RUBEN CANTU: BADWATER 2000 STORY Badwater to Whitney andThen Summit July 27 to 30, 2000Ruben R. CantuBib No. 642:53:25This is my story:     Myadventure with the Sun Precautions 2000 Badwater Ultramarathon commencedabout two years ago.  A friend,"H.E."West, who I thought was my friend, suggested I try running Badwater, since Ihad just run Angeles Crest for the second time.  I immediately notifiedhimhe was absolutely nuts.  Only certified loony people would trysomething socrazy.     Well,after two years of the idea sinking in and after reading the book, “TheDeath Valley 300," by Richard Benyo. It had been loaned to me by MikeDevlin, another so-called friend. After reading it, I was convinced I had totry it.  Then, I read somewhere that the race is not complete without aMt.Whitney summit. This completes the lowest to highest trek.  Being oftheultrarunner mentality, that was enough to convince me that I had to runBadwater.  Now, the real trick was to convince my wife that I couldsafelyrun in125-degreeweather without turning into a prune.     SinceI had never crewed in Badwater and had no experience on the extremeconditions in Death Valley, I needed information on how to train andacclimate to the Death Valley environment.  My friend H.E.,who several years ago crewed for the legendary Marshall Ulrich in Badwater,suggested I contact Marshall for advice.  By phone Marshall provided mewithinvaluable information which I practiced religiously. 

     Thefirst thing I did was to see if I knew enough people who would be at leasthalf-crazy and convince them to come out and support me as part of my DeathValley crew.  H.E.was my first candidate. He had no choice as this whole thing was hisidea. I then recruited two people from my 1999 Leadville Trail 100 crew: MikeMarcikonis and Kristin Birrenkott, both from the Denver area; a niece,Monica Gonzales, from Houston (oh how innocent she was); and my best runningfriend, Mike Devlin. H.E.hadexperience crewing for Marshall.Mike Devlin, who got to know my everywhim by crewing for me at almost every training run,gave meconfidence that Ihadanexcellent support team to get me through Death Valley.     Forthe Mt. Whitney summit my stepson Ric DeVan (who in June 2000 summittedDenali in Alaska) would be the lead. Mike Devlin and Monica volunteered toaccompany me up to the summit.  As neither of them or I had everclimbed Mt.Whitneybefore, that made three of the four of us never before having set foot onthe Whitney Trail.     Forheat acclimatization, I trained for two-and-a-half months every Saturday inthe Southern California Anza Borrego Desert between Borrego Springs and theSalton Sea.  I got to know State Highway 22 very well.  Driving toand frommy training site in Borrego Springs, Mike Devlin and I would drive with theheater on and the van totally closed-up.  The temperature would climbintothe mid 120's with the highest temperature reaching 131 degrees.  Wewouldmaintain this heat training for up to two hours before and one hour afterour 5 to 7-hour desert training run.     Foraltitude acclimatization I only had time for one trip up Mt. San Jacinto,near Idyllwild, California.  Mike Devlin, Ric and I climbed the 10,800ft.peak about three weeks prior to the run.  Not that I considered theWhitneysummit attempt easy. It was just that completing the run was much moreimportant to me so I concentrated and devoted my time towards that effort.    Feeling prepared and the eventual start drawing near, I felt prettyconfident I was ready for Badwater.  However, all this confidence went

outthe window on our drive to Furnace Creek on Wednesday July 26th,the day before the start of the run.  The long drive down from FatherCrowley to Panamint Valley and again from Townes Pass down to StovepipeWells coupled with the hot and dry wind after the pre-race meeting theevening of the 26th totally blew a big hole in my psyche.  I wasemotionally devastated but chose to not share my fears and did not alert mycrew.     Untilnow, my goal had been to do the run in 40 to 45 hours.  This would getme tothe Portals and the finish on Friday evening to early Saturdaymorning. After the race I would sleep for three to four hours and then attempt thesummit very early Saturday morning. I was hoping to reach the summit inabout 10 hours, by around 6:00 PM.  This would give me a total goal of60hours to go from Badwater to the summit.  It seemed very doable tome.  Butthe evening before the run, after my psyche had been blown away, I justwanted to survive the run in a respectable time, forget the"buckle," andjust get to the Portals alive. Too late to do any more.  I resignedmyselfto just do my best on race day.     Asthe run unfolded the next morning, I found myself feeling very confidentagain, yet cautious, about my fitness.   My crew was verysupportive andencouraging.  I went out on a 12-minute- per- mile pace to FurnaceCreek to"put some time in the bank" for later when the temperature wassure tosurpassthe 113degrees in which I had been training and the current 100 degrees at thestart.  I reached Furnace Creek (17 miles) on schedule (around 9:30 AM)andstill felt very fresh and strong.  But best of all, I had"banked" over twohours.     Thestretch betweenFurnace CreekandStovepipe Wells was no surprise.  The temperature went up as expectedbutwas never a real threat.  My crew kept me cool by providing me with icecold, wet towels and ice packs for my head and shoulders.  I sloweddown asexpected but still managed to bank a little more time for the trip up toTownes Pass.  I reached Stovepipe Wells (41 miles) by 3:46 PM. 