl and his girlfriend Evelyn appeared on the course. Greg is in the service and just home from 5 months in Iraq. Greg and Evelyn took turns running with me through the hottest part of the day. It was a thrill to see Greg and hear about his time in the war. 

                                full desert running gear                                        Here I am with Greg Pirkl just home from Iraq

As we approached Stovepipe Wells the thermometer in one of our pace vehicles read 134 degrees! The air temperature is one thing but the surface temperature is another and usually much higher. Some race veterans say that the surface temperatures can reach 200 degrees! My feet were cooking inside of the shoes that I had lined with heavy-duty aluminum foil. Until today blisters have never been a real big issue with me. Of course, I have had blisters in the past, but nothing like this. The blistering started around 60 miles when the course begins it’s long decent into the Panamint Valley. The heat and friction from running down hill caused the skin on my heals and toes to slowly rub off. The pain was nearly unbearable.

At several points through out the race we were forced to stop and repair my feet. Mark’s wife Lynn Johnson had taken the time to learn all she could about foot injuries and blister care from race veteran Denise Jones. Without Lynn’s help I would have never finished the race. The idea is to cut the blister open with a knife or razor blade. The opening has to be big enough that the skin can not reconnect. Then we would squeeze out all of the hot bloody fluid. Squirt on some antibacterial ointment, a coat of adhesive could then be applied, then a very thin fabric bandage, more glue, then tape on top of that. The entire process would take about 10 minutes per blister. It was very frustrating, time consuming, and painful. The Montrail Shoe Company is very supportive and generous with me. They were nice enough to supply me with shoes for this run. The shoes were working fine but my feet had swollen and needed relief. Eventually we cut off the top, front part of my shoes, exposing my throbbing blistered toes. Sound fun?

At night it is very dark in the desert. This night was lit up by lightning storms far off in the distance. Running at night is always a challenge. It is sometimes difficult to stay awake. We stopped twice during the race for 20 to 30 minutes at a time to sleep. We would sleep on the ground or on the tailgate of the truck.

When the sun came up on day two we were somewhere around 90 miles and just past the Panamint Mountains on our way to the Darwin checkpoint. An early morning rainstorm cleaned the road and temporarily cooled things. It was a welcomed surprise that did not last long, soon the temperature shot back into the low 100s. We had been on the course for nearly 24 hours and the blisters, long miles, heat and exhaustion was taking their  toll. I never considered quitting, but at this point I just wanted to finish.

Day 2 - somewhere around the Darwin check point - 8AM starters on the horizon

                tailgate lunch break            Mark at Stovepipe Wells        roadside rest stop

We continued through the Owens Valley eventually reaching the town of Lone Pine and the final 13-mile assent to the Mount Whitney finish line. There are only three major climbs on the course and they saved the best for last. It is a nearly 4000 foot climb to the finish line and by this point all I could do was to hike at a slow pace.

We finally arrived at the Mount Whitney Portals at 11:19PM on Wednesday, July 23. We had been on the course long enough to see the sun rise and set twice. But now it was over. Doug, Mark, Lynn, Beverly and I crossed the finish line of the Badwater 135-Mile Ultramarathon together. It was the moment that we had been working towards for months. My official time was 37 hours, 19 minutes and 18 seconds – the 7^th. place finisher over all. For complete information about the Badwater Ultra Marathon visit www.badwaterultra.com

13 miles to the finish - Mount Whitney in the distance

The Badwater 135 Mile Ultra Marathon is a ambitious but reasonable goal. If you are interested in attempting the epic run, here is my advice: 

                                DO                                                                         DON'T 

       Become familiar with the course                                Run shirtless                                                

       Contact Ben & Denise Jones                                       Do anything new

       Blister prevention, tape your feet                              Underestimate the race course

       Arrive prepared for anything                                     Overestimate your abilities

Special thanks to my crew and sponsors:

Mark And Lynn Johnson

Doug Rich

Beverly Escobar

 Montrail 

Clif Bar

Petzl

Patagonia