STEVEN SILVER’S BADWATER 2001 STORYby Blade Norman“The Good the Badwaterand the Ugly”"Ladies and gentleman, please return to your seats and fasten yourseatbelts. Bring your chairs to a full upright position and stow any itemsunder the seat in front of you, as we prepare for our landing inDallas." Itwas the standard end to an uneventful and smooth air ride. I had awakenedwith a start, not realizing that I had nodded off during the trip from Vegasback home. This was the end of an adventure. An amazingly wonderfuladventure, which had brought me together with an old friend and into contactwith several new. It's sometimes hard to recall what seems like a year'sworth of living packed into a week's worth of time. But heregoes. Lastyear, when I had to take a pass on Steven Silver's invite to crew and paceas he attempted his 4th Badwater to Mt. Whitney trek, I felt as if I had lethim down. Sure, I had a valid excuse (work duties in Mexico City) but Icouldn't help but feel like I had really missed out. This time was going tobe different. Come hell or high water I was prepared and determined to bethere. The thing I was struck most by was howdifferent than otherultras Badwater is. Planning and team reliance are the most criticalnecessities and absolutely make the difference between finish and failure.The crew has to be "rolling aid-station" with several points whereice andother perishable need to be replenished. This requires realistic planningand experience. Luckily, we had Jim Wolff as our crew chief who has all theexperience in the world. Jim's taciturn pragmatism was the "steady-hand" forthe group. He knows what to do and when to do it. That counts for everythingout on the Badwater course. Most importantly, Jim has played this fiddlebefore and as recent as last year, crewed Steven to a greatfinish. Icould include a lot of cute crap about the pre-race, I guess but I'll skipthat. Mostly, everyone just wanted to get to the run. The three differentstart times are something you don't see in many races. Everyone is racingagainst the clock, of course. Start times are six, eight and ten AM. Stevenhad the ten o'clock start, which I think is the best start time.1) You can sleep a little later and have breakfast before it's time torun.2) Since you start later after sunrise, you therefore have 2/4 hoursless of sun on the first day.3) You can always draw positive power by closing on teams that you aregaining on from the earlier starts. And finally past track record. Steven'sbest time in the past came on his only other10:00 start. (about 34 hours) So most of the ten o'clock wave get down tothe start by around 9:30 am. This is about 17 miles back into Death Valleyaway from Furnace Creek Ranch. The race comes straight back up this road andF.C. is the #1 checkpoint. We, in fact, got to see some of the 6:00 runnerscome back by the first checkpoint before we left to go to the starting line.The ten o'clock star time finally comes and the runners move down the road
toward their destiny. Here again, is where you arereminded that thisisn't like other races. Even though there are only 30 or so runners in eachwave, this also provides for 30+ crew vehicles and here is where the reasonfor the wave start is obvious. There is limited suitable shoulder on a goodportion of this course. Seventy-something runners with support could makefor a dangerous beginning. A large size van is preferable and make sure thatit handle the heat. White/very light color and HD cooling is best. And beaware that there are substantial mountains that will require some driving inlow gears. The vehicle needs to be able to take it. Ours was a full sizeChevy and held up fine. Be sure and watch your water gaugethough. Lovely Laura Bernal was the flower of our group and the day before the startshe let it be known that she wanted to start the day as Seven's first pacer.She is also from El Paso (Steven home) and a good friend and running partnerof SS's. Steve James, a 3:15 marathoner from California who has beenclimbing mountains and sauntering up switchbacks since grade school was ourthird pacer/crew member. Steve's strong suits are his unending positiveattitude and enthusiasm. Finally, there was me. (Blade) I was there to helpdispense with the whining when things got tough. My creative skills at footsurgery and damage control would also end up being required on the secondday. Off the runners go. It was about 106 degrees atthe start and theterrain of Badwater looks like something from another planet. Think aboutthe photos from Mars, which Voyager sent back and it will give you an idea.We would drive ahead about a mile and then pull off on the side of the road.As Steven and Laura would approach, it was time to prep water bottles andget out the squirt guns. We worked from the back of the van and after two orthree stops, started to get the routine down. As the pair would come upSteve, Jim and I would give them fresh liquids, spray them off with coolwater and offer food and encouragement. Then it's back in the van, driveahead another mile and repeat. This was going to become the natural flow.It's like eating an elephant sandwich; you have to take it one bite at atime. After about 5 miles Steven was starting to getinto his groove andmaking steady progress. Laura was looking pretty red-faced and it was timefor a pacer swap. We had talked beforehand about out pacer strategy. It wasagreed that we would need to swap regularly to try and keep the pacer asfresh as possible. I knew that on the second day when things got tough, thiswould help everyone. Steve J. took over next and we continued on. Driveabout a mile and stop. Spray down the runners and change out their bottles.Drive another mile and stop. Spray down therunners/change water/offer munchies. Getting the idea? It seemed as if thehose downs were needed as much as the fresh water bottles. It was so dry andso hot that water would evaporate almost immediately, once sprayed on therunners. By the time we were approaching Furnace Creek again, (Checkpoint#1) we had made at least 15 stops. The digital thermometer of the van wasshowing 117 and now it was time for Steve J. to swap out. This was also tobe our first stop. Steven checked into the #1 station at 12:49 PM and we gota chair out for him to take a quick break. Meanwhile, Jim headed into theGeneral store of F.C. to get a few more bags of ice. I was to take over aspacer at this point and in about 10 minutes we were on the road again. Forthe next 2+ hours we made steady progress toward Stovepipe Wells, the nextcheck station. Jim wanted to get a little action, so he took a short turnout on the road and then it was back to Laura's turn. Then I believe it wasback to Steve J. The rotation strategy seemed to be workingwell.
Along this stretch into Stovepipe, we gained uponseveral teamsfrom the earlier starts. At 6:45 in the afternoon we came into Stovepipewhere there is a store, gas station and motel with a small pool. I got outand refueled the van while Jim got more ice. Laura went with Steven over tothe pool to sit down and cool off (?) for a minute. I was going to take thenext leg and likewise went over to the pool to jump in and out quickly.There were several participants catching a break at this point. This is alsothe point where people have been going all day and begin to start dropping.As I walked up to the pool, I could see Major Maples sitting by the poolwith his legs in the water. He had a bucket and was puking with greatpurpose. His race was done. Others sat in pool chairs with a comatose lookon there faces. Reality was now setting in. Some would get up and some wouldnot. Probably 9 or 10 runners wouldn't continue pastStovepipe. Lauraworked on Steven with a massage stick for 15 minutes, or so and I think weleft Stovepipe about ten after 7 pm. The sun was waning now, but it wasstill 116. Another change was to take shape now, because shortly out ofStovepipe Wells begins a long climb to Towns Pass at 5,000 ft. It would bedark for quite some time when we got to the top of Townes Pass. As we movedinto the night we caught up to other groups, including Art Webb, ShannonFarar-Griefer, the legend Marshall Ulrich (who was on the third of fourcrossings) and Chris Moon. Chris was sporting a new leg this year (Ibelieve) and he was looking good. Steve took overfor me somewhere goingup to Town Pass and Laura wanted to take over after we headed down thebackside. The top of Town pass was another popular place to take a mentaland physical break for the runners but our team resisted the temptation andcontinued on after a brief stop. Steven was starting to hit his first real"bad patch" and felt as if he needed to puke. Laura was able topick up hisspirits some though and a benzadrine capsule helped him shake off thedrowsiness. As I took over after Laura/Steve J, I could tell that we werebeginning to loose focus. Steven was whining bad now, and saying that hecouldn't run anymore and there was still half way to go. (the tough half) Igot in his face and told him that there was no way I was going to let himquit and to shut up and take the pain. I knew that when the next morningdawned, things would get better. We needed to focus on Panamint Springs (thenext checkpoint) We walked through the darkness painfully moving towardPanamint. I told Steven to go ahead and try to puke. Dry heaves was all hecould muster but it helped some and gradually his stomach settled down. Nowthe main problem was that the desire to sleep was the main bear on his back.A couple of times we had to stop and Steven would lie down on the side ofthe road for a minute. Iwould help him back up and we continued on. Finally, finally, finally wecame to Panamint Springs. (Checkpoint #3) There is a guesthouse there andLaura took Steven in and we decided to let him have a 30-minute nap. It was4:45 am now and daybreak would be here soon. Jim and Steve took care of iceand supply duties again and I jumped in a shower that was available here andchanged clothes. I still had not gotten sleepy yet and knew that the nextsection would be tough going, despite the new day. It's up a very steepmountain now to Father Crowley's Peak and power walking on this section wasthe prudentchoice.
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2001 Blade Norman
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