Less Than A Week To Go For Badwater Solo

Less than a week away until I start my journey through Death Valley, starting at Badwater, the lowest elevation in the lower 48 (-282 ft) to Mt Whitney, the highest elevation in the lower 48 (14,505 ft). Actually, my first goal is to reach the Mt Whitney trailhead (elev 8,360 ft) which maps out to be 135 miles total from Badwater. The Big Race of Badwater starts and ends at these locations, but some runners want to go with the original format of the race years ago and summit Whitney, thereby going from the lowest point to the highest point in the U.S. in one journey. That ended years ago when the Inyo National Forest required permits for summitting Whitney. i want to go with the original format, so I applied for permits (and got them through a lottery process) to give it a go.

This of course predicates that my feet and legs aren't chewed up in the 135 mile process of crossing the desert and climbing to the trailhead of Whitney. As of last week, Whitney was looking questionable: lots of snow above Trail Camp on the 97 Switchback section and along the cables leading up to Trail Crest Ridge. I'm hoping this snow melts away by the time we get there. I won't be in any condition to do anything technical, which is otherwise a very easy route to summit. We will have to wait and see how that goes.

I started my training back in early April staying on paved roads around my place, since this is what I will be running on in DV. I started my heat training regimen in mid-May, consisting of dry sauna sessions which ultimately lasted for several hours at a time. My goal with this was to be able to train my body to process the fluids needed to sustain myself at high temperatures in the desert, which can reach up to 130 degrees. I started out slow and easy, and as I increased the time I also increased the fluids (water, Gatorade, frozen water) I brought in to keep me going. I think this has worked out for me rather well, as I have done some relatively hot runs (90's) with little ill effects.

I have my crew ready consisting of six selfless individuals who will dedicate 3-4 days of their lives to see me through my journey. They consist of Nattu Natraj, whom I crewed for back in 2007; his girlfriend Karen Bonnett; good running friend Phil Rosenstein, another Badwater veteran of running and crewing; Paul Grimm whom I crewed for last year; his brother Ken who crewed last year for Paul; as well as good friend Vince Gerber, another Paul Grimm crewperson from last year. I will be in good hands.





In addition to doing a lot of road running around where I live (which is ideal for the terrain I will face in DV), I did a couple of weekends ascending Mt Evans, a 14'er near Denver. I originally planned on doing a different 14'er, Greys, but too much snow up high prevented a summit of that. Turns out the Mt Evans, which is all on paved road, was great Portal Road training for the last 13 miles of my DV journey. Vince joined me on the first ascent (and descent) and Paul and Ken for the second.

As the above most picture shows, I have most of what I will need out there ready to pack and take with me. This will in clude 4 pairs of shoes of varying sizes and widths to accommodate my swelling feet, multitudes of clothes, accessories, Whitney gear, etc..

Vince, Paul and I fly out to Lost Wages early Thursday morning, pick up the rental van for crewing, and head out to DV after a WalMart run in Pahrump, NV to purchase needed items, like water, ice, coolers, food, drinks, etc.. Ken will be meeting us either there or in DV (Stovepipe Wells). Nattu, Karen and Phil will already be at the Big Race crewing. Phil will meet us at Stovepipe Wells sometime Thursday, while Nattu and Karen sometime on Friday.

I plan on starting at 6:00 AM Saturday, July 16 at Badwater. I'm hoping for a finish time at the Mt Whitney Trailhead (Portals) in around 42 to 46 hours (midnight to 4 AM Monday AM). Then I head back to the hotel room and get some rest before heading up to Mt Whitney early the next morning. Vince and I fly back to Denver on Wednesday. The rest of the crew will go their ways (Paul will head to L.A. for a 100 mile run Angeles Crest).