23. July 2009 by admin.

The Badwater 135 is hailed as the world’s toughest footrace next to Western States and Hardrock it is also possibly the hardest race to get into with arguably one of the most internationally competitive fields. Athletes range from South America, to Eastern Europe to only a few hours from the race course. This past year more than a record amount of people applied to enter in the Badwater 135 and only 90 were accepted. I was lucky enough to be among those fortunate few.

I am Nickademus Hollon age 19, from San Diego, CA. I am the world’s youngest Badwater runner and official finish

                The night before the race, I slept surprisingly well but woke up without an alarm clock even going off at 4:30, fresh, ready and anxious to start this crazy thing I called a dream. As my crew and I loaded into the van blasting infected mushroom, a new age techno band, the fact that the race was about to actually begin in less than an hour was starting to settle in. “all runners report to the road for the start line”, said Chris Kostman over a megaphone…holy crap its already here I thought…I don’t even have enough time to let it sink in, just go slow, just go slow, just go slow, your only goal this year is to finish….

                I was as usual off to quick…and this was not the race to be doing that…I knew for a fact that I could run 7-8 miles per hour and recover from that and be absolutely fine still though so I wasn’t overly worried. I felt great, what was I supposed to do? It wasn’t until much later in the race that I remember the quote, “if you are running an ultra and you feel great, don’t worry it wont last…”

                Arriving at furnace creek 17 miles already into this madness, I had only spent around 2hrs and 30 minutes on the course and still felt fresh, the sun had barely crept out and my crew was working amazingly to keep me cool. Everyone who saw me fly away at the 6am start was sure that I would burn out before stovepipe wells (mile 42) and I on the other hand was sure I was going to let them down. I entered the heat of the day with fury, a song had emerged from my ipod, operatic but dark in composure, extorting evil dark thoughts from within my mind, why had god given my girlfriend epilepsy? Why the hell her? Why had Andrew developed cancer? I thought of my grandma’s quote, “ bad things happen to good people because God knows that they can persevere through it, bad people would sooner perish under the stress…” the quote made sense but infuriated me more…I was pissed, dark, angry and evil wanting to embrace the heat, wanting the entire valley to light on fire with my fury, I wanted badly to blast away from this hell at 5:00mi/miles and leave nothing behind on the pavement…this was my first runner’s high, though dark in composure, I controlled it and used it as long as possible, instead of running five minute miles I ran a 10 mi/mile and then power walked around a 10:30mi/mile delving further and further into the hotter part of the course.

                 Roughly 8-9 miles out of stovepipe wells, I could tell the hot spots I’d developed weren’t going away and were for sure going to develop into blisters if something wasn’t done soon. I had my crew check them out, already there they were huge quarter size blisters underneath the balls of my feet…the worst possible place to be…because you cannot avoid running on that portion of the foot. While getting them lanced I was eating watermelon and an Ensure to keep fueled. At one point, I think my mom poked through a portion of my skin that wasn’t even the blister and the pain, caused me to bite through the entire watermelon rine and all.

By the top of the pass, my uncle joel had convinced me that at panamint springs (the next pseudo city) there would be a medic on hand who could fix and repair my blisters so that I would feel good as new. As I began running down towns pass, I instructed my crew to meet me only every mile instead of every half a mile, so that I could just cruise down the mountain. Now cruising with sever blisters on a 8% grade isn’t a 6:00mi/mile, its about a 8:30mi/mile + or - :30secs. I was roaring through the downhill, letting all the emotion pour from my soul, this was my dream, this was what I did, my girlfriends condition continually driving me, pushing me deeper and deeper into my high, I embraced it. When running by my crew I let out a large roar, just to let them know I am alive and kicking, with tears almost dripping down my eyes I moved and tore that pass a new one.

When I arrived at the Panamint aid station, like my uncle had promised there was a medic on hand there. However they didn’t have the proper supplies at the time to deal with my blisters…and the nurse told me at the time “the location that the blisters are in, even if we had the tools, would still be persistently painful for the rest of the race to run on”…so in other words I had to just suck it up and bust a David Goggins…”show no weakness…show no weakness…” over and over in my head as I begun the long ascent up Father Crowley

                Roughly two hours into the ascent up Father Crowley my friend Derek was crewing me, when extreme fatigue struck, I was all of sudden tired, unwilling to speak, moving forward but at a very, very slow rate…at this point in the race it was difficult for me even to keep my eyes open. I had decided that now was a good time for a quick recovery nap.

My crew let me sleep on my uncle’s roll-out cot for 45 minutes…that was just enough time for my body to go into some sort of odd sleep and recover slightly…the bad part was however that during that 45 minutes I had a dream that I had finished the race and that it was already over. Then to have to wake up to reality only to realize I am about 10 miles over halfway throughout the race and only about halfway way up the hardest part of the course was nothing short of a nightmare…

At the very pinnacle of the pass, a red ant had crawled onto my ankle and bit me. In that moment it was the best thing ever, having this ant come up and tear into my flesh, causing this burning stabbing sensation in the ankle was fabulous…I had wished several more come and bite me all over…It was just such a relief to be experiencing normal, human pain rather than this ultra-running fatigue.

By mile 107.19 I was now in new territory with every step I took, I cant quite describe this feeling other than its just so amazing and fantastic with each step you take knowing that you’ve pushed your body this far and that with each step it is going further and further than it’s ever gone before.

After having checked my blisters on mile 107 and noting that nothing had gotten better, we put my feet back in my drymax socks and Akos made me swear that from here to the finish I would not sit down again until this thing was over, he said, “It will just be time wasted and harder for you to get up if you sit down now…”

Throughout Lone pine, there was this strong desire to pass my fellow competitors even though I had swore to myself at the beginning of this race that this race wasn’t going to be about competing…it was about finishing and that was it.

In the last stretch of the race, I looked over Owens valley from the portal road and saw in the far far distance a small peak of the Panamint Mtn. range…it was mind blowing to know that 45 miles beyond that was where this journey began..Badwater had been so much more than just a 135 mile race, I challenged myself mentally, extorted powerful emotions from deep within my soul that not only propelled my physically but relieved me emotionally. At the finish line of the race I felt nothing but pure joy pour out of me, I was so happy that I Nickademus Hollon had completed the race at age 19, this had been my short life’s dream and within a couple of steps I will have completed it…Bam…and I ran through the white tape…

Reflecting on what I learned from the race, I would have to say this, Badwater is an event where it doesn’t matter how much you’ve trained before the race, it doesn’t matter if you can run a sub 3-hour marathon or a 4:30 mile, it really comes down to how mentally you are prepared to push yourself, it comes down to extorting and testing your emotions physically to see if what your mind is made up of is tough enough to bring you to the finish line. I understand fully why some people say that this race is 90%mental and 10%physical. Ultra-running always has and always will be that way.

Finally I would like to thank my sponsors Drymax for providing top quality socks for the race, their socks are proven to prevent blisters if used properly, the blisters of which I developed throughout the race where the result of improper foot care prior to the race and having let water seep down into my shoe, nothing to do with sock choice. I would like to thank also the San Diego Running Institute for providing me great running clothes and fueling products to feed me throughout the race, I look forward to representing them in future races. I want to thank Surefire flashlights for financially supporting the race without them this race would not have been possible.  I would like to thank my crew Akos Konya, Carmela Rosas, Tomas Atilles, Derek Holden, Joel Briggs and my mom Marina Parenti for believing in me the entire race and for being such a kick ass crew. Finally I want to thank my girlfriend and her family for always having supported me and a big shout out to any ultra-runner I have met that has ever helped me along my way. Thank you all! And the youth is coming, be prepared for a new wave of ultra-runners, we are training and we are running hard!!

Yours in Sport,

Nickademus  Hollon

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30. March 2009 by admin.

Grand FallsGrand FallsAfter having done the Sedona Marathon back to back with the Lost Dutchman Marathon in early february I had really done a number on my IT band. It wasnt so much the distance, it was that I was doing it at a much faster pace than ‘ultra’ style and thus I blame that for the creation of my injury. It had only really hurt when I went downhill and over my spring break I did nothing really but rest and small runs while wearing a IT band support and now I am feeling fine! After having just attempted to run 30 miles on friday, 25 on saturday and 20 on sunday my knee was able to withstand all of it with no complaints! (Can’t say the same for my quads as they were fried after the 30 miles I did on sunday..I ran it too fast (4:06) and crapped myself out for the rest of the weekend, only pulling off 14 miles on sunday at an extremely slow pace..). However aside from the running it was a fantastic weekend for geology as I was able to go out into the field with my geology class and collect plant fossils and petrified wood on Saturday then on Sunday I went out to Grand Falls (a kinda secret waterfall that is very seasonal 45 mins northeast of Flagstaff. See Picture Below). Then today I was able to pull off a quick and easy 5 miles at a 7min/mile pace, not super fast but it felt refreshing! Later this week I’m going to try to start up that weird resistance training you stereotypically see all the badwater people doing. So if you see me pulling a spare tire around town (flagstaff, AZ) make sure to wave and say hi! ’til next time see you on the trails!

-Nickademus

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11. March 2009 by admin.

All this week I have been reverse temperature training for Badwater.  In fact, just plain old reverse training.  Thought I’d test out my trusty Jeep in the snow, and did pretty well until the ice I was on top of started to thaw, and that’s when I got stuck.  The temp. in Flagstaff has been holding steady at around 18 degrees, so there is my reverse temperature training instead of the sauna that I had been in.  Instead of running, I’ve been working my core, digging out my Jeep out of snow, rocks, and ice for the last 24 hours. I am sore, but at least I have my Jeep back so I can go down to Death Valley in my uncle’s cabin and start training in the heat like I’m supposed to. 

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