Badwater Bound

Badwater. The hottest place on the planet. Last year it was 128 degrees. At that point I stopped looking at the thermometer. It starts there, -282 feet below sea level. For some it starts at 6a.m., for other such as myself it starts at 8a.m. and for the elite runners it starts out even hotter at 10a.m. Regardless of when you start, the race is going to be the hottest, hardest, nastiest, race you will probably ever do. It ends at the Mt. Whitney Portals at 8,360' elevation. There is 13,300' feet of vertical gain over the entire 135 miles. But if you happen to be reading this you already know all of that.

Today was another training day; everyday is a training day, kind of a novel idea for a guy that in the past just waltzed into a race and started going. It can't be this way any longer. If you neglect to train for Badwater you can DNF, you can not buckle, and worse than that you can die. So my running has been consistent, my runs have been different every time. My idea was to keep the schedule open to accommodate a run in the hottest part of the day. In fact some days I ran twice and hit the sauna all in one day. Some days were mixed 2-3hr runs with core in sauna, some days were hill repeats for 7hrs in 96 degree heat, on asphalt with a mix of core thrown in. Some days were cross training bicycle rides of 60+ miles. Some days were "rest" days with only sauna core work. So I am crazy, I choose to suffer, but I am not dumb. In every run that happens, I have my little secrets. I only use Polar Bottles, these keep my drinks/nutrition cold for a long time. I only run in Drymax socks, as a matter of fact I wear them everywhere, everyday, all day. Love em. I highly recommend bot of these products. Highly.

I am tired. My legs want some rest. Even during those training days I found myself helping my in-laws load and unload trucks of furniture, appliances, cabinets and just about everything heavy you can throw on a truck. Some of those days consisted of morning runs with later day trips up to buy fabric in North Carolina. Thing is with that is fabric doesn't take itself back to Georgia. Imagine loading hundreds of 50-60lb bolts of fabric from a warehouse into a truck and having to unload them when back home. Now imagine having to go run.

Badwater I want you. I have never wanted to do a race this badly. Then again, I never put the time and effort into training like I have this race. Less than 4 weeks to the big day. Bring it.

Lane