Women's Winner: Monica Scholz

By Steve Matsuda

The top female runner in the 2004 Kiehl's Badwater Ultramarathon used a very simple and effective race strategy this year, run faster. It sure worked as Monica Scholz finished as the first woman and 3rd overall. Scholz improved her previous best by about four hours to finish in 29:22.

Scholz said her goal was a sub-30 finish.  She started out faster than normal for the first 40 to 50 miles of the race, enjoying temperatures that she felt were cooler than past years. After dark, she alternated between running and walking at predetermined intervals, which she seemed to think worked well.  She only sat down twice during the race, once to change shoes and once because she was tired.  And, of course, Scholz always wears her favorite Injinji tetratsoks.

One thing that Scholz and overall winner Dean Karnazes seem to have in common is their taper, or perhaps lack thereof.  They both ran the Western States 100 just a few weeks prior to running Badwater 

Scholz always seems to have the best attitude and claims to have the happiest crew.  It is sometimes said that a runner’s job is to keep their crew happy.  Certainly, Monica seems to always be a winner in that area.