Badwater Run: 135 Miles and 127 Degrees of Pain

L.A. Times Archives

July 18, 1998 12 AM PT

<i> From Associated Press</i>

DEATH VALLEY NATIONAL PARK — As they crossed the finish line, some of the runners hobbled and hallucinated. Others gave in to pain or sleep.

They had just covered 135 miles in temperatures reaching 127 degrees over some of the most unforgiving terrain anywhere. If the searing heat and distance weren’t enough, consider that they also had to traverse a course that climbed 8,653 feet.

They used words like burn and torture and hell to describe the experience.

Gabriel Flores, 33, of Rancho Palos Verdes finished first in the 11th Hi-Tec Badwater endurance run in 28 hours 9 minutes. He lost a toenail and his hands swelled.

“The toughest part was the heat,” he said. “It’s unexplainable. You have to be out there. It’s just torture on your body.”

All he got out of it was a belt buckle--actually everyone who finished under 48 hours got a belt buckle. So why didn’t he quit before it hurt?

“I’m not a quitter,” he said. “If I quit, I would hate myself for the rest of my life. It felt like I was running in hell. A steam bath is nothing compared to this. It felt like I was walking on fire.”

A husband, father of three and owner of a Los Angeles tire shop, Flores has been running for eight years. He collapsed from exhaustion shortly after crossing the finish line and his crew carried him to the truck where he slept.

He was one of 29 people--27 men and two women--who started the race, the 11th of its kind in this parched, desolate 3.3-million acre park. Runners were given 60 hours to complete the course.

“This race has no monetary value,” said Matthew Frederick, creative manager for Hi-Tec Sports USA, based in Modesto. “It is solely to prove to themselves that they can accomplish such a serious goal. This is beyond the physical limits of the human body so it’s a mental game.”

Over the years, there have been no deaths or injuries during the grueling competition. Most of the problems have been caused by dehydration.

Participants run by invitation only and must bring their own crews. This year’s runners ranged in age from 32 to 67. Flores was a first-year runner, but more than half were repeat contestants.

The race started at 6 a.m. Thursday. Temperatures at the starting line in Badwater rose to 127 Thursday and cooled off to 87 early Friday. Badwater is the lowest point, at minus 282 feet, in the Western Hemisphere. The race did record some dropouts, most for exhaustion.

Carlos Banderas, 48, a chemical blender from West Covina, was the second runner to finish, in 28 hours 27 minutes.

The bottom of his left foot looked like one big blister. On his right foot, a bloody blister wrapped around his second toe.

Said Banderas: “Nothing compares to this race.”