~ 135 miles across the desert ~

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Anyone else appreciate ultra-running; if so tomorrow morning 6 a.m. PST is the start of the (death valley, ca) 135 mile race from Badwater to the campground at the trailhead to Mt. Whitney.

I have a bad case of wannabe.
One can follow the progress of the race and see pics, videos, etc., here:

Badwater Ultramarathon

Watch for scott jurek if he is there he will more than likely win unless there is a new guy or gal out there that can break his record for that run.

scott is not at badwater this time. He won twice I believe. People I'm watching - well, too many to post here. It'll be interesting to see who wins, who makes is for the belt buckle, and who drops out. As of right now, about thirty people have made it through Furnace Creek, which is 17 miles from the start. It's about 110º and the pavement is about 130º.

Some large clear pictures of the race here ~> Badwater Ultramarathon

The first six or seven racers have finished, but there are dozens of people still out on the course.

132 miles across Death Valley...nothing could go wrong!

^^
if you are one of the genetic elect, that is.

Funny thing is most of these people seem to be vary ordinary but then tapped into something extraordinary which is humans are the best long distance animals on the planet. Scott jurek was a average to below average when he was young then out of nowhere he just started running super long distances that seems to be how more than a few ultramarathon runners started out.

That's true, and in fact it's possible for a man on foot to eventually run down a horse. The Plains Indians supposedly used to do it all the time. It's possible because, as you point out, humans are very good at long distance running and horses aren't, for two reasons: grass is not a good concentrated energy food, and horses have a relatively inefficient metabolism besides. That's why horses must spend much of their day grazing. Except they can't if they're being pursued, so eventually they simply wear out and the man on foot is able to catch up.

Sorry for getting off-topic ...