Bob Becker80, has a easy philosophy about his age. “I don’t consider myself by way of age, actually,” Becker stated. “I simply determine if any person else can do a specific factor, there’s in all probability not an entire lot of purpose why I can’t do it myself.”
Which is why, on July 7, Becker discovered himself 282 toes beneath sea degree 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 grow to be the oldest official finisher within the historical past of the Bathwater 135 Mile ultramarathon, the punishing 135-mile race by means of the state’s searing Dying 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.) Picture courtesy of Lisa Smith-Batchen.
“Form of all people within the race knew I used to be taking pictures for this oldest runner finisher mark,” Becker stated 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 grow to be 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 known as it. He wished to make it official.
“I had unfinished enterprise,” Becker stated. So, he got here again. He ran the Route 66 Ultraruna 140 miler on the historic street in Arizona, in November and “felt actually good about it … And I believed, You recognize what? I believe I’m going to throw my hat within the ring and see if I can qualify and be chosen to attempt yet one more time,” he stated. “And fortuitously, all of it got here collectively.”
Coaching and Preparation
First, although, he needed to prepare. Becker has been working ultras for 20 years, however Badwater, which calls itself “the world’s hardest footrace,” represents a specific problem. In true race director trend, Becker had a listing of the “4 main issue elements” of the infamous race: It’s lengthy, it’s sizzling, it has plenty of elevation acquire, and except you’re an elite runner on the entrance of the sector, it requires you to run by means of two nights. Becker credit his coach of 20 years, Lisa Smith-Batchenfor serving to him put together for his record-breaking try. “She’s all the time had me prepared on race day,” he stated.
Florida, famously, is flat — a largely paved swampland with only a few pure alternatives for elevation coaching and a lower than ideally suited 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 very best level, principally, in Fort Lauderdale is 75 toes above sea degree on the high of a bridge that’s a half a mile all the best way throughout,” he stated. “So, you do 20 or 25 miles on that bridge and also you’re getting a bit of hill work in. Attempt to discover an workplace constructing or a condominium constructing the place you are able to do stairs and go to a fitness center and do a StairMaster.”
Or generally Smith-Batchen would prescribe one thing extra unorthodox: pulling an enormous tire. “It creates drag and actually works these calves and the muscular tissues at the back of your legs,” Becker stated. “And it actually does simulate uphill motion.”
Working 20 miles on a half-mile-long bridge, working 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 file by chance.
Bob Becker on the climb as much as Towne Go throughout the 2025 Badwater 135 Mile. Picture: Arnold Begay
Executing the Plan
However first he needed to run, after all, and a calf problem simply three miles into the race was his first shock. “And that really stayed with me the entire time,” Becker stated. “In order that was one thing that triggered a bit of little bit of concern, however, you realize, 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 stated. “And I’d slightly begin firstly to combine it up slightly than doing a loss of life march on the finish.”
Greater than as soon as, Becker credited his crew — Smith-Batchen, Marshall Ulrich, Heather Ulrichand Will Litwin — for serving to him by means of the race and showering him with robust love when he wanted it. “They received me to the end line,” he stated.
By the point he received to Lone Pine, the penultimate checkpoint about 123 miles in, he knew he would do it. “All I needed to do,” he stated, “was rise up that hill.” Becker received up the hill — his unassuming title for the 13-mile climb as much as the Mount Whitney trailhead with greater than 4,500 toes of elevation acquire — and made historical past. At 80 years younger, he had executed it.
Bob Becker close to Stovepipe Wells on the 2025 Badwater 135 Mile. Picture: Arnold Begay
Reflections
Every week later, he mirrored on what it meant. “The very 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 stated. “And so I’ve to choose my races fastidiously. I’ve to make sure that I’m being real looking in regards to the cutoffs and the circumstances of the race. However in any other case, the truth that I’m the oldest man is nearly secondary.”
Badwater, he stated, was the one race the place his main goal was breaking the oldest finisher file. “And I had my eye on it for a very long time,” Becker stated. “And so, it was very satisfying to lastly have the ability to try this.”
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