The First Official Race for the Badwater 135-Mile Ultramarathon Race was in July 1987 and this year’s edition (2026) is the 39th edition. The event covers a distance of 135 miles starting from the Badwater Basin in Badwater, California along the National Highway going to Lone Pine, California and ending at the Mt Whitney Portal. What makes this race very difficult is the prevailing temperature during the middle of July every year with an average temperature of 120-125 Degrees Fahrenheit.

I got to know about this event when I read the book, “The Ultramarathon Man” by Dean Karnazes and later from the book of Pam Reed who became as the First Woman Overall Champion of the Race. There is a dedicated website of this event where an interested participant would know everything about the event. Anybody can google “Badwater 135 Ultramarathon Race” and the screen on your cellphone or laptop would appear all the details about the event.

From this event, I got the inspiration of following all the details of the event to be applied in my Bataan Death March 102K Ultramarathon Race (BDM 102). After the First Edition of BDM 102 in 2019, I decided to copy everything about the event from Registration Process to the Rules and Regulations of the event. On the First Edition of the BDM 102, there had been Aid Stations & Water Stations with Checkpoints but the water and food prepared for the runners and event were untouched! So, for practicality and simplicity, I scrapped the Aid Stations & Water Stations and maintained only the Checkpoints.

After retirement from the service, I personally attended the conduct of the Badwater 135-Mile Ultramarathon Race from Start to Finish and observed the Race Organization, Race Director, Runner/Participants/Support Crew sometime in 2010 or 2011. I was even directly involved in the race when I volunteered as the Pacer/Crew of a Runner from the Philippines. So, I know personally what it takes to join, run, plan, and observe other runners on the ground.

The registration process and screening of Badwater 135-Mile Ultramarathon Race is the same with the BDM 102 where an applicant would submit a Letter of Intent to the Race Director. The number of runners of Badwater 135 does not exceed 100 runners and BDM 102 has also screened and pegged the runners to 150-200 runners.

The rules and regulations are strictly implemented in the Badwater 135 and this is true also to the BDM 102. I would not hesitate to DQ any runner that would violate the Rules and Regulations of the BDM 102. To include the strict implementation of the cut-off time of 18 hours.

Badwater 135 had reduced the cut-off time from 48 hours to 45 hours in the few past years of the event which makes the event as challenging and maintain its reputation as “The Toughest Footrace In The World”.

Maybe, it is time also to reduce the Finish Cut-Off Time of BDM 102 to 16 hours from 18 hours!

Let me know your thoughts and comments.

To be continued.