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Badwater 2009 Race Report – Part 1

Before you read any further, a few disclaimers:

1) Nothing I can possibly write will do justice to the Badwater experience. Before going there, I’d seen the movie and read the books and looked at the photos and heard the stories, but it’s beyond any of that. Way beyond. It’s bigger and hotter and longer and sunnier and darker and crazier and steeper than can really be described. You should read/watch/look at all that stuff anyway and check out other race reports (including this one from Johnnytri who was crewing for Molly Sheridan last week) and read mine too. I’m not sure what I’ll be adding, but I’ll certainly try.

2) Right now I feel like I could write about Badwater forever. My readers know that I don’t do “brief,” but this race report is going to be in multiple parts and don’t be surprised if you’re hearing about Badwater and seeing photos from the race for a while to come. Hopefully it will be worth it to you.

3) I was there, but crewing and competing are incomparable. I’ll write about my experience and what I saw from Blake, but if you want to know what it’s like to race, you’ll have to hear it from a participant.

Here goes:

Saturday and Sunday:

We had a crew of six, including me – Diane (Blake’s wife), Caroline (crew chief), Carlo (our “MG” the Marine), Craig (our documentarian) and Rickey (resident goofball :)). Everyone except Carlo flew into Las Vegas on Saturday and drove from there. I picked up Carlo at LAX and we drove together to meet everyone else at the Furnace Creek Ranch, our home for Saturday and Sunday nights.

Carlo and I got there at around 5:30pm and we got our first taste of the heat the moment we got out of the air conditioned car. It was still around 115 degrees at 5:30pm. “Furnace” Creek, no shit. Blake and the other crew members arrived a couple hours later and after introductions we had a delicious dinner at the 49’er Cafe (the Pecan Chicken Salad and the Salmon Salad were excellent and I highly recommend both). The Furnace Creek Ranch was sold out over the weekend, mostly with Badwater racers and crew members. Frankly, it amazes me that any tourist would choose to visit Death Valley in July. Those people are the crazy ones. The hotel is nice, with a (warm) pool, tennis court, general store, restaurants and the world’s lowest golf course.

We spent most of Saturday and Sunday getting to know each other, preparing the van and organizing the supplies and learning from Blake, Caroline, and Diane what our duties as crew would be and what to expect on Monday and Tuesday. At it’s most basic, it’s simple, Blake gets from Badwater to Mt. Whitney and we make sure he has fluids and calories, that he stays as cool and comfortable as possible. Simple, right? Right… We had a van and a car, and the following supplies: 3 ice chests, 1 orange sideline water cooler, water bottles, spray bottles, sponges, towels, bandanas, extra shoes and socks, water, ice, drink mixes (including Perpetuem, Heed, Carbo-Pro, Cytomax and Gatorade), gels, energy bars, soda, Red Bull, pretzels, soup, fig newtons, granola bars, chips, nuts, granola, reflective vests, headlamps, flashing lights, heat clothing, a medical kit, a foot-care kit, a camping stove, 2 camping chairs and a lot of other stuff I’m forgetting. One big trick to success in this race, both as a racer and crew, is making sure that the runner has everything he needs when (or before) he needs it. Despite the fact that the race takes multiple days, everything happens really quickly as it’s going on and the crew has to be organized and prepared.

All racers’ support vehicles have to be clearly marked who they belong to. Ours was a bit of a jerry-rigged marking:

Sunday was another scorcher. I got up early to go for a short run and by 7am it was already over 100 degrees and sunny. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky. I ran a little bit of the course with Craig and Rickey. It was great to get a little mini-sense of what Blake would be experiencing the next morning. The heat, the hot wind, the endless sparse landscape. I ended up out there for 40 minutes, which was just about all I could reasonably take. After breakfast and some other preparations, we jumped in the van and drove a bit of the course – starting from Furnace Creek (mile 17.4 of the race), we drove about 40 miles to Townes Pass.

Between Furnace Creek and Stovepipe Wells, the car thermometer was showing temps in the low 120’s. As we climbed towards Townes Pass, the temperature went down a lot – all the way into the mid-90’s! Brrr!

After the drive, we went to the pre-race meeting. It was great to see all the other racer and crew and to see the video from last year’s race on a big screen. Chris Kostmann, the race director, led the meeting and we also heard from the head Park Ranger and “CHP Scotty,” a super nice and excited guy who I assume used to be in the CHP and now just helps out along the course. He also told me he owns every style of Utilikilt made (“American made kilts for everyday wear.”) (except the leather one, of course).

(above photo by Anna Leeg, from www.badwater.com where there are tons and tons of other, professional race photos.)

We were loaded with rules, most of which seemed pretty reasonable under the circumstances. My favorite quote was from the head Park Ranger who, in closing said, “I don’t understand why you people do this, but that’s OK because I don’t have to.”

After the meeting we had another group dinner at the 49’er Cafe (Salads all around!). Blake got in bed and the crew met one last time to go over logistics and make sure we all knew our responsibilities.

The race goes off in three waves – 6am, 8am and 10am. Blake was in the 10am wave, which was nice because it meant that there was a better chance for a good night’s sleep and we could sleep in a little on Monday morning. I guess the adrenaline plus the heat plus the busy, long day got to me because I slept like a rock.

Monday pre-race:

We were up around 6:30 to meet for breakfast and I immediately realized that the 6am runners were already into their race. After final packing, we left the hotel around 9 to head to Badwater. Along the way. we passed a bunch of runners, still looking strong and happy.

We got to Badwater around 9:30 and after Blake weighed in, we took some obligatory photos at the “Badwater” sign.

Team Benke (love those t-shirts!):

Me doing the Superbenke pose (I’m flying, you can tell, right?!):

All the racers in the 10am wave stood behind the Badwater sign for a photo op:

Finally, as the runners lined up to run, I tried one more pose:

Then, Chris announced the final countdown would begin. Everyone cleared the road, the crowd counted down from 10 and the runners were off…

(above photo by Anna Leeg, from www.badwater.com.)

This was just background and some fun photos. The good stuff – as in the race itself – is coming soon!