RICK NAWROCKI’S BADWATER 2001 STORY     Getting to the starting line this yeartook a lot more than just normaltraining. Two weeks of high dose Chemotherapy in December and January, followedby a month in UCLA Medical Center in Westwood. I received a bone marrowtransplant using my stem cells.     I told everyone when asked I thought Iwas back to about 85% of last year,but what I lacked physically I made up for in mental toughness and faith. I wasright, but I was off on the %, more like 50 %.     The racestarted and everything fell into place. Mycrew, Rob (brother) and Al (long time friend) were ready to roll. Our 4x4 Tahoewas loaded with ice and supplies. At the first checkpoint, I was only fiveminutes off last year’s time. At the second checkpoint, I was only a total of 20minutes behind. Then, I spent another 20 minutes arranging my clothes and socksfor the evening and was off up to Townes Pass. At the top of Townes Pass, myquads never hurt so badly. It was worse by far than after the entire race lastyear. I thought I might have bitten off more than I was really ready for becauseI had lost another hour. But I had to have this goal while in the hospital andrecouping. I talked to my crew about maybe having to drop out at Panamint. Theysaid they understood and not to worry about them coming out from Wisconsin andOhio. They could see I was giving it 100%. They went ahead one mile and I said aprayer. I asked God for some major help. Within a minute a van pulled up and itturned around. It was Lisa Smith who asked, "How ya’ doing Rick?" Shehad beenin contact with me in the hospital along with many other Badwater racers. I toldher, not well. I was thinking of dropping. She said, "No way. There is stillalot we can do." At the next stop she had my crew got out a chair and iced myquads and then massaged out the lactic acid. Twenty two minutes later we wereback running. She had the crew she was with check with Marshall to see if itwould be okay for her to stay with me until Panamint. He said, “Sure.” Lisawasa gift from God. We got to Panamint hours ahead of my projected time. We made upthe 1:40. I had lost and gained about another 25 minutes. She had my crew got mebreakfast and worked on my quads again. Then she asked David, a photographer andfriend, to pace me up to Father Crowley's Point. He and my crew shuttled his vana few miles ahead every hour or so and he gave me reports ... Marshall's Xamount of miles ahead and would love to walk/run with you, but you have to catchhim. He's not going to wait. My only chance was about every 25 minutes Marshallhad to stop so his crew could wrap fresh ice on his shins. I think about 5 or 6hours later, after I made it over the 5,000 ft-marker, I finally saw him!!! Now,I was getting close. I knew I would be with him in a while. See, Marshall isanother one of my Heroes and this was going to be great.     They gave me a 10-minute rest when I gotthere. I had a sandwich andpudding. Lisa worked on my quads one more time. Then we were off. We got tocheck point 4 in the late afternoon. It was still light out. I couldn't believeit. I started four hours later this year and still got to Darwin while it waslight. We got to watch an unreal sunset. Marshall made me feel so confidant.Wetalked and joked together and with our crews. My crew was doing great keepingme fueled with Sustained Energy once an hour. There was food in between that andnew iced bandannas every other mile plus anything else I needed to keep me goingstrong. It was great!     Around midnight we were taking a two-minute break. A Big Harley pulls upand this guy yells out, "#81, Ready to rumble!!!"  I couldn'tbelieve it. It was