No time to cool heels

No doubt in need of more exercise, Scott Jurek of Seattle, who recently won the 100-mile Western States Endurance Run, followed up with a victory two and a half weeks later in the 135-mile Badwater Ultramarathon on July 11.

In the process, Jurek, 31, set a new course record of 24 hours, 36 minutes for this torture rack, in which runners negotiate blast-furnace temperatures, hallucinations and the edge of sanity en route from Death Valley to 8,360-foot Whitney Portal.

Despite 118 degrees at the start, 67 of 81 athletes officially completed the course, including second-place finisher Ferg Hawke, 48, from British Columbia, and Pam Reed, 43, the Tucson mom who won Badwater in 2002 and 2003, who took the women’s division in 37 hours, 39 minutes. South African Geoffrey Hilton-Barber, 58, became the first blind runner to finish the race.

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-- Joe Robinson