Josh’s Badwater 135 FAQ
There are some questions that a lot of people have asked me since finishing Badwater 135 a few weeks ago, so I figured I’d put together Josh’s Badwater FAQ. I know you all are probably pretty over reading about my race, but please indulge this one final post!
Which was harder, Brazil 135 or Badwater 135?
This is a tough question. The races and courses are just so different. Of course, they’re both 135 miles and both are run in difficult conditions – hot and dry at Badwater, hot and wet at Brazil. In both races, you are self-supported and have crew that accompany you nearly the entire race. I can say that regardless of the objective difficulty of the race, Brazil was harder for me in a lot of ways – it was my first attempt at 135 miles and my longest run ever; it was in a foreign country and neither Aaron nor I speak any Portuguese; I knew very little about the region or race course; and I was worried about Aaron crewing me essentially on his own for 1.5 to 2 days. On the other hand, for Badwater, before I got to Lone Pine for the race, I knew the race course fairly well, I had a fantastic four person crew of experienced runners and I’d already proved to myself that I could run 135 miles. Ther, there are the differences between the race courses themselves: Badwater is nearly all on pavement, Brazil is nearly all on dirt roads. At Badwater, you have just a few long sustained climbs and descents. At Brazil, you are constantly going up or down; tons and tons of relatively short, steep climbs and descents. I was fortunate that I didn’t have any massive melt-downs at either race, so that doesn’t help me decide. I guess I’m not coming up with a straight answer to this one.
And unfortunately, I’m not sure the comparison matters much anyway because due to some local politics and permit issues in Brazil (sound familiar?), the race in Brazil I did last year (and the one that happened for 9 years before that) won’t be happening again – instead Mario is extending the course and making it “Brazil 135+”, which will be something like 175 miles! Those extra 40 miles will of course make Brazil harder than Badwater!
Which race did you like more, Brazil or Badwater?
The questions don’t get any easier! Again, I’m going to focus on how different the races and experiences were. To me, Brazil was more of an adventure and Badwater was more of a race. That’s actually the mindset I went into the races with too. Brazil was all about the travel and meeting tons of new people, seeing a bit of Brazil and making sure that I finished the race in less than 48 hours. A big part of the fun about Brazil was traveling with my brother and then spending time with him and our new American and Brazilian friends after the race to see a little bit of Brazil. Badwater was a bit more about racing. Of course, my primary objective was still to make sure I finished the race, but I did go into it hoping to be somewhat competitive with certain time goals in mind. At Badwater, I also loved spending time with my crew and all of the friends I’ve made over the years crewing Badwater and doing other ultras. So, I’ll dodge this question by saying I liked them equally for different reasons.
Which Badwater course do you think is harder?
Another tough question and another one I’ll dodge. I don’t feel like I can personally answer this one. Even though I’ve crewed and paced the original course three times and walked or ran nearly every step of it, crewing and pacing really can’t compare to actually running the race. The easiest way to put it would be that the new course traded hills for heat. It’s got more – and more difficult – climbs and at least a few thousand feet more elevation gain, but the hottest it got during the race was probably 105, which is 20ish degrees off the normal high during the original race. Listening to veterans who had done both races, I heard opinions going both ways. On either course, you get to Darwin around mile 90 and have to run 32 miles back to Lone Pine as the sun is coming up and it’s getting hot on your second day. Then you have to get up to the Portal. In the original course at that point, runners are still trying to recover from battling the heat on day 1; in the new course, runners are trying to find strength in their quads after the tough day 1 climbs and descents. Hopefully, one day I’ll be able to actually make a personal comparison!
What was your favorite part of the race?
The finish line, of course! Pushing pain and doubt aside and running the last mile of the climb to the Mt. Whitney Portal with Aaron was so rewarding and then crossing the finish line holding hands with my crew are memories that I will never forget.
Besides that, there were two other parts of the course that I really enjoyed. First, the descent down from Cerro Gordo went really well for me – I felt better than I had in hours and was having fun running with Billy. Second was the section of the course leading into and out of Darwin. Heading into Darwin I wasn’t feeling my best (that climb doesn’t look like much on the race profile, but I felt it for sure!) but the stars were amazing and we finally got a glimpse of the moon hiding behind some mountains off to the north/west. After refueling at Darwin, I felt great and ran a bunch of the way back down towards Keeler while night turned into dawn. Also under “favorite” parts of the race was all the interaction with various crews during the initial climb to and descent from Horseshoe Meadows. It was so much fun seeing my own crew and other runners’ crews constantly leap-frogging me during this section. I also spent some time running with other runners and chatting with them to pass the time. Finally, Badwater week is always just fun – over the years, I’ve become friends with a lot of people who show up every year to race or crew. In many cases, I only see those people at Badwater. It’s great to catch up before, during and after the race.
What was your least favorite part of the race?
I can’t really think of a least favorite or worst part of the race. The section starting just before Lone Pine and going out to Keeler (miles 42-59ish) was the hardest part of the race for me. I described it in my race report, but I had super low energy and couldn’t motivate to do anything but walk or run for very very short sections at a time. I struggled through there and wasn’t having much “fun”, but that’s part of racing and it doesn’t seem right describing that as a “least favorite” part.
How is recovery going?
Recovery has been a little rough. I knew it wouldn’t be easy and knew that I needed to give myself time, but still… Immediately after the race I was really tired but the only physical thing bothering me at all was the arch of my right foot. During the end of the race and for a few days after it alternated between stabbing pain and a dull ache. That went away, but then my right achilles started acting up. I took 11 days off from running (planned) and then paced Billy for 6 miles during AC100. After that, my achilles was bad enough that I decided not to run during the beginning of our trip to France. For a few days I did nothing except some light stretching and icing the achilles. Then I worked in some hiking which felt fine. Nine days into the trip we went to Paris and I ran on our first morning there – a very easy run around town, with lots of stops to take pictures, look at sights and stretch. After that run, my achilles swelled again (though not as bad as before), so it looks like I’m going to be taking a little time off now to let the achilles heal. I can’t remember the last time I took this much time off from running. Since we’ve been home, I’ve been on the elliptical and doing strength training while I wait out the achilles.
What’s next?
Well, I was supposed to do Wasatch 100 on September 5. Or I was considering doing Wasatch anyway. I entered the lottery and got in. But then I got into Badwater and I knew that there was a chance I’d bail on Wasatch. I didn’t want to make that decision until I saw how Badwater went and how my recovery were going. As I mentioned above, I’m still recovering and decided last week that doing Wasatch didn’t make any sense. I hate DNS’ing races, but I hate even more the idea of setting myself up for a DNF or pushing through injury and potentially wrecking any chance of running this fall. I’d love to do Wasatch one of these years, but I want to do it when I’ve trained and prepared for it and go into it with energy and excitement to have a good race. I feel like if I did it this year, it would be more to just “check it off the list” and try to survive it. That’s not how I want to do any race. Also, I want to make sure and get my achilles back in shape before I take on any more big challenges. And speaking of that… right after Badwater, I entered the HURT 100 lottery and got into that race, which is in mid-January in Honolulu. So, the plan is to spend a little time right now making sure my achilles issue gets resolved and then start training for HURT! I have some ideas for 2015 post-HURT but those are all still developing, so I’ll keep them to myself for now!
Although I said this was the last post about Badwater, if you have any more questions, please let me know!