SCOTT LUDWIG: On a cold day in hell

The Badwater Ultramarathon took place this week. Don’t be surprised if you’ve never heard of it because you’re not alone. Although it’s a long-distance footrace, even some of the most die-hard long distance runners in the world don’t even know about it.

The Badwater Ultramarathon is a footrace from Badwater — at 280 feet below sea level, it’s the lowest point in the continental United States — to the Mount Whitney Portal, at an elevation of 8,300 feet. To get from Point A to Point B, all you have to do is run through Death Valley. In the middle of the summer. Also, the distance is 135 miles. That’s the equivalent of five marathons — with a three-mile warmup.

In other words, it’s exactly what you think it is: the perfect summer vacation.

For an ultra-masochist.

However, if you happen to be at the point that you no longer find the Peachtree Road Race challenging, you might consider heading out west to the desert next July to take things up a notch.

If you do, here’s a few things you should know:

♦ You will have to assemble a team of three to five people who are willing to sacrifice a week of their lives to be part of your support crew, since there isn’t any assistance provided along the course. Don’t expect to find any Gatorade, bananas or fans shouting encouragement like you will at Peachtree. That’s why you need a support crew.

♦ You will need a van to transport all of your gear, food and fluids. You’ll also want to have a large cooler filled with ice to keep things cold: your spare shirts, for example. The crew won’t be able to run the air conditioner, as the van will overheat in the blazing hot desert sun. They should also avoid touching any metal on the outside of the van as it will, obviously, be blazing hot and will scorch their skin.

♦ In fact, it will be so blazing hot that your crew can fry eggs on the asphalt if they wish.

♦ Even though you’ll be running through a desert, it’s important to know you will pass through two mountain ranges along the route. The first requires a climb of 18 miles, and the second one 15. Actually, there are three mountain ranges, as the final 13 miles of the race go straight up the side of Mount Whitney.

♦ Good luck finding ice along the course; you’re going to need it. There are very few convenience stores in Death Valley. In fact, you can count them on one hand — without using your thumb. Or two of your fingers.

♦ Be advised that your shoes may literally melt, so you’ll want to take a couple of spares. You might want to keep them in the cooler as a precaution.

♦ Every hour of the race you will need to consume a minimum of 300 calories, as well as drink fluids equal to your body weight. Otherwise, your body will shut down. Incidentally, before competing, you have to sign a waiver acknowledging that you understand you might die participating in the race. Fortunately, no one ever has. At least not yet.

♦ Be advised your mind could shut down if your crew tells you anything bad — they ran out of ice, for example — since you’ll be running 135 miles through Death Valley and need to spend your time focusing only on the bad things that are happening to you. For example, dehydration, blisters, hallucinations, sunburn, heat stroke, exhaustion and wondering how you’re going to stay alive.

How did I come up with this advice? Just as you might suspect … been there, done that.

Nineteen years ago this month, me and my five-person support crew finished the Badwater Ultramarathon in just over a day and a half. It wasn’t always pretty — in fact, it was downright ugly — but we got the job done. It was so blazing hot during the race that the temperature reached 133 degrees when we reached Stovepipe Wells, 42 miles into the race. That temperature was one degree shy of being the hottest ever recorded on earth, a record established more than a century ago in — where else? — Death Valley.

I wrote a book about the 2003 Badwater Ultramarathon — incidentally, it’s known as “the toughest footrace on the planet” — titled “A Few Degrees from Hell.” The book chronicles the exploits of myself and 24 other Badwater competitors that year: 23 who finished, and two who didn’t. If you’re interested in the race — either in competing in it yourself, learning what the experience was like, or what drives a person to do such a thing — you won’t be disappointed reading it.

Fair warning, though: The race has changed considerably since 2003. The time limit has been reduced from 60 hours to 48. Also, the race now begins at nighttime instead of in the morning, meaning that the faster runners only have to run once during the daylight hours. My start time was 10 a.m., so I had to run during the day twice. My only relief came during the night, when the temperature dropped to a relatively brisk 97 degrees.

Oh, and one last thing. In the last 19 years the entry fee has jumped from $250 — you should be sitting down for this if you’re filling out your race application as we speak — to $1,595.

People often ask me if I ever think about returning to Death Valley.

I have. In fact, I’ve already told you when. It’s right up there at the top of this column.