Badwater Update - Two Ultras in Two Weeks

I've heard that a good rule of thumb is to plan for one day of recovery time for every mile of a race. So for a marathon you would plan for 26 days of recovery after the race before your next race.

Perhaps this rule doesn't apply to some ultramarathoners. Scott Jurek won the Badwater Ultramarathon with a course record time of 24:36:08. This broke the record of 25:09 set by Anatoli Kruglikov in 2000.

What makes this so incredible is that Jurek won the 100 mile Western States Endurance Run on June 25th with a time of 16:40:45. That's only about 2 weeks of recovery for back-to-back 100+ mile races. BTW, that Western States win was his 7th consecutive win.

Second Place Frustration

It must be a little frustrating to the second place winner Ferg Hawke. Last year he came in second to Dean Karnazes with a time of 27:30:20. It was only about 8 minutes behind Karnazes. Well this year, Hawke took almost an hour off his time to finish at 26:33:00. That would have won him the race in any of the previous races since 2001.

Pamela Reed

Pamela Reed came in fifth place with a time of 30:29:55. It was 48 minutes faster than her last year's time of 31:17:55. She also finished as the first female this year beating her closest rival Monica Scholz who finished with a time of 37:39:22. Scholz was the first female to finish last year (and third overall) with a time of 29:22:29.

First Timer

First time Badwater runner Frank McKinney (profiled by the Sun-Sentinel) is still running as last reported at the Badwater splits page. At mile 122 he had a time of 42:30:00. If he can survive the final climb, he should easily beat the 60-hour cutoff.

The Stats

I've continued the stats that I started yesterday. In addition to the split times, I've included the overall paces and split paces. These are based on the split times listed at the Badwater Splits Page.

Note the pace slowdowns at splits ending at mile 72, 90, and 135. A look at the race profile explains this. There's about a 4000 ft elevation rise from mile 40 to 60, about a 3000 ft climb from mile 70 to 90, and a final 4000 ft climb after mile 122.

Runner	Mi	Time	Total Pace	Split Pace
Jurek	17	2:25:00	08:31	08:31
Jurek	42	6:25:00	09:10	09:36
Jurek	72	12:32:00	10:26	12:14
Jurek	90	16:32:00	11:01	13:20
Jurek	122	21:43:00	10:40	09:43
Jurek	135	24:36:08	10:56	13:19
Hawke	17	2:28:00	08:42	08:42
Hawke	42	6:16:00	08:57	09:07
Hawke	72	12:33:00	10:27	12:34
Hawke	90	16:32:00	11:01	13:16
Hawke	122	22:57:00	11:17	12:01
Hawke	135	26:33:00	11:48	16:36
Engle	17	2:52:00	10:07	10:07
Engle	42	7:17:00	10:24	10:36
Engle	72	14:05:00	11:44	13:36
Engle	90	18:32:00	12:21	14:50
Engle	122	25:17:00	12:26	12:39
Engle	135	28:49:47	12:48	16:22
Vallee	17	2:42:00	09:31	09:31
Vallee	42	7:22:00	10:31	11:12
Vallee	72	14:40:00	12:13	14:36
Vallee	90	19:25:00	12:56	15:50
Vallee	122	26:06:00	12:50	12:31
Vallee	135	29:59:18	13:19	17:56
Reed	17	2:42:00	09:31	09:31
Reed	42	7:19:00	10:27	11:04
Reed	72	14:08:00	11:46	13:38
Reed	90	18:55:00	12:36	15:56
Reed	122	26:18:00	12:56	13:50
Reed	135	30:29:55	13:33	19:22
McKinney	17	3:29:00	12:17	12:17
McKinney	42	9:05:00	12:58	13:26
McKinney	72	20:10:00	16:48	22:10
McKinney	90	30:16:00	20:10	33:40
McKinney	122	42:30:00	20:54	22:56