Moonshot 7

Sunday 9 am: It was mile-88, temperatures were heading to over 100F heat index, the sun was blazing down on me,  I have been running for over 27 hours by now, without a crew or pacer, and a major shin injury in my right leg! I can feel myself staggering on this cement side walk that was going up a bridge... a lot had happened until then.... All smiles, but this is within the first 25 miles Pre-race: I flew to Ft. Lauderdale on Thursday before the race weekend, as I had planned a few days off from work around Keys100 ultra-marathon.  I will be going to the Florida Keys for the race any ways, why not stay a few extra days.  My friend Melissa Kaiser from the Chicago area ultra-running community had joined me for this trip as she had also signed up for the race.  We drove to Key Largo and stayed at the Courtyard Marriott, which was conveniently positioned next to the packet pickup and the race start line. A relay team we met before the race We went around K...

It is extremely difficult for me to put into words how I feel about the honor of being invited to run Badwater this year.  This was the most difficult physical challenge that I have taken on in my life. This blog post is a humble attempt to share my experience in preparing for and competing in Badwater.  Please note, I am still raising funds for the Challenged Athlete Foundation , it is an important cause that I will talk in detail later in this blog. Badwater is a 135 mile (217 km) non-stop foot race in California. It starts 282 ft. below sea level at Badwater Basin in Death Valley National Park and finishes at the Mt. Whitney portal at 8,300 ft above sea level. The Badwater 135 course covers three mountain ranges for a total of 14,600 ft of cumulative vertical ascent and 6,100 ft of cumulative descent.  Death Valley records the hottest temperatures on planet earth. In this blog post I will do my best to summarize the experience from start to finish, in the...

"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 1...