Lone Pine, California, July 13. Zach Gingerich of Aurora, Illinois held off a late challenge from Oswaldo Lopez to win the 33rd annual Badwater Ultra. Gingerich took the lead from defending champion Marco Farinazzo in Owens Valley at around the 100-mile mark and increased the lead to 33 minutes over Lopez at Lone Pine before the final 13-mile climb to the finish line at the Whitney Portals at 8500 feet elevation. Lopez was able to cut into the lead but never got closer than 16 minutes.
Jamie Donaldson, a middle-school teacher from Littleton, Colorado won the women’s race and finished third overall. She broke her own women’s course record in winning for the third consecutive year.
Eighty runners started in three waves at Badwater in Death Valley, the lowest point in North America at 282 feet below sea level. The race goes through Death Valley, Panamint Valley, and Owens Valley before finishing 135 miles later at the Whitney Portals. The high temperature at Furnace Creek, 17 miles into the race, was 120F (49C) during the afternoon of the first day of the race. Seventy-three runners finished within the race’s 60-hour time limit.
Men
1. Zach Gingerich, 30, Aurora, IL, 24:44:48
2. Oswaldo Lopez, 38, Madera, CA, 25:05:38
3. Marco Farinazzo, 41, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 27:56:10
4. Greg Geerdes, 41, Annandale, VA, 28:28:29
5. Jorge Pacheco, 42. Los Angeles, CA, 29:11:09
Women
1. Jamie Donaldson, 35, Littleton, CO, 26:16:12 (new course record, old record 26:51:33 by Donaldson, 2008)
2. Connie Gardner, 46, Medina, OH, 30:35:08
3. Pam Reed, 49, Tucson, AZ, 32:23:34
4. Susannah Harvey-Jamieson, 37, Holland Park West, Queensland, Australia, 35:20:38
5. Iris Cooper Imhoff, 51, Toronto, ON, 35:21:52
photo by Luis Escobar.