The 2003 Badwater Ultramarathon Webcast

The clouds rolled in Tuesday night and the winds kicked up, at the end of an extremely hot day, with temperatures hovering around the 130f mark. As always, darkness and the setting of the sun bring a sense of relief to the runners with the dismissal of the oppressive rays of the sun.

The race staff was in festive spirits as the last of the runners filtered into Stovepipe Wells. Christmas lights hung from the canopy greeted runners as they checked into the second timestation.

After a brief stop at Stove Pipe Wells, we moved up the 18-mile long hill toward Townes Pass, stopping along the way and gathering comments from all the runners:

Barbara Elia

Barbara looked great, with all systems go. Her crew members on the way up the hill were Julie Braemer and Katherine Tubbs. "Feet are good, stomach is good, everything is good. Tell my kids that I love them!"

Lisa Smith-Batchen and Joe DeSena

Lisa and Joe were walking steadily uphill together, both in good spirits. Lisa wanted to say hi to her husband Jay, and her kids Annie & Josh. Joe says hi to Laurel.

Rudy Afanador

(10:00PM, mile 45) Rudy looked a little worn out, and his crew said he had been pretty hot that day. He was sitting in the back of one of his crew vans, trying to nap and cool down. His crew were great: Juan Oliveras, Rene' Marcucci, Evelyn Torres, Betty Afanador (sister-in-law), Miguel Afanador (brother), and Ben Skara.

Rudy wanted to say hello to all the folks at Altana and especially to his wife Lucy, while Rene' wanted to be sure to let his kids know that he said a big "Hello!"

Jan Levet

Jan was looking strong, walking with her pacer, and just wanted to say a quick "Hi" to Mom and Dad.

Mike Karch

Mike did a great job for the Challenged Athletes Foundation (CAF), the official Badwater charity. When he walked into the sign-up meeting on Monday and handed Chris Kostman an envelope with $1300+ in it, Chris was visibly moved. Mike demonstrated part of the sense of family and support that the Badwater experience engenders. He wanted to send a special thank you to all those who contributed to the CAF through him. Mike also gets the "most reflective" award.

Luis Escobar

(10:31) I met Luis at the breakfast following last year's event, where he was showing some of his extraordinarily beautiful photos on his laptop. After some email throughout the year, it was great to see Luis out here in person!

When I stopped at Luis' van, crew member Doug Rich was building some fairly complicated turkey wraps in anticipation of Luis' arrival.

Luis was in high spirits, a little behind where he thought he might be, but feeling good with feet and stomach doing great. Pacer Mark Johnson (a previous BW finisher himself) looked strong too...expect Luis to do well tomorrow! Also, look for a separate feature story on Luis coming up shortly.

Lisa Henson

Lisa was moving along at a good clip with her pacer Tia, and even took time out to give a nice pose for the webcast (left)

Louise Cooper

Louise was lying on the ground when I caught up to her van, but it was all good. She was just finishing a 10-minute catnap, and her crew members Bill Maniscalcos and Georgine Pantelas were properly protective. Louise was doing really well, and wanted to say a very special "Hello" to her student Megan, who is currently undergoing chemotherapy for ovarian cancer at age 16. Louise is running for the Pediatric Cancer Research charity. By the time I'd taken a couple pictures, she was just about ready to keep moving strongly on up the hill!

Sergio Cordeiro

Sergio's wish was simple enough: he wanted to say hello to all of Brazil!

Tracy Bahr

Tracy was moving along strongly near the top of the hill, traveling with a pacer. You can see Tracy's sparkling personality picked up well in the picture!

Bill Lockton

Bill was also past the 4000ft mark going up Towne's Pass, well ahead of schedule and still looking strong. He was a little concerned that he hadn't taken enough calories in and was going to try downing some more SlimFast for a little juice to make it down the long descent into Panamint Springs.