10th Hi-Tec Badwater 135M Ultra Marathon

Badwater, CA

July 17-19, 1997

Results courtesy of Hi-Tec Sports USA.

This year's 10th anniversary running of the Hi-Tec Badwater 135 Mile Ultra Marathon attracted ultra runners from thousands of miles away - some from as far away as England, Italy and Norway. The field included veteran Badwater competitors returning to settle previous scores, while others were new faces eager to experience the legend of Death Valley.

With temperatures hovering around the 100 degree mark at this year's 6:00am start, the runners seemed to be off to a relatively cool start compared to last year's 125 degrees. These circumstances changed dramatically mid-day when the winds began gusting up to 50 miles per hour. The wind, coupled with the rising temperature (125 degrees) gave the competitors about ten hours of blasting sand and sun as they moved across Death Valley.

While some runners weathered the intense conditions, others wilted. About 14 hours into the race it became apparent who, out of the seasoned group of runners, was having a good race and who wasn't. One runner having an exceptional race was veteran Badwater competitor, David Jones of Eagleville, Tennessee. Jones steadily made his move to the top of the pack and never looked back. He finished in a record (am record) time of 29:10 - that's 29 hours 10 minutes. (Who's counting the seconds?) Jim Magill of Saratoga, California came in a strong second with a time of 35:45. The first female finisher, and third overall, was Lisa Smith of Bernardsville, NJ who finished in 37:01 (am record).

The designation "am record" means a course record for a morning start as opposed to an evening start.

1	David Jones		Eagleville, TN		29:10
2	Jim Magill		Saratoga, CA		35:45*
3	Lisa Smith		Bernardsville, NJ	37:01
4	Dale Sutton		San Diego, CA		38:50
5	Mick Justin		Nisswa, MN		38:55
6	Steven Silver		El Paso, TX		39:13
7	Bill Menard		Venice, FL		39:55
8	Matthew Toepke		Austin, TX		40:48*
9	Jose Wilkie		Louisville, TN		40:56
10	Beacham Toler		Amarillo, TX		43:53
11	Maj. W.C. Maples	Oceanside, CA		45:15
12	Fred Vance		San Jose, CA		47:00
13	Del Scharffenberg	Portland, OR		48:16*
14	Eris Zama		Cesena, Italy		49:02*
15	Primus Lambert		Durham, England		50:54
16	John Radich		Monrovia, CA		51:05
17	Rob Volkenand		Bend, OR		52:45
18	Steve Kerr		Kent, England		56:02
19	Scott Weber		Littleton, CO		57:00
20	Paul Braden		Ontario, Canada		57:11*