This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.
The original was posted on /r/upliftingnews by /u/IronyElSupremo on 2025-07-11 15:52:26+00:00.
Summary: The Badwater 135 ultramarathon is held mid summer in Death Valley where Weather Channel “air” temperatures were in the mid 120°F range. An 80 year old racer completed the 135 mile race yesterday (granted he did it back when he was a 70 year old whippersnapper).
Excerpt due to soft paywall:
Surfers have the mountainous waves of Mavericks Beach … Climbers have the awesome granite monoliths of Yosemite Valley. And ultra runners have Badwater. That’s shorthand for the Badwater Basin in Death Valley, the starting place of an annual summer competition that bills itself as “the world’s toughest foot race.”.. .. This week, the Badwater 135 Ultramarathon lived up to its billing, for the 48th year, challenging humans to run from the lowest point in North America to the shoulders of the highest peak in the continental U.S. The 135-mile run takes competitors from around the world from the baking floor of Death Valley, where temperatures hit 117 degrees, to the thinning air of Whitney Portal, at more than 8,300 feet, the trailhead to glorious Mt. Whitney. Ninety-three people completed the ordeal within the allotted 48-hour time window this week, headlined by the oldest competitor ever to finish the course, 80-year-old Bob Becker of Fort Lauderdale, Fla. “It was pretty emotional to finish,” Becker said by phone from Lone Pine on Thursday, the morning after finishing, a little more than 45 hours after he started. “I was just so happy to be there and to have so many people cheering me on.”