Bob Becker, 80, has a easy philosophy about his age. “I don’t consider myself when it comes to age, actually,” Becker mentioned. “I simply determine if anyone else can do a specific factor, there’s most likely not a complete lot of cause why I can’t do it myself.”
Which is why, on July 7, Becker discovered himself 282 ft beneath sea stage in Badwater Basin, California, in 118-degree Fahrenheit warmth, staring down the near-impossible as soon as extra: In his ninth decade of life, Becker wished to turn into the oldest official finisher within the historical past of the Badwater 135 Mile ultramarathon, the punishing 135-mile race by means of the state’s searing Demise Valley.
Nearly precisely 45 hours later, he did.
Bob Becker proudly shows his 2025 Badwater 135 Mile finisher t-shirt, alongside coach and pal Lisa Smith-Batchen (to his proper.) Photograph courtesy of Lisa Smith-Batchen.
“Form of everyone within the race knew I used to be capturing for this oldest runner finisher mark,” Becker mentioned in a current telephone interview. “So there have been lots of people up there cheering me on.” “It was only a nice journey,” he added.
Becker — a race director in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, who now has 4 official finishes at Badwater — had already as soon as tried to turn into the oldest finisher. Three years in the past, when he was a spry 77, Becker completed 17 minutes — “17 minutes and 27 seconds,” he’ll level out — over the race’s 48-hour cutoff time. His again had gone out at mile 100 and he might barely transfer. Movies of him crawling to the end line went viral. An “unofficial end” he referred to as it. He wished to make it official.
“I had unfinished enterprise,” Becker mentioned. So, he got here again. He ran the Route 66 Ultrarun, a 140 miler on the historic street in Arizona, in November and “felt actually good about it … And I assumed, You realize what? I believe I’m going to throw my hat within the ring and see if I can qualify and be chosen to strive another time,” he mentioned. “And luckily, all of it got here collectively.”
Coaching and Preparation
First, although, he needed to prepare. Becker has been operating ultras for 20 years, however Badwater, which calls itself “the world’s hardest footrace,” represents a specific problem. In true race director vogue, Becker had an inventory of the “4 main problem elements” of the infamous race: It’s lengthy, it’s scorching, it has a variety of elevation acquire, and except you’re an elite runner on the entrance of the sphere, it requires you to run by means of two nights. Becker credit his coach of 20 years, Lisa Smith-Batchen, for serving to him put together for his record-breaking try. “She’s at all times had me prepared on race day,” he mentioned.
Florida, famously, is flat — a largely paved swampland with only a few pure alternatives for elevation coaching and a lower than excellent place to coach for a race that begins on the lowest level in North America and ends on the trailhead for the best level within the contiguous United States. However Becker discovered a method, and maybe there’s a lesson in that.
“The best level, principally, in Fort Lauderdale is 75 ft above sea stage on the high of a bridge that’s a half a mile all the way in which throughout,” he mentioned. “So, you do 20 or 25 miles on that bridge and also you’re getting somewhat hill work in. Attempt to discover an workplace constructing or a apartment constructing the place you are able to do stairs and go to a health club and do a StairMaster.”
Or typically Smith-Batchen would prescribe one thing extra unorthodox: pulling a large tire. “It creates drag and actually works these calves and the muscle groups at the back of your legs,” Becker mentioned. “And it actually does simulate uphill motion.”
Operating 20 miles on a half-mile-long bridge, operating up stairs in random workplace buildings, pulling SUV tires — that is the work ingrained in Becker’s legs and thoughts on the beginning line of Badwater. He didn’t break the document accidentally.
Bob Becker on the climb as much as Towne Cross through the 2025 Badwater 135 Mile. Photograph: Arnold Begay
Executing the Plan
However first he needed to run, in fact, and a calf concern simply three miles into the race was his first shock. “And that truly stayed with me the entire time,” Becker mentioned. “In order that was one thing that induced somewhat little bit of concern, however, you already know, I labored by means of it, shook it out, and was in a position to maintain my race plan.”
His race plan was to stroll the steep uphills, run the downhills, and do a run-walk sequence on the flat sections. “That’s what I do. That’s how I prepare. As a result of I determine in a race like this, I’m not going to run any greater than half the race,” he mentioned. “And I’d fairly begin in the beginning to combine it up fairly than doing a demise march on the finish.”
Greater than as soon as, Becker credited his crew — Smith-Batchen, Marshall Ulrich, Heather Ulrich, and Will Litwin — for serving to him by means of the race and showering him with powerful love when he wanted it. “They acquired me to the end line,” he mentioned.
By the point he acquired to Lone Pine, the penultimate checkpoint about 123 miles in, he knew he would do it. “All I needed to do,” he mentioned, “was rise up that hill.” Becker acquired up the hill — his unassuming identify for the 13-mile climb as much as the Mount Whitney trailhead with greater than 4,500 ft of elevation acquire — and made historical past. At 80 years younger, he had completed it.
Bob Becker close to Stovepipe Wells on the 2025 Badwater 135 Mile. Photograph: Arnold Begay
Reflections
Per week later, he mirrored on what it meant. “The actual fact is, I’m older, so I’m not as quick as I was. I can’t bomb a downhill path race anymore. I simply don’t have that confidence,” Becker mentioned. “And so I’ve to select my races rigorously. I’ve to ensure that I’m being reasonable in regards to the cutoffs and the situations of the race. However in any other case, the truth that I’m the oldest man is nearly secondary.”
Badwater, he mentioned, was the one race the place his main purpose was breaking the oldest finisher document. “And I had my eye on it for a very long time,” Becker mentioned. “And so, it was very satisfying to lastly have the ability to do this.”
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