Long Read! 32 Hours, 135 Miles, and 118 Degrees: What It Takes to Crew the Hardest Race on Earth

Outside Podcast

Check out the new Long Reads, now with a real human voice! Outside Magazine Featured Editor Fred Drier is here to spin a tale about ultrarunning grit, determination, and transcendence ... and we're not even talking about the competitors.

You may have heard about the Badwater 135. It's a running race that starts at the depths of Death Valley and goes all the way up to the trailhead at Mount Whitney. It's 135 miles, the runners go across scorching desert terrain and they cover a ton of elevation gain.

You can't do the Bad Water 135 all by yourself. You need a crew to drive behind you in a follow car, get your food and drink and sunscreen ready, and also pace you across crucial stretches.

This past year, Devin embedded with a crew for a Badwater 135 runner and told a story about what it's like to be in a hot van driving over more than a hundred miles following a person and keeping them going from start to finish. We hope you enjoy it.


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Check out the new Long Reads, now with a real human voice! Outside Magazine Featured Editor Fred Drier is here to spin a tale about ultrarunning grit, determination, and transcendence ... and we're not even talking about the competitors.

You may have heard about the Badwater 135. It's a running race that starts at the depths of Death Valley and goes all the way up to the trailhead at Mount Whitney. It's 135 miles, the runners go across scorching desert terrain and they cover a ton of elevation gain.

You can't do the Bad Water 135 all by yourself. You need a crew to drive behind you in a follow car, get your food and drink and sunscreen ready, and also pace you across crucial stretches.

This past year, Devin embedded with a crew for a Badwater 135 runner and told a story about what it's like to be in a hot van driving over more than a hundred miles following a person and keeping them going from start to finish. We hope you enjoy it.


2026-07-18 31 min
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