The sport of ultra running – and the world of Badwater – continues getting faster and more impressive every year. It’s truly amazing what the human spirit can do, especially with all the knowledge widely available about how to successfully train for, prepare for, and compete in ultramarathons, especially the most well-known ultra of them all, Badwater 135.

The Badwater 135 had a 60-hour time limit – though 48 was required for the legendary buckle – through 2010. But that last year just seven finished between 48 and 60 hours: 66 earned the Holy Grail of Ultrarunning for going sub-48 while the 7 non-bucklers received medals instead.

Noting that the race – actually, the runners – had sped up considerably during that previous decade, we lowered the cut-off to 48 hours, period. In 2011 – with the bar set higher – 81 earned the buckle!

Now here we are, 15 years further along the path of human evolution and Badwater athletes continue to lead the charge. And so it is that we have raised the bar again, with a new overall cut-off of 45 hours to become an Official Finisher of the Badwater 135 in 2026 and beyond.

But this isn’t just us deciding to raise the bar in a vacuum, it’s also us responding to what our athletes are overwhelmingly already doing: They are getting faster throughout the entire pack!
In recent years nearly all runners have finished in under 46.5 hours. Correspondingly, the competitors are reaching the intermediate time cut-offs at Panamint Springs, Darwin, and Lone Line a few hours ahead of schedule. They are amazing! They don’t just want the buckle, they want to give their absolute ultimate best effort out there on the race course!

And so we salute the entire 38 years of Badwater 135 history and the 1156 unique, incredible human beings who have blazed this path, crossed that finish line, and shown by example what is possible! Hats off and huzzah to all our incredible Badwater 135 finishers!