No Badwater For Me!

The Badwater Ultra Run is just 10 days away. This 135 mile race starts in Death Valley (often with temperatures up to 130 degrees) and ends at an elevation of 8360' at the Mt Whitney Portal. The last few weeks I have been trying to run at least one run per week in the middle of the day in an attempt to acclimatize myself for the Hot to Trot 8 Hour Run in August. I have found that my body essentially turns itself off when the temperature reaches about 85 degrees. No matter how slowly I try to run, my heart rate zooms up above 160 which for me is the danger zone. I still have over four weeks to continue to acclimate. However, this has been enough to tell me that Badwater is not in my distant future. Good luck to all Badwater participants, I admire your tenacity (even though I think you are at least a teensy bit crazy).

Here is a chart that I forgot to include in my last blog entry. It dramatically shows my meltdown at Grandma's marathon. This chart shows my pace per mile as it deviates from my average pace (which was a little under 13:00/mile). As you can see, I was trucking along pretty well for 15 miles, just slowing slightly, then, WHAM! You can also see where I ran with the 5:30 pace group from miles 21-23. Math and graph geeks enjoy.