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Badwater Report 2001 Report-The Pre Race(CA): Matt Palocsay

a year and a half in the making, my race was completed on friday july 27th
after shedding blood, sweat, and tears on the course from badwater to the
summit of mt. whitney.

it started when i got the bug, the "badwater bug".  if you don't know what
this is, you haven't been out there.  all i had to do was crew for one
clinic and i was hooked; sometime, as soon as possible, i was going to run
the course.  i don't know if it is the beauty of the course, the family of
people involved (led by patriarch and matriarch ben and denise jones, whose
love for this race makes it something very special), or the challenge it
consists of.  whatever it was, i got it and i got it bad.

i went to both clinics last year and then crewed for a runner who had to
drop with injury.  mona landfield and i, now without a crewing commitment,
offered our services up and back the course to anyone who wanted help.  we
saw the race in all aspects, from the fresh jay grobeson near the front to
the strugling erika gerhardt.  i knew i had to come out the next year.

after the race, i ran a strong cascade crest 100 and angeles crest 100, but
my mind always wandered back to badwater.

i couldn't wait to get back out there.  living in los angeles, it is not
much of a trek to get out there, so i took my first of many desert trips in
february during president's day weekend.  how shocked could i have been?
there was snow everywhere!  i did my runs in slush on the side of the road
up white mountains and through canyons with joshua trees with icicles
dripping off.  not exactly race conditions, but something special all the
same.

again, i went out the end of march to get some more miles in.  on the night
run from furnace creek to stovepipe wells, a glow above the mountains lit up
the road.  we thought it was an alien or maybe the lights from vegas, but it
turned out to be the northern lights.  no flashlights, no moon, just the
aurora borealis to light my path in death valley.

a few more runs in vegas, some more in death valley, a sandstorm while out
there on my own that lifted a 100 foot high wall of sand across my path, a
couple clinics where i met my fellow runners and their crews; such good
people out there.  my crew was getting better and better.  i made some
mistakes on the runs, but the lessons were learned.

approaching the race, i just wanted to avaid getting injured.  i guess it
was a bad time to stab myself in the calf with a buck knife.  fortunately, i
heal quickly and the antibiotics staved off the infection.

cont'd