Iván Penalba wants to conquer the Badwater 135

Iván Penalba wants to conquer the Badwater 135 and become part of the history of the toughest race in the world. In 2022, in his first appearance, he finished second and became the first Spaniard to reach the podium.

His big challenge for 2023 is to conquer the Badwater 135, a race he first faced in 2022 and which has become his greatest sporting challenge. “I already know what I’m up against and I think I can dream of victory. Last year I ran it for the first time and everything was new to me. It’s a race that isn’t comparable to any other in the world, so the best experience is having run it to know what you’re facing,” explains Iván Penalba.

Iván Penalba aims for victory and a record time

The Badwater 135 is considered the most extreme and challenging long-distance competition in the world. Its 135 miles (217 kilometers) cross one of the most inhospitable places on the planet: Death Valley, a desert valley located in southeastern California, in the Mojave Desert. It is one of the hottest places in the world in summer, with daytime temperatures reaching or even exceeding 50°C and dropping to 34°C at night in the best-case scenario.

As a curiosity, Death Valley holds the record for the highest temperature ever recorded in the world: 134°F (56.7°C) on July 10, 1913.

In 2022, Iván Penalba became the seventh Spaniard selected to face the 135 miles of Badwater. He prepared thoroughly—including training in a sauna to get his body used to extreme temperatures—and finished in second place with a time of 24h:02′:57″, behind Japan’s Yoshihiko Ishikawa, who completed the course in 23h:08′:20″ and repeated his 2019 victory.

The Valencian ultra-runner made history by becoming the first Spaniard to reach the race podium, but he returned from American soil with the dream of going back to the Badwater 135 to take the win and set a new time record (the men’s record is held by Valmir Nunes at 22h:51′:29″ and the women’s by Jamie Donalson at 26h:16′:12″).

“Badwater is not a normal ultra-distance event; it requires very specific preparation, both physically and psychologically. It’s an extreme race because the temperatures are hellish and any physical activity becomes very difficult. Last year I prepared as best I could and knew how, but I didn’t know exactly what I was facing. This year I already know what I’m up against and what I need to improve in my preparation and race strategy,” says the Valencian athlete.

The greatest demand and difficulty of the Badwater 135 lies in being able to run for hours and hours in hellish temperatures, as Iván Penalba explains. “You need exceptional physical preparation, but you also have to work hard on psychological preparation because the hardest part in this case isn’t the distance itself (217 kilometers), but the exhaustion of maintaining focus and a competitive pace in heat that is indescribable. And a fundamental aspect for staying focused and being able to aim for victory, as I saw in 2022, is having a very experienced support team.”

Carmen Pérez, Iván Penalba’s inseparable partner in struggle

Iván Penalba will have a highly qualified team this year to assist him in his big sporting challenge of the year. Leading the team will be Joaquín Cándel, a Spaniard living in Las Vegas who knows the Badwater 135 and all its administrative and logistical-sporting quirks better than anyone. And to help him on the burning asphalt of endless roads, he will have the company of two elite ultra-runners: Mexico’s Oscar Hernández and Spain’s Carmen Pérez Serrano.

Both are following a strict training program to provide the help Penalba will need on July 4 during the more than twenty hours he will have to run non-stop.

Carmen, Iván’s inseparable partner in struggle, has extensive experience in ultra-distance events (both road and mountain) and currently holds the Spanish women’s 100 km record (7h:47′:14″, set at the 2022 100 km World Championships in Berlin), as well as the Spanish 6H and 12H records.

Joaquín Candel, Carmen Pérez, and Oscar Hernández will be the three athletes accompanying the runner from Alfafar (Valencia) on the ground during the big challenge, but ‘Team Penalba’ also includes physiotherapists David Valenzuela (Box 55) and Pablo Salvador, physical trainer Sebastian Bialobrzeski, psychologist Pedro Quesada, and podiatrists Salva Jesuardo and Nuria Gil.

Iván Penalba’s roadmap for the Badwater 135

The Badwater 135 is Iván Penalba’s big sporting challenge for 2023, which is why he has designed his competition calendar to reach peak fitness in July.

The competition roadmap began on February 25 at the Conero 100 km (Italy), where he finished in third place with a time of 7h:03′:17″. February was the first month of his specific preparation for Badwater, and he finished it with 685.2 km in 26 days (an average of 26.5 km/day).

The second event of the year he competed in was the Sofia 12 Hours (Bulgaria), the first race he ran alongside Carmen Pérez and where he finished in first place after completing 146.6 km (136.300 km for Carmen). “The Sofia 12 Hours was the first event we competed in together and we were able to experience the feeling of working and striving as a team. Achieving maximum synergy is fundamental for Death Valley,” he explains.

In April, they lined up for the Venice 24 Hours, a race where Penalba also took the top spot on the podium after totaling 254.03 km (the sixth time he has exceeded 254 km in a 24-hour event), while Carmen Pérez finished in second place for the women.

With the Venice 24 Hours, Iván Penalba now has a total of 62 official ultra-distance events in his sporting career, with 9 completed 24h races.
“I’m very satisfied with the performance in the first three months of the year. Everything is going as I wanted. In the first block of ‘training – tests’ I’ve run three official ultra-distance competitions in 49 days, totaling over 500 kilometers, and I’ve achieved 3 podiums. Also, I’m happy because in each of these competitions I’ve done many nutrition and hydration tests, etc., which will be relevant for Badwater,” he explains.

The competition roadmap to fine-tune preparation for Death Valley includes the following events:

• Ciudad Real 24 Hours. In this track ultra-distance event, Iván and Carmen will compete in the 3-hour race.
• Camí de Cavalls 360 (Menorca). An event that follows the GR 223, a historic 185 km trail that circles Menorca along the coast. Carmen will compete in this event and Iván will handle the support.
• Passatore 100 km (Italy). This race held between Florence and Faenza is considered one of the most important 100-kilometer events in Europe.
• Tegueste 6 Hours. This will be Penalba’s last competition before traveling to Death Valley.

 

A bit of history of the Badwater 135

Until 2022, the Badwater 135 was an ultra-distance event little known in Spain (except for lovers of extreme ultra-running), but Iván Penalba’s participation and his second-place finish made it famous and gave it unprecedented prominence in our country.

It began to be held officially in 1987. In that first year, only five runners started, but since then the number of participants has not stopped growing. Its popularity is at its peak among the international long-distance running community, which is why it gathers ultra-runners of many nationalities in California every year, seduced by the challenge of competing in something resembling a volcanic crater.

In the 2022 edition, 95 runners (63 men and 32 women) lined up at the start, and 78 completed the 135 miles (217 km). Men and women from 23 different nationalities but with a common passion: running ultra-distances on infinite roads through Death Valley under a scorching sun and with daytime temperatures that can exceed 50°C.

In this valley lies the Badwater Basin, which is the lowest elevation point (-86 meters below sea level) in all of North America (excluding Alaska and Hawaii) and is where the race starts. This point is only 136 km east of the highest point in the United States, Mount Whitney (4,421 meters above sea level), where the race finishes at an altitude of 2,548m.

From the start at 11 PM, you have to fight extreme heat (at night the temperature doesn’t drop below 34°C), but the punishment of the heat is added to a demanding course that totals 217 kilometers with a cumulative elevation gain of 4,450m and 1,859m of cumulative descent.

Iván Penalba, crusher of kilometers and records

Iván Penalba holds the world record for 12 hours on a treadmill (155.080 km), as well as the Spanish ultra-distance records for 12-hour races (158.631 km), 24-hour races (274.330 km), and 100 miles.

But he also has many more milestones in his sporting career that make him a unique athlete:

• Only ultra-runner in history to achieve victory on 4 different continents.
• World Top 3 in ultra-distance by hours in 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, and 2022.
• 3 current national records in 24H, 12H, and 100 miles (until recently he also held the 6H and 60-mile records).
• World record on a treadmill for 12 hours.
• Winner of the world’s most important 24H track event (Taiwan 2018).
• Best result by a Spaniard in the Spartathlon (2021), the world’s most important road ultra-distance race held in Greece.
• 5th place in the 2019 24H World Championship (Albi, France). This is the best result, 270.1 km, and position by a Spaniard in a world championship.
• 4th place in the 2022 24H European Championship (Verona, Italy). This is the best result, 273.4 km, by a Spaniard in a European championship.

42K technical brand for Iván Penalba for the second year at the Badwater 135

42K is once again the technical brand for Iván Penalba and his entire team for the Badwater 135. For the second year, the Valencian ultra-runner will face the rigors of the extreme heat of Death Valley with 42K technical garments.

For the 2023 edition, Iván Penalba will use an exclusive technical t-shirt made with 100% recycled fabric that we will present shortly.

42K has been dressing the Valencian athlete (and now also his sporting partner, Carmen Pérez) since he began competing in ultra-distance events.

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