Alexander conquers world’s toughest race
LONE PINE, CALIF. — Fighting blisters, stomach pain and desert heat, Calgary marathon runner Lorie Alexander became the first woman to complete a hat-trick of ultra marathons Tuesday when she conquered the gruelling 135-mile Badwater Ultramarathon.
Alexander, 55, crossed the finish line halfway up Mount Whitney Tuesday at 6:32 p.m., having run 135 miles in 36 hours, 32 minutes and 37 seconds, shaving at least 20 minutes off her previous time set in 2012.
“Going up that one climb to the ghost town on the gravel road when I didn’t feel good was the most challenging time,” Alexander said at the finish line.
“I kept sitting down, trying to eat but I couldn’t,” she said. “I’d take a sip of water, try to take a bit of food, I couldn’t get it in.”
The Badwater race — touted as the toughest foot race on the planet — covers three mountain climbs across the burning desert terrain through Owen’s Valley, west of Death Valley.
Alexander is one of seven — and the only woman — to complete the first ever Badwater Ultra Cup challenge in which runners complete not only the Badwater race but two other ultra-marathons this year.
She and the other half-dozen finalists also competed in the 51-mile Badwater Cape Fear marathon in March and the 81-mile Badwater Salton Sea marathon in May.
“I feel awesome,” Alexander said of her new title, at the finish line Tuesday. “Chris (race organizer) said ‘Hey, it’s going to be a Canadian to takes top woman’s spot.”
Which of the three marathons was the most challenging?
Badwater, she said, adding: “It’s the longest.”
Alexander is also the first and only Canadian to run up more than 4,500 feet in the Inyo Mountains overlook- ing the Owen’s Valley, to a ghost town called, Cerro Gordo.
Since the race began in 1990, runners have set off from Badwater — hence the name — the lowest point in the Western Hemisphere, inside Death Valley National Park. Newpark rules, however, forced race planners to devise an alternate route.
During the ascent to Cerro Gordo, Alexander suffered severe blistering to the heels of her feet and agonizing stomach pains that plagued her throughout the night Monday.
By Tuesday morning, the stomach pains abated, she said, but the blistering remained.
At 6 a.m. Tuesday, 24 hours after she set off with 100 other runners from 24 countries, Alexander had run 91 miles.
By noon Tuesday, she passed the 115-mile marker.
She changed her shoes twice to re-bandage the blisters but pushed through the pain as she made her last ascent up Mount Whitney Tuesday afternoon, she said.