Badwater Salton Sea - "no I in TEAM"

"I feel light headed, and feel like I may pass out any time", said Johnnie when we were reaching mile-25 of 81-miles!  The temps were reaching 90s, and the sun was beating down on us.  There was a mild breeze and occasional cloud cover, but none of it mattered in that elevation and heat.

Ornery Mule Racing team

Badwater Salton Sea is an unique race spanning 81-miles distance, 9000 ft elevation, temperatures varying from 98F to 38F, from hot sun to cold rain and many more variables... The race is mostly on roads except an 8-mile section (at around mile-40.6), which was super duper hard to climb with rocks, cactus, rattle snakes, etc. Another unique feature is, there are 2 or 3 person teams that has to run together, "not a relay". So, you are only as fast as the slowest team member, which is OK as long as you support each other to the end. There are a couple of tight cutoffs after miles 35.2 and 40.6, which the participating teams should reach within 9 and 11 hours respectively.  Otherwise, they cannot proceed. While it may sound like a lot of time, the variables are numerous to achieve it.

Beauty all around

The race starts 234 ft below sea level at Salton Sea, where the sea is shrinking.  Basically, the start line was where once the sea used to be.  One can smell the dead fish while running the first almost 7 miles through Salton City.

At the Start Line

It was warm in the morning, a bit breezy on our back. The teams started running in their own paces, many teams took off ahead of us or passed us. My team included Johnnie Stevens and Brad Gorski as my fellow runners. Michele Hartwig and Ed Mayhew as the crew.  The "team" is all 5 of us.  In fact, without the crew, we will not be qualified to run.  Most importantly, without our crew, we couldn't have made it.  The three of us decided to go at a steady slower pace right from the beginning.  We ran side-by-side in the beginning, once we hit the highway, we had to run in single file.

miles and miles of single file running

At mile-14, Johnnie goes, "Guys, I know this is too early in the race but I don't think I am gonna make it"... we had a chat while running and convinced Johnnie to continue to run.  Johnnie was mostly leading the pack and setting the pace, as I tend to run faster at the beginning of races.  Don't we all do that mistake!  As I was running behind Johnnie, I could see his skin get redder and redder, but I didn't say anything.  We checked on each other every few minutes.

When I looked around, the views were impeccable. It is almost like someone had photo-shopped mountains in many layers, in many colors. There were the brown mountains in the front, then the dark green, then the blue, then the grey... it was super pretty.

Layers of mountains, beautiful views

The trip to San Diego from Chicago event less.  I had lucked out, as there were over 600 flights canceled that day due to the snow storm in Chicago after my flight took off.  We rented a mini van at the San Diego airport, that can also serve as a mobile Aid Station, and drove to Borrego Springs.  Borrego Springs is at mile-35 of the race course, and the packet pick-up is also there.

The runners check-in, team photos and pre-race meeting was awesome.  The Race Director, Chris Kostman, and his team do a great job in making everyone feel welcome.  You also chat with runners you know, and meet new runners and crews.  The pre-race meeting was over an hour, where the RD reminds everyone of the rules, and more importantly the restrictions and safety regulations on the route.  Since most of the route is on the roads, where there is regular traffic, it is up to each team to ensure 'safety first'.  At the end of the pre-race meeting, he also gives shout outs to runners and crews. I went up to the front when he called the "ultra cup" runners (those who are running Badwater Cape Fear, Badwater Salton Sea and Badwater 135 in the same year). Then all Salton Sea runners go up, all the team names get called... its really a celebration of the people.

I met my coach, David Krupski, before the pre-race meeting and at the start line.

After the pre-race meeting, we decorated our van with the Ornery Mule Racing team banners and stickers. Kudos to Michele for taking super extra effort to prepare all the stuff.  Our van would have won, had there been a van decorating contest.  It really looked like a Racing Van.

The Race Director, Chris Kostman, said in the pre-race meeting that "There is no I in TEAM".  At mile-25, "There was no J in our TEAM either"!! J = Johnnie , get it? Coming back to Johnnie, when we stopped at mile-25, we had the break-up talk.  Brad was rightfully concerned about Johnnie, so was Michele and Ed.  I was asking him to take a short break, and continue with us.  Johnnie was concerned that we won't make the time cutoff if we keep slowing down.  After a few minutes, and ensuring that he really wanted to stop, Brad and I took off.  Looking back, it was the right decision, we can always run the race again, but don't want to put oneself in danger.

After the break-up talk

We had a 15 minute cushion to reach the first cut-off location. From this point, we started running steadily, passed a few teams, and we reached the first cut-off at mile 35.5 with a 30-minute cushion.

Michele had a gourmet sandwich made for both of us. Brad and I chatted a bit running to the first check point, as we have never met before this weekend, but we knew of each other.  When we took off after the check point, there were head winds, that I predicted over 40 mph.  The wind was so bad, that a band-aid from my knee that I had applied on a scrape from couple weekends ago, ripped out and flew away.

When we turned at a road, couple miles down the road, the wind subsided, but now there were not many runners or crew vans on the road.  We continued to the next checkpoint at 40.6 miles with a 1-hour cushion.  We took a break to change clothes, as there was no support for the next 8 miles, we were going up a hard mountain trail with no road access. We will not be seeing our crew for over 8 miles.  We had mandatory gear to show to the race volunteers, and carry all our hydration and nutrition with us.  From past years, the fastest team finished in 2.5 hours and slowest team 6 hours.  We predicted we will finish  between 3 and 4.5 hours (not knowing what is going to happen soon).

We wore tights and changed t-shirts. I took my Arteryx puffy coat if it gets cold up the mountain.  300 yards into the trail, my puffy coat had fallen off as it was tied to my hydration vest. I asked two runners who were behind us if they saw a small pack, they said "Yeah, about 200 yards back".  I ran back and picked up my jacket, rolled into a ball in a small bag.  I also didn't have place in my hydration vest for food, so, Michele had pinned Cheetos in a zip lock bag to my hydration vest.  I had taken some 5-hour energy and half a bottle of Frappucino with almond milk before starting the trail section.  When I ran back to get my coat, I had a bad feeling.

Brag carried the puffy coat bag in my hand for the entire trail section

The next two paragraphs are gonna turn gross.  If you have low tolerance for grossness, skip two para and read ahead.

We may have climbed like quarter mile up the rocky mountain, my heart was pounding so hard, my face had turned red, and I couldn't climb anymore.. and BAM, I threw up all the stuff I had ate and drank.  Wiped my mouth and started hiking the tough trail up.  Brad, who is very good with trail climbing, said 'wow! this is TOUGH!!".  We may have gone a mile, with me stopping every 10 seconds to take a breather... I felt my heart is going to blow up.  I suddenly started feeling sleepy.  I just lay on a grass next to the trail with my head placed on a huge rock. Rested my eyes for 5 minutes and was ready to go.  I was hungry now.  Within another mile of climbing, I took out the Cheetos bag and munched on it.  5 minutes later, I puked orange liquid Cheetos out. Now, I am totally nauseated and can't drink water from my vest, as my water was so warm.

Brad offered his hydration tube, which was cold.  I used his water.  Within another quarter mile, my left eye contact lens came off. Now, I couldn't properly see!! My hands were full of Cheetos and dirt.  I sucked Brad's water, spit it on my hands, cleaned my contact lens and put it back into my left eye.  "Desperate times calls for desperate measures".

Cheetos

From this point till the end of the race, my nutrition intake was null to minimal, and I was hungry the entire distance.  We will climb another half mile, I will put my hand on a rock and let my high heart rate go down.  It was hot and tough. Once when I looked up, the view was so pretty, Brad and I took some pictures.

This was a common occurrence for the entire 81 miles.. We will be suffering through heat and pain, but when we lifted our head, every single time we went "WOW! what a pretty view"... the course is indeed beautiful.

"WOW! What a pretty view, lets take a picture" (one second, I am holding my heart, next second, smiling for a selfie)

The last few miles, I asked Brad if I can put on some music, which gave me a bit of a kick to my mood, and we started moving faster... we kind of sprinted a couple miles as much as we could in that rocky trail course, and suddenly the road just came up on us, that we stopped for a moment and asked a volunteer, "is this the end of the trail?"

"Is my hair OK?"

A few more things happened during the trail run.  Brad carried my puffy coat the entire time, I can't thank him enough for that.  He must have felt so bad for me.  When I laid down and struggled, I continued to say, "I won't quit", "I won't quit", as I saw worry in his face.  Every time we took a picture, I asked, "is my hair OK?".  And the most important part was, Brad saw a rattle snake, and a pair of runners we crossed saw 3 rattle snakes. None of them told me, but Brad said he was thinking where to bury me when I was laying on the grass, if rattle snakes bit me.

Now, back to the road. It was fully dark and our crew van was right there.  I pulled Michele aside and updated her on my puking situation.  She gave me potatoes dipped in salt.  I had a couple of those. Within a minute, I ran to the side of the road and threw up everything I ate.  The situation was NOT good, and we had over a 50k to go.  By this time, the temps were falling and we put on our coat and started back on the road.

We gained some miles at a decent pace, running and run-fast hiking.  At mile 69ish, we started the climb towards the finish line.  The last 13 or so miles is just upward climb.  You don't know the ups and downs when you are driving a car, but man - you can really feel it.  I was leading the pace as I felt good physically, except my throat was sore and my stomach was HUNGRY.

Yeti

At around mile-50, there was an Yeti statue, a convenient store where they had hot soup.  I had a cup and that settled well in my stomach.  At around mile-75, I asked if we had any pepperoni, and ate a couple.  That helped.  In between, I couldn't eat or drink anything.  I could feel my stomach grumbling in hunger.  But it was amazing on how the human body ran on reserves for so many miles, climbing up the elevation.

We climbed a good part of the last section during night. Our crew van met us every 2-3 miles.  On occasion, we told them to go ahead a few more miles when we didn't need anything.  We had a few more miles to go when the sun came up, and the entire surrounding was misty.  Our van closely followed us, mostly for Michele to take pictures and videos, as we both were DONE with eating or drinking anything. We just wanted to get to the finish line.  But the miles were brutal, especially the last 3 or so miles was steep climb. It is almost like the RD has found the last house and the top most location to place the finish line.  We passed a few teams, some of them were delirious, but everyone knew we are getting near the finish and there were smiles, though we were in pain.

And there it was, the FINISH LINE . We were glad it was over.  All smiles and hugs and some tears.  We got the beautiful buckles, took pictures, had a soup and a sip of warm beer, changed to warm clothes and took off.

Friends forever

I was getting emotional heading towards the Finish Line.  The hug at the Finish Line to my team - Brad, Johnnie, Michele and Ed was one of those I will remember forever.

Post-race airport beer is the best