Badwater Rising

School for Creative and Performing Arts teacher and veteran Flying Pig marathoner Harvey Lewis won this years’s Badwater 135 endurance race, the second time in his career he has won the grueling run.

The 135 mile course starts at the lowest elevation in North America, 282 feet below sea level in Death Valley, and ends at an elevation of 8,360 feet at the trailhead to Mt. Whitney. Lewis finished the course in 25 hours, 50 minutes and 23 seconds. He also won Badwater in 2014 and is a 10 time finisher. 

Billed the “World’s Toughest Foot Race,” Badwater this year had 84 entrants start with temperatures up to 117 degrees 

Lewis is a familiar figure in running in the Greater Cincinnati area, running the Flying Pig Marathon every year since its inception in 1999 and pacing marathon running groups throughout the country. Lewis also ran the Appalachian Trail in 2918 in less than 50 days, finishing in 45 days, 14 hours, a top-10 all-time finish.

The Badwater 135 Ultramarathon, the 135-Mile World Championship, was held July 19-21. Now in its 44th year – with the 2020 race canceled last-minute due to the pandemic – this world-renowned event pits up to 100 of the world’s toughest athletes against one another and the elements in a crucible like no other. From below sea level in scorching temperatures to altitudes as high as 8,360 feet (2548m), endurance athletes from 17 countries and 29 American states plus the Navajo Nation will face off in a grueling 135-mile trek non-stop from Death Valley to Mt. Whitney, CA. Widely recognized as “the world’s toughest foot race,” the invitational Badwater 135 is the most demanding and extreme running race on the planet.