Danger, Extreme Heat and 135 Miles – Oh my!!

Woah! About 3 minutes ago (it feels like) I was writing to you about planning and having a great summer. It’s now the end of July!!!

July flew by for me and with great reason. It was pretty epic.

We were in one of the most spectacularly stunning places. In heat I’ve never experienced before. To support my hubby who was running the Badwater 135 which is a 135 mile run starting at Badwater basin and goes across Death Valley, over 3 mountains, with temps of around 122F / 50F with winds that were even hotter. A freakishly hard race.

My job in all of this was to be one of his 4 support crew. As support crew we stopped every 2 miles during the race to change my hubby’s fluids – making sure he kept drinking – and keeping them iced up (after 2 short miles a bottle filled with ice came back really warm), also changing his head gear and neck scarf to new freshly cooled ones.

A huge part of our job was keeping him cool. Another huge part was keeping him hydrated, sunscreened and feeling well. We also tended to his blisters, aching muscles and ran or walked with him to keep him on pace, which ended up being for almost 90 miles as he had a very unexpected failing of his quads and the last 90 miles were anywhere from very painful to excruciating for him.

We’d prepare food and encourage him to eat – you’d think he’d be ravenous and craving calories but when you are exerting yourself that much you don’t have much of an appetite – keeping his calories up was an important job.

We had to keep everything on ice. Chap sticks would melt in record time.

There were no small jobs, especially as we were also having to keep ourselves healthy, hydrated, sunscreened, cool and nourished – a flailing crew member would have meant more work for the rest of the crew.

So, to say I had some anxiety about this race beforehand was an understatement. Had i spent enough time in the sauna heat training? Had I ran / walked enough hills? Was I in good enough shape to do my share of the pacing? Could I drink enough fluids to stay hydrated in the desert (apparently 4 litres if you were just sitting around!)? I had read all the warnings in the park? I had read about heat stroke and hyponatremia (drinking TOO MUCH water). I had enough information and not enough experience to feel like this race was a huge and daunting responsibility and risk to my husband and crew if I did anything wrong.

So, why so epic?

Take a look at what I experienced:

The views were stunning! And the sunset! And the moon rising! And the stars!

But more than that, 97 incredible athletes and their crews, from all around the world, came together and became part of something REALLY BIG. A great adventure. And it was fantastic.

Even my hubby who was in immense pain never wanted this race to end. We all got to experience this amazing National Park in slow motion.

When do we get to experience anything in slow, purposeful motion anymore?!

Here we are at the finish line. An athlete that had to dig deeper than he has ever had to before, and put his body, and even more so his mind, to the test in order to finish this gruelling race. And a crew that believed in him 100% and worked for 35 hours straight (not including the day of prep) to help get him to that finish line.

This was our view at the finish line at Mt. Whitney Portal as we ate burgers, sipped soda’s and beers and dozed in the mid-day sun which was much kinder on us at 8000ft than at sea level.

And here’s me and hubby after the race where we are stood quite awkwardly because I am trying to stay as far away from his poor aching, bllstered feet as possible.

So, August, you’ve got something special to live up to!!

Let’s get our thinking caps on.

And what about you? Where is your next adventure?

Put your mind to it and make yourself a plan. You’re worth it.

Hugs, Vicky xxxx