Training for Badwater in a Snowsuit

That guy you've seen running in a snowsuit down the Mission Beach boardwalk is now the winner of the hottest, most grueling footrace on the planet.

Mike Trevino, 26, of Mission Beach won the 135-mile Badwater Ultra-marathon 2001 yesterday with a time of 28 hours, 18 minutes, 12 seconds.

"I trained for three weeks in a sauna. I ran down along the beach in a snowsuit. I ran my first ultra last August and I started looking for more extreme events," Trevino said after the race. "What's more extreme than a 100-miler? Well, it's Badwater."

On Wednesday morning, 72 runners left Badwater -- the lowest place in the Western Hemisphere, 282 feet below sea level -- and ran across two desert floors and over two mountain ranges, finishing halfway up Mount Whitney.

When Trevino learned about Badwater, he attended an orientation clinic about health problems attributed to intense heat such as sunstroke, heat exhaustion and dehydration.

"The whole key about running this race is teaching your body how to process water," Trevino said.

Even though he took the crash course on desert running, Trevino suffered health problems in the first leg of the race. At the 18-mile mark, near Furnace Creek in Death Valley, he began experiencing stomach problems.

"I felt bloated and water wasn't going through me," he said. "I ended up walking for more than an hour. I went out awfully hard, but I wasn't compensating for that with salt. I tried to eat, but I couldn't. Finally, I just told my crew, `I'm going to throw up -- you may not think that's a good idea, but that's what I'm going to do.' "

After vomiting, he raced past everyone else to finish first.

By the time he reached Panamint Springs at the 72-mile mark, he knew he was in a good position to win.

"The people there told me I was 19 minutes ahead of the next runner. That's when I knew," he said.