2018 Badwater 135 Race Report

Badwater 135, also known as “The world's

toughest foot race”. Start in Death Valley National

Park at North America's lowest point, Badwater

Basin, 282’ below sea level, then travel 135 miles
in over 120° heat across three mountain ranges
and finish at the Mt. Whitney Portal, 8,360’ above
sea level.

The coveted Badwater 135 buckle

Badwater is a race I’ve wanted to do more than
anything for a very long time. Why Badwater? This
is a race where you are tested to the extreme
mentally, physically, and spiritually, regardless how
good your athleticism and mental capacity is. This
race will find your flaws and exploit them in
exponential fashion. A big reason for this is heat.
Death Valley is known for having the hottest
recorded temperature on earth, 134°F
(in the shade).

The 11pm starting wave of the 2018 Badwater 135

Back in February while watching a Facebook live

video I heard Chris Kostman (the Badwater 135

Race Director) call out my name as one of the 100

runners selected to compete in this year’s

Badwater 135. I had to wait until the video was

over and replay it three more times to fully confirm

it was my name. Both excitement and “oh crap,

what the hell did I commit myself to” hit my mind. I

now had six months to prepare myself for my

biggest test to date. Prior to February I had signed

up for the Marathon des Sables, a 156 mile, six

day self-sufficient stage race across the Sahara

Desert in Morocco. This was going to be a huge

personal achievement for me if I could manage

to complete both desert races of this magnitude

at opposite ends of the world within a span of only

four months. The Marathon des Sables was

everything it was cracked up to be. I was tested

in every way possible. I left Morocco with a

finishers medal around my neck and having

more wisdom and knowledge about myself than

when I first arrived. It was now time

to focus on Badwater 135 training.

Crossing the finish line of the 2018
Marathon des Sables

During the Marathon des Sables I was very
fortunate to have some of the best tent mates
one could ask for, one in particular
being Magda Boulet. Magda is a endurance
athlete who works for GU Energy Labs. I got to
know Magda really well during the week
long race in the Sahara, I expressed to her that

nutrition was my biggest weakness in endurance
events. Magda listened to me tell her stories about

my previous stomach issues during 100 mile
races and never batted an eye, “when we get
back to the states we will get your nutrition on
track” she said. She was right, I began
to make some recommended adjustments by her
and apply them to my training and I couldn’t
believe the difference. Magda continued to help
me with nutrition and heat protocol
training leading up to the race.

Metabolic Efficiency testing at the North Carolina Research Campus

Now it was time to assemble my team to crew
and pace me for the Badwater 135. Per the race
rules, each runner is allowed no more than four
crew members per team. Knowing this was going
to be the most meaningful race of my life, I had to
assemble the best group of people possible.
There’s no way I could have gotten this far without
the support of my wife Jennifer. She has been
there for me during my rock bottom times, and my
highest of highs, and everything in between. It was
a very easy decision to assign her as crew
chief for this event. I now looked for an individual
to document my nutrition intake during the event.
This task required someone documenting all of my
calorie, sodium, and fluid intake for the entire
duration of the race. This is an enormous task
to take on simply because there is such a

fine line the runner has to balance to maintain
proper nutrition during the race. My pick for this
person was Sarah Milholland. Sarah is a mutual
friend of Jen and I, there was no doubt in my mind
that she was the perfect person for this position.

Next I needed two pacers to run with me. Per
the rules, a runner cannot pick a pacer up until
mile 42, this leaves 93 miles for pacers to run
with their runner. The pacers have to be just as
strong as their runner, they are battling the same
heat, hills, and other elements as their runner with
the exception of carrying some sort of garden
sprayer filled with ice water constantly spraying
down their runner trying to keep them cool. I met
Ted Williamson on a Badwater Facebook group.
He was looking to crew for this year’s event. We
hooked up via Facebook and arranged a time to
talk on the phone to get a feel for one another
and for me to see if he would be a good fit for our
team. We ended up taking on the phone that night
over two hours and needless to say he was a

perfect fit for our team. One stage in particular
at the Marathon des Sables is labeled as the
“long stage”. This is a 53 mile stage on day four

of the event. This is the stage where they try
to break you. During this stage is where I met
Tim Cadogan. Tim was another runner from the
U.S. He and I hooked up around mile 28 of the 53
mile stage. We were both exhausted and sleep
deprived, so we decided to run to the finish line
together. We really got to know one another
during this time, I mentioned to him that I was
running Badwater this year and I knew he

would be the perfect addition to fill our team.
Tim has extensive search and rescue experience,
along with a variety of 100 mile finishes under
his belt. Team # 93 was assembled.

Tim Cadogan and I during the final stage at the Marathon des Sables in Morocco

Race day. Today was the day all the training and
hard work would come to fruition. The temperature

hit a high of 127° during the afternoon of race day,
my wave didn’t go off until 11pm later that night, so

I told myself that it would cool off by then. It did,
but not much, the temperature was 121° at the start

of the race. Things were getting real very quick.
Around mile 6 I came up on another runner already

vomiting on the side of the road. Mile 22 a female
runner was semi-unconscious and being carried to

the back of her vehicle by her crew. Mile 32 is
when I started to have problems of my own with
vomiting and nausea. I knew I was in trouble, I
still had 103 miles to go. The first cut off at
Badwater is the hardest to make, especially if
you’re in the last starting wave. It’s totally doable to
make the cut off, but there is no room for error. I
knew this going in, so I had to keep moving
forward regardless how bad I felt. I ended up
vomiting one more time before making it to the
first cut off with less than one minute to spare.
When I arrived just past the cut off my crew had
found a spot for me to recover. I was in bad
shape. I had experienced serious pain in ultras
before, everything from peeing and throwing
up blood, but this was a different pain. I had been
running in 120° heat for eleven hours at this point.
I could tell by the looks on my crew's faces that
this may be the end of the race for us. I remember
drinking a bottle of Ensure, only to throw it up
minutes later. Knowing I had to get some calories
in me before we could start moving again, Tim
cooked me up some Ramen noodles and we were
back on the course heading up Townes Pass.

Mile 50. My lowest point during the race

I continued the death march up Townes Pass
still not feeling any better, a bit of relief came
my way on the descent after I hit the top of
Townes Pass. This was a downhill portion
of the course where I could make some time up
that I had lost earlier in the race. Once
the downhill ended we were back to one of

the hottest parts of the race, the Panamint Lake
Bed. The temperature was 121° running across the

flats, I could see Panamint Springs in the distance,
the next checkpoint of the race. When we arrived in

Panamint Springs I was back to my rock bottom
state. At this point we were just past the halfway
point with 63 more miles to go. More bad news
arrived when we were informed that the facility
was completely out of ice. This was not good,
the next place to get ice was 50 miles down the
road in Lone Pine. I tried to rest and reset my
stomach while two members on my crew, Ted and
Sarah decided to drive back to Stovepipe Wells
and get more ice which ended up making a huge
difference. When Ted and Sarah returned with ice
we were the very last team to depart Panamint
Springs. This was go time, I either had to find
another gear that I couldn’t find earlier in the race,
or face a DNF. I continued to march up Father
Crowley overlook where I began to get some
life back into me. Things were finally turning
for the better. As we approached the second
summit of the course I was back to running nine

minute miles, something I wasn’t able to do since
the beginning of the race. I was able to continue
this pace all the way to Lone Pine.

Getting back to my rhythm heading towards Lone Pine

When we arrived to Lone Pine my stomach was the

best it had been since the start of the race.

I had put in a request for a burger and chicken

McNuggets with honey at the local McDonalds

in Lone Pine. Now it was just a 4,600’ twelve

mile climb to the finish. Nothing was going to stop

me at this point in the race. I ended up spending

some one on one time with each of my crew

members power hiking to the finish. This was

one of the best times of the entire race. We talked

about the adversity’s we all overcame

at various points during the race.

The finish. Finally, after forty one hours and

twenty five minutes the finish line appeared.

I’ve never been so excited to see the finish

line in my life. Before the race, my goal was

to complete the race between thirty and thirty

five hours. While I fell short of my goal,

I was still extremely happy with my overall effort

considering 30 of the 99 competitors ended up

dropping out, some of those 30 being course

record holders and multiple finishers of this race.

One of the highest dropout rates in the entire

history of Badwater.

The finish line of the 2018 Badwater 135

In closing, I’d like to thank Chris Kostman and the
entire AdventureCorps staff for putting on an

incredibly organized event year after year,
Death Valley National Park for allowing us the
privilege to run through their beautiful lands, all of
the amazing runners and their crew members, and
most importantly my crew; Jennifer Moroch,
Sarah Milholland, Ted Williamson, and
Tim Cadogan. You guys are the best. Not once
did you let your guard down. I couldn’t have had
a better crew to get me through some of my
darkest moments on the course.

Our 2018 Badwater 135 Team. Pictured from left to right: Sarah Milholland, Ted Williamson, Chris Moroch, Jennifer Moroch, and Tim Cadogan