BADWATER 135 HISTORY: FROM AL ARNOLD'S CROSSING TO THE WORLD'S TOUGHEST FOOT RACE
Every July, roughly 100 invited runners stand at Badwater Basin in Death Valley, 282 feet below sea level, and start running toward a mountain. The finish line of the Badwater 135 sits 135 miles away at Whitney Portal, 8,360 feet up the flank of the highest peak in the contiguous United States.
The race bills itself as the world's toughest foot race, and the claim rests on more than distance. The event takes place in mid-July, when daytime temperatures in Death Valley can reach 130 degrees Fahrenheit. Everything about the race traces back to one man's obsession with that landscape.
Al Arnold's Crossing
Al Arnold was a fitness pioneer from California who first attempted to run from Badwater to Mount Whitney in 1974. The heat beat him. He tried again the following year and failed again.
In 1977, at age 49, Arnold made it. His solo crossing from the lowest point in North America to the high country of the Sierra Nevada established the route that would define American extreme ultrarunning. There was no race, no finish banner, and no official time. There was only proof that the crossing could be done on foot.
Arnold's run sat as a legend for a decade. Other athletes attempted the route in the years that followed, with end-to-end records tracked informally by Death Valley rangers.
From Crossing to Competition
The first organized race over the route came in 1987. The earliest editions ran under the name Badwater 146, with a course that continued past Whitney Portal to the actual summit of Mount Whitney, a finish line that sat on protected wilderness and was later abandoned.
The course was eventually standardized at 135 miles, ending at Whitney Portal, the trailhead where the road stops. That is the race that survives today, organized by AdventureCORPS under race director Chris Kostman.
The format has remained stable for decades. Runners cross Death Valley through the checkpoints at Furnace Creek, Stovepipe Wells, and Panamint Springs, climb over two mountain ranges, pass the town of Lone Pine, and finish up the switchbacks of the Whitney Portal road. The route accumulates roughly 13,000 feet of climbing.
Racing the Heat
The heat is the race's defining opponent. Mid-July is deliberately the hottest window of the year in Death Valley, and the valley floor regularly exceeds 120 degrees during the race.
Every runner brings a support crew and a vehicle. Crews leapfrog their runner for 135 miles, handing off ice, fluids, and food. There are no conventional aid stations in the desert sections, and the race would not be survivable without crew support.
The conditions have produced their own culture. Runners train in saunas and wear full white sun suits.
Champions
The race's honor roll includes some of the most recognizable names in ultrarunning. Pam Reed won the race outright in 2002, beating every man in the field, and won overall again the following year. Her back-to-back overall victories remain among the most cited results in the sport.
Scott Jurek came to Death Valley in 2005 and won, then returned and won again in 2006. Marshall Ulrich built much of his legend on this road, winning the race multiple times and returning for repeated crossings of the valley long after his competitive years.
The Records
The men's course record belongs to Yoshihiko Ishikawa of Japan, who ran 21:33:01 in 2019. The women's record fell in 2023, when Ashley Paulson of the United States ran 21:44:35, a time that also stands among the fastest ever recorded on the course by any athlete.
That the two marks sit 11 minutes apart says something about the race. Badwater rewards heat management, crew logistics, and pacing discipline more than raw leg speed, and the gap between the best men and best women here is among the narrowest of any major ultra.
Interruptions and Survival
The race has been stopped twice. In 2014 the National Park Service suspended event permits in Death Valley during a safety review, and the race ran an alternate course outside the park before returning to the traditional route. In 2020 the pandemic cancelled the race entirely.
Both interruptions proved temporary. The race's small field and long waiting list have kept demand well ahead of supply for decades.
Invitation Only
Entry to the Badwater 135 has never worked like a normal race. The field is capped at roughly 100 runners, and every one of them is invited through an application process that weighs ultrarunning résumés, previous Badwater finishes, and crew plans.
The result is a field that skews experienced and international. For many ultrarunners, the invitation itself is the achievement of a career.
The Race Today
The 2026 edition is scheduled to start on July 27, once again in the hottest week of the year. The runners will leave the basin in the evening light, cross the valley in the dark, and climb toward the portal through the following day and night.
Nearly 50 years after Al Arnold walked away from his crossing with no medal and no time, the route he proved possible remains the standard against which the sport measures suffering.