SUN PRECAUTIONS 2000BADWATER ULTRAMARATHON     A classic race isreborn as an epic international battlefield.Death Valley, CA     Sixty nine runnersfrom a dozen countries ran 135 miles non stop from Death Valley to Mt.Whitney on July 27 29 in the annual Sun Precautions Badwater Ultramarathon.The international field of athletes, ages 24 to 69 (12 women and 57 men),ran a blistering 135 miles through temperatures up to 128F°.The Badwater course covers three mountain ranges for a total of 13,000of vertical ascent and 4,700of descent. It is arguably the most demanding, extreme, and prestigiousultramarathon in the world.     Anatoli Kruglikov ofRussia won the men'sdivision with a time of 25 hours, 9 minutes, and 5 seconds, breaking EricClifton'sworld record by over two hours, 40 minutes. Second place Dusan Mravlje ofSlovenia finished 12 minutes later with a time of 25:21:20, followed byKaname Sakurai of Japan in 27:52:14 and Ivan Labutin of Russia in 29:42:24.The women'sworld record was shattered by Irina Reutovich of Russia with a time of29:48:27, seven hours faster than the previous record set by AngelikaCastaneda. The top American finisher, Tim Hewitt of Greensburg, PA, was 6thover the line with a time of 30:14:20. The top American female, Lynn Wernerof Seattle, WA, finished in 41:14:57, followed by Lisa Smith in 43:23:56. Atotal of 49 runners completed the distance within the 60 hour cutoff.     The 2000 racefeatured the first ever truly international field assembled for this race,with racers from England, France, Germany, Italy, Austria, Greece, Slovenia,Russia, Bermuda, Taiwan, and Japan. Most of these entrants were first timeBadwater racers and so either totally ignored, or were never aware of,"conventional Badwater wisdom." As such, when each wave start ofrunnersdeparted at 6am, 8am, and 10am, many of the runners took off at a 10K ormarathon pace.     The start line tempin Badwater, at 282 feet below sea level, the lowest point in the WesternHemisphere, was 90+ and that quickly rose to 128 degrees. Despite theseextreme conditions, the top runners from Russia, Slovenia, and Japan simplypoured on the steam. The Americans and the rest of the field were content todeal with their own survival and probably assumed that the frontrunnerswould soon fade as they traveled through places with names like MushroomRock, Furnace Creek, Salt Creek, Devil'sCornfield, Devil'sGolf Course, and Stove Pipe Wells.

     What the Americans didn'tseem to know, however, was that the Russians and the Slovenian are all wellknown world record holders from the European ultra racing circuit and theJapanese runner is a five time top finisher in the Race Across America bicyclerace. So it was that at the 70 mile mark in Panamint Springs, the Europeans feltcomfortable enough with their pace and their lead to stop at this famous resorthamlet to each down a big, tall beer. Then it was straight back into the nightand onto the course to climb the second mountain range. By the next morning,Kruglikov was crossing the line so far of any predicted schedule that race staffand journalists from around the world were barely awake in time to document hisarrival on Mt. Whitney, the tallest mountain in the contiguous 48 states. Heascended the 13 miles from Lone Pine to Mt. Whitney Portal in 2:51, the onlyrunner to break three hours for the final leg of the race.     From that point on,runners from around the world made their way up the mountain and triumphantlyacross the finish line. Twenty three men and five women earned the covetedBadwater Ultramarathon belt buckle by finishing in under 48 hours. Anothertwenty one runners made the official course cutoff of 60 hours, including MaryCampilongo of San Diego, who finished with just one minute, 47 seconds to spareand completed the final 13 miles faster than the women'swinner, Reutovich of Russia!     The course was firstofficially completed in 1977 by ultra running pioneer and human potential guruAl Arnold of Walnut Creek, CA. This run against the clock became an actual racein 1988 under the directorship and sponsorship of the Hi Tec USA footwearcompany. But after the 1999 race, which was documented in the just releasedfeature film "Running on the Sun," Hi Tec abandoned the race to put allof itsmarketing efforts behind the Hi Tec Adventure Racing Series.     Filling the void,AdventureCORPS stepped in to produce the race in 2000 and beyond. The organizersof the annual Furnace Creek 508 bicycle race through Death Valley had beenlong time fans of the Badwater event and for several years had offered a specialprize, known as the Death Valley Cup, to any athlete who completed both of theevents in the same year. (Marshall Ulrich and Angelika Castaneda are the currentDeath Valley Cup record holders.) Collaborating with AdventureCORPS and servingas its Race Ambassadors are Badwater Mayor Ben and First Lady Denise Jones, boththree time finishers.     The title sponsor of the2000 Badwater Ultramarathon was Sun Precautions, the Seattle based makers ofSolumbra 30+ SPF sun protective clothing, medically accepted sun protection forsun sensitive and sun sensible people. Additional race sponsors included BraveSoldier, The North Face, Gatorade, Hammer Gel, E Caps, Cycle Design,mediablend.com, and thefinalcut.net.     A live webcast of text,photos, and videos of the 2000 race received over 95,000 page views during thethree days of the event. It remains archived athttp://www.badwaterultra.com for continual viewing. The 2001 Badwater Ultramarathon will take place July25 27, 2001. Applications to compete may be completed online at