My Badwater Crew!

I'm continuing my preparation for Badwater coming up in a week and a half. Preparation to run 135 miles through Death Valley involves a few key ingredients:

1) Frequent sauna sessions. I've come to truly LOATHE the sauna. (In case you missed my previous sauna article, you can read it HERE.) A few days ago I set my sauna PR - an hour and a half! I was pretty proud of myself for that one. It was truly horrible....and great training for Badwater. I'm certain that I will never step foot inside a sauna ever again after this race.

2) I went to St. George Running Center and asked the owner, Steve Hooper to sell me the hottest pair of running tights he carried. I wear them regularly on my 100+ degree runs. They are miserably hot....and great training for Badwater.

3) Speed training. My friend Derek Call was recently in town from Idaho. I showed him around one of my favorite trails. While we were out, we had to speed away from two luchadores who were looking for a fight. I'm glad we were able to outrun them. Because they looked terrifying.

I wanted to introduce you to my Badwater crew: the kind saints who will dry my tears when I'm crying, pop my blisters when they're bursting, and kick my butt when it needs kicking.

Melanie! My wife will be crew chief extraordinaire. I wouldn't want to embark on this journey without Mel.

Jud Burkett. When I first got into Badwater, the advice I got was to pick crew members who are enthusiastic and anxious to go to the race. Jud was one of the very first to express interest in joining. He also writes for The Spectrum and plans to write an article about the race. (Yet another appearance from those miserably hot tights.)

Toby Nishikawa. In this picture, Toby is in the pink with my friends Matt Gunn and Tony Russ. I've come to know and love Toby through working at the Ultra Adventures races. She is funny and sassy and awesome. Seriously awesome.

Clair Coleman. I've run countless miles with Clair. We ran every step of a 100 mile race together. We've seen each other at our best....and worst. Clair is a beast of a runner, which is even more amazing considering that he's more than two decades older than me. You couldn't ask for a more sincere, fun-loving friend.

So you can see I'll be in good hands. Jud said he'll be on Twitter with updates during the race when he's in service. You can find him @judburkett. I'm anxious, and terrified, and unspeakably excited about this adventure coming up on July 18th!