MAKING IT THROUGH THE BADWATER 135

Contributed by Maree Connor, AURA member (Newcastle, NSW)BADWATER 135, DEATH VALLEY (CA, USA), 4-6 July 2023

If you love ultra running, then you’ve probably heard of the Badwater 135. If not, then briefly it’s a 135 mile race (217km) across California’s Death Valley, totalling some 4450m of elevation across the course starting 80m below sea level, travelling along the desert floor, crosses a range and dips back down onto the desert floor again before going over yet another range and back down, before finishing up at the Mt Whitney portal road trailhead (Mt Whitney is contiguous USA’s highest point). While not part of the AURA running calendar, it’s certainly on the world-wide running calendar. Earlier this year, following in the footsteps of some of AURA’s great runners like Nikki Wynd, Mick Thwaites, Grant Maughan and only a handful of others, I applied to be one of 20 Australians in history that have been selected to race the Badwater 135 – and I was successful! This year only two Aussies were selected, me as a first timer, and Sandy who is a Badwater veteran.

Man, this race was something else. It was more than I expected. Likened to becoming part of the Coast to Kosci family here in Australia, the USA’s Badwater135 seeps in to your soul while you’re in it, getting inside you and then you can’t forget you are now part of this family too. 

My 2023 Badwater journey began when my name was called out live on Facebook at 4am EST in early February. It was much more than a 10day trip away to the USA, it was over 6months of physical hard work and training on my body, lots of planning and logistics, stress of financial costs and trying to manage the entire overseas trip, focus on organising, selecting and preparing a crack team (who I barely knew) who would 100% commit to me and support me when I had offers from multiple people to choose from, understanding and researching heat adaption and finding someone to support me from a coaching perspective, having never been coached, was I coachable? For me, the reflection process after a race like this is huge and takes weeks. I think about all the good and all the bad and I put it all together, write it out to make sure I never forget anything that happened. What an adventure. For this, I’ll just write about the 10days away otherwise it might be a novel.

My dear friend Alexa (long-term crew) and I departed Sydney and flew in to Los Angeles 5 days before the race. The following day, more of the crew arrived, Jamie H from Australia and James I New Zealand, both wonderful people and crewmen. We used the few days in LA to finally meet everyone for the first time, buy all the gear, put all my plans together and teach my new crew about me. Coupled with finding America team member Jack by chance and bringing him in, these days of prep were a bit stressful and busy, but fruitful (although I lost my voice for a few days after the long flight, making it hard to tell them everything I wanted to say). Once we were organised, we drove out to the desert and I was able to feel some heat for the first time, hitting 45°C in the car on the way there.

We stayed in a small place along the course near Lone Pine and the last 2 days before the race included orientation and acclimation jogs, race official check in, last minute gear purchases, car and equipment organisation and mostly for me just trying to remain calm and rested! I focused on trying to be present throughout the experience as I wanted to remember and enjoy the complete adventure. I sat back watching the crew go about their tasks knowing I had selected a wonderful team.

Race day came upon me fast, I was not nervous, I was excited. The hard work was done. We had a 4hr drive in the afternoon through the desert to the start line at the Badwater Basin, stopping for ice and fuel along the way. When we arrived at the start line it was 9.30pm. I had a quick pre-race weigh in and then we walked down into the Badwater basin sign at 80m below sea level, for a team photo. I was in wave 3 and my race started at 10pm and with a short briefing, the singing of the national anthem (USA, not Australia!), the 10sec countdown and then we were off right on 10 o’clock. It was dark, windy and 47°C at the start line. The live footage shows I was almost the last person out of the start area, so about 99 people in front of me racing. 

I ran carefully and comfortably through the night and into the morning. This was my favourite part of the race. My crew cared for me with regular stops and checks adjusting on the fly to anything I asked for, anything I needed. I didn’t need much. Just cold drinks and a face clean to remove the sweat in my eyes. I ran in darkness and without my headtorch because the night was so clear and the moon so bright with the flashing lights from the cars and crews showing the way. It was so lovely running in the desert overnight, not a care in the world. The car temp showed it hit 59°C at 1am heading toward Furnace Creek (check point 1). I really enjoyed this overnight section, interacting with other crews waiting for their runners, giving them a good laugh with my singing and bad obvious use of aussie slang like ‘aw thanks mate’ every time one of them offered to spray me! I hit check point 2 as dawn approached. This was almost 70km and I did it in about 6hr 45min. I enjoy running in the heat, coming from North Queensland, I relished in finally having feeling in all of my fingers and toes for an entire race! I found the temps to be not far out of my comfort zone, even while moving at a good pace.

From checkpoint 2 it’s a 26km uphill climb out of that valley, over the top of Towne Pass and then down into the next valley and this was all done during the heat of the day. The day was as good as the night for me. The views were stunning and I was doing what I love. I was relaxed and enjoying myself looking out across the desert and secretly reciting Star Wars movie lines! All day I kept a smile on my face, I really was in my happy place just ticking off the kms. I called out “happy birthday” to Alexa at every opportunity for the entirety of Wednesday (5th July) since it was her birthday, and I thanked my crew every time I saw them. I hit 100km just after 10hrs and my crew celebrated by making a video of the occasion. Down into the Panamint valley gave us gorgeous views and the crew took some amazing photos. One of the funniest things about the race was when crew member Jack picked up a coke can that exploded in his hand and fizzed all over the interior of the car including the roof! It was hilarious because he had warned us all not to leave the cans on the floor of the car because it gets too hot. I just happened to walk over to the car to get sun cream at the time and saw it! I’m glad it was him and not me – we all laughed and laughed and laughed (sorry Jack). 

We crossed the second valley floor, rose up and over Father Crowley and headed into the third and final decent for the race by the afternoon. I managed to do well up and into the evening until I got a bit unwell around the 170km mark with vertigo. I managed to turn it around though it took some time, roughly 20min of trouble shooting. The hot air blowing into my face was oppressive but I had trained for that – I had expected it… so I did my best to run through it dunking my hat into an ice bucket and sipping iced water from my bottle every few minutes to keep my mouth wet. Then night came again and we continued to forge on. Arriving to Olancha (197km) at about 9.20pm so almost 24hrs into the race.

Having no phone reception for majority of the course had its positives but equally, it left us oblivious to where we were in the race against others. None of us knew my position until 21km to go. We had assumed we were at the pointy end after passing a female runner about 8pm. It hadn’t even crossed my mind to find out where we sat overall in the race but the crew noted that I had made some excellent late moves towards the back end of the race, passing 5 runners in the section from Darwin (150km) to Olancha (197km) with 21km to go.

The final stretch has a lot of elevation, about 1500m. This is the section where we moved out of the desert and up into the hills of the Sierra Nevada to Mt Whitney trail head – where the race finishes. The race and elevation is quite tough with 200km on the legs and after being in the heat all day so it’s obvious that this part is just the fastest walk/run you can muster. I’m lucky that I walk very fast and at times during the race, my crew pacers told me they had to jog to keep up to my walking pace. I hiked out of that section well and I enjoyed this part knowing I’d made a good gap between me and the runners behind and that I was not going to be passed before the end. All I had to do is get to the finish line. But I was so tired here. I had to slap my face a few times trying to wake myself up. I skulled cold brew coffee and drank a few cans of coke trying everything I knew to be alert and look alive! I struggled for a good half hour until I pulled myself back together with the help of my crew and was able to dig in again. When I did, I did the last section in 44min, the steepest climb and the final push to the finish line in the mountains.

I finished the race in 7th overall position out of 100 starters, and was the 3rd woman. I finished in 27hr 49min, just 22min only behind 6th place and making me the 8th fastest woman to race the Badwater since they started collecting results in 1988. Aussie wonder woman Nikki Wynd is 6th fastest women! As a first timer I’m proud of my effort and grateful for my team.

There is no rest for us and I was on a plane home less than 48hrs after finishing the race. I had to get back to my family and was rostered to work just 2 days after arriving home. This was nuts and I was so tired after having to adjust my body clock again for the second time in less than 2 weeks. But the bills don’t pay themselves. Now it’s onwards to my next adventure, representing Australia in Taiwan in December on the 24hr team.