July 11-13, 2011
Ian Parker attempted the 2011 Badwater Ultramarathon, a gruelling trek of 135 miles from Death Valley to Mt. Whitney in temperatures approaching 130F that is billed as "the world's toughest footrace". For the first time, the cutoff for an official finish was reduced from 60 to 48 hours. The world's toughest footrace just got tougher.
Too tough! Ian finished in a time of 52hr 17 min. His second best time, but over four hours beyond the official finishing time. Nevertheless, he is pleased to count this as a ninth personal finish : and the Badwater database also lists this as a ninth finish, though ambiguously not showing a finishing time.
Ian used this opportunity to help raise funds for the Andrea Silvestri Memorial Award. Andrea tragically passed away earlier this year. He was a physics researcher at the University of California Irvine; husband of Melanie Matheu, a loyal pacer on my crew for the last 6 years; and he was to have been on my crew this year. Please click HERE to learn more, and for information on how you may contribute.
Click HERE to go to the archived Badwater webcast .
See the Orange County Register article on Ian's 2006 Badwater run
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