Training for Badwater

Braised to perfection at 180 degrees, marinated in his own juices on a bed of wooden planks for 56 minutes, Greg Bomhoff emerged from the sauna piping hot and thoroughly cooked.

He glanced down at his body, seared pink with some darker shadings along his flanks. He smiled, nodded.

"I'd say I'm about medium-rare."

Dean Karnazes, Lisa Tamati, and Badwater: What Else Do We Need?

Double-Amputee Finishes Badwater

A FORMER soldier who had an arm and leg blown off clearing landmines has completed one of the world's toughest ultra marathons.

Mike Le Roux Seeking to Complete the Grand Slam of Ultras

CAIRNS endurance athlete Mike Le Roux has turned his attention and voluminous lung capacity towards becoming the first Australian to complete the four most prestigious 160km races in the US in the one season

Badwater Badasses

The Badwater Ultramarathon is a terrifying race - 135 miles, on pavement, through Death Valley's 116-degree

average temperatures. The gun goes off July 16 near Badwater, Calif. (282 feet below sea level), and the race ends

48 hours later on Mount Whitney (8,360 feet above sea level), more than halfway up the highest peak in the continental U.S. Here's what this year's five military runners had to say about the long road to Death Valley:

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.

David Goggins and Akos Konya

In many ways, David Goggins and Akos Konya are polar opposites.

At 6 feet 1, 192 pounds, the sculpted Goggins resembles an NFL safety. Konya goes 5-8, 130.

Goggins was raised in America's heartland, outside Indianapolis. He lives in Chula Vista. Konya grew up in Hungary. He lives in Oceanside.

Goggins is black; Konya is white.

Badwater Craziness

In 1989, Tom Crawford and Richard Benyo completed the first double crossing (which became known as the "Death Valley 300"), running from Badwater to Mount Whitney's summit and back to Badwater again.

Lisa Tamati and La Ultra

July 2011

An athlete who has run the length of New Zealand, the Gobi Desert and California's Death Valley, Lisa Tamati is now struggling to draw breath just sitting still.

The ultra-marathon runner arrived near the top of the world on Monday, New Zealand time, as she prepares to acclimatise for the La Ultra race through the foothills of the Himalaya's.

La Ultra will take her 222 kilometres over 60 hours from the Indian mountain town of Leh, winding through the two highest driveable passes in the world.

"I am still struggling to breathe and its a weird feeling to be sitting doing nothing and puffing," Tamati said on her blog recently. "How am I going to run at 2000m higher than this, and not for 5 minutes but for 60 hours? Incomprehensible to my struggling body right now."

The 42-year-old will reach a peak altitude of 5334m and experience temperatures ranging from 40 degrees Celsius to -6C during the challenge.

Marshall Ulrich & the Badwater "Quad"

There is a 146-mile running race from the minus-282-foot bottom of Death Valley to the 14,496-foot top of Mount Whitney, which is bad enough. But Marshall Ulrich needed to make it more of a challenge.

He decided to run a quad Badwater 146. Nearly 600 miles of running from the lowest point to the highest point in the contiguous United States, and back. Twice.

Up and down, up and down.

The Badest Foot Race on Earth: Karnazes v. Reed

More Goggins

Once upon a time David Goggins weighed 280 pounds. He was a powerlifter, a Navy SEAL who never ran more than short distances, an American stationed in Iraq. It was 2005, he was thirty, and he already had a tour of duty in Afghanistan to his credit.

David Goggins: Another Ultra Sensation

2007

SAN DIEGO (NNS) -- A U.S. Navy SEAL finished third out of 84 competitors from all over the world in the Kiehl's Badwater Ultramarathon July 24. Touted to be the toughest foot race in the world, the run spans 135 miles through Death Valley, Calif., during the worst of the desert's summer heat.

Pam Reed: "I Felt Like I Could Run Forever"

Just before 10 a.m. on July 24, Pam Reed crossed the finish line of the Badwater Ultra-Marathon and began to cry. She had been running for 27 hours 56 minutes, and when she was done, she led the field by more than five hours. It made Lance Armstrong's ride through the Alps come off as a Tour de Breeze.