Badwater 267 VR

BADWATER: It’s a frame of mind, a global family of horizon-chasers, and a statement to the world about priorities and preconceived notions of what is possible. Badwater is a way of life! Are you ready to Badwater in 2022?

AdventureCORPS® – the organizers of the iconic worldwide series of Badwater® races – are pleased to announce two BADWATER 267 virtual races in which competitors will virtually and sequentially traverse the routes of all three Badwater® races – the 51-mile Badwater Cape Fear, the 81-mile Badwater Salton Sea, and the 135-mile Badwater 135 – for a total of 267 miles. These are the three events which comprise the legendary Badwater Ultra Cup – and now Badwater 267 VR.

There will be two different Badwater 267 virtual races in 2022: a 31-day New Year’s Kick-Off Challenge from January 1 through January 31 and a 16-day elite race from April 2 through 17 – and you are welcome to join Badwater to attempt one or both of them!

• Badwater 267 VR > a 31-Day Event from January 1 to January 31: Starting on New Year’s Day, you will have 31 days to complete 267 miles on foot and you can do them anywhere you want, including on a treadmill or indoor track. you will log your miles daily at RunSignUp and there is a private Facebook Event page to bring everyone together. Participants will receive a BADWATER 267 VR tech shirt, BADWATER buff, and BADWATER sunglasses. Participants who complete the full 267 miles will also receive a BADWATER 267 VR Medal. See below for all the info.

We hope you will join us for one or both of these exceptional Badwater events in 2022!

Registration for the Badwater 267 VR will open on November 1, 2021.

SELECT CONTENT

Badwater® 267 VR

Thirty-One Day Event Requirements and Perks

Imagine running a Badwater race: Every one of our Badwater races features a challenging route with all its literal and psychological ups and down, a definitie time limit, and the simultaneous competitiveness and camaraderie of the other Badwater runners! Along the way, you encourage and support one another, while pushing yourself and the other competitors to give your best possible performances. The Badwater Family is at the heart of what brings runners to our events and especially what brings them back again and again. All of that will be intrinsic to the Badwater 267 VR experience! Here are the guidelines and the perks which are unique to THIS virtual challenge:

GUIDELINES

• You must complete all of your miles on foot: only walking, hiking, and running are allowed and you may accomplish your miles anywhere, including on a treadmill or indoor track, alone or with others, or even during a “real world” running event if you’ve got one happening near you.

TRACKING YOU / TRACKING THE COMPETITION

Every day that you run you must log your miles, elapsed time, and elevation gain on your RunSignUp page for this event. Please keep up-to-date with this!
We encourage you to track your miles with Strava or similar, but it is not mandatory.
We highly encourage you to join our Badwater 267 VR Facebook Event group, but it is not mandatory.
We encourage you to post pix of your Badwater 267 VR to social media with the hashtag #Badwater267VR

COMMEMORATIVE ITEMS and PERKS

Unless you opt out of receiving them, you will receive e a BADWATER 267 VR tech shirt, BADWATER buff, BADWATER sunglasses, and more. (NOTE: When you register, there will be an option for “no swag” if you do not want to receive any items in the mail.)
Participants who complete the full 267 miles will also receive a BADWATER 267 VR Medal, unless they chose the “no swag” option while registering.
These items will be shipped approximately 45 days after BADWATER 267 VR concludes.

RUNSIGNUP MAP AND LEADER BOARD / GETTING IT DONE

This event will be hosted at RunSignUp.com, the online leaders in tracking virtual events.

Although you will be virtually traversing the Badwater Cape Fear 51-mile race course, Badwater Salton Sea 81-mile race course, and then the 135-mile Badwater 135 race course, the map for this event will show a route from the outskirts of Las Vegas to Badwater Basin to Whitney Portal, a total of 267 miles. (The website only allows one map, not three different maps.) Your visual progress – and that of the other participants – will be shown on that map.

As you progress along the route, you will receive virtual “trophies” to celebrate your progress along the Badwater 267 VR route. Besides cool graphics, this will include links to videos of the various Badwater events, inspiring stories from the wide world of Badwater, and more to encourage you to keep moving ever forward towards your finish line at Whitney Portal.

The RunSignUp site also allows you to generate a custom digital bib and custom digital finisher’s certificate, both suitable for printing and framing. (We will not send actual bibs or certificates in the mail.) We encourage you to use the digital bib as your profile pic on social media during the Badwater 267 VR and we also encourage you to post pix of your Badwater 267 VR to social media with the hashtag #Badwater267VR.

The heart of the event is the serious real world challenge of covering two hundred and sixty-seven miles in just 31 days.

CAN YOU DO IT?

WILL YOU DO IT?

WILL YOU BECOME A BADWATER 267 VR FINISHER?

There is no doubt, a daily average of 8.6 miles will be very tough to keep up, even more so when you take a rest day or “life gets in the way” of completing your miles.

You may run any number of miles on any or all of the 31 days, and you may log more than one separate run per day. You may use any strategy to cover the distance as quickly and efficiently as possible, as long as you only cover your miles on foot and you log your miles on RunSignUp. This is not a traditional ultra – Badwater events are NEVER a traditional ultra – it’s the BADWATER 267 VR – an entirely new and exciting BADWATER competition – and it’s AS REAL AS YOU WANT TO MAKE IT!

Keep in mind: Ultras are “won” one mile at a time: keep focused, so break this overwhelming goal into manageable pieces, and keep moving forward, ever forward towards that finish line at Whitney Portal! Along the way, be sure to enjoy the race routes virtually along with the competition and camaraderies of your fellow members of the Badwater Family!

RESULTS

This event is, effectively, a stage race. The “winners” are the male and female athletes who cover 267 miles with the lowest cumulative time as of the end of January. Blasting through the 267 miles early in January means you will likely be the hare passed by the tortoise, in fact many “tortoises.” Keep that in mind if you are here to compete. This underlines the fact that logging your ELAPSED (not moving) time for each run every day is the only fair way to participate. (And also explains why you must not log any more miles once you reach mile 267.) Choose whatever strategy you want to compete, but we won’t know our winners – and overall standings – until February 1. At that point, the lowest cumulative time wins, just like a stage race.

Cyclists and Swimmers Welcome at Badwater 267 VR!

We’ve had several people ask if there is an option to bike or swim Badwater 267 VR, and the answer is YES! Of course, equating three different sports is a very imperfect “science,” but we did our best to develop seemingly reasonable numbers. Here are the calculations / requirements:

267 Miles Running

31 days = average of 8.612 miles per day

Average Pace of 8 minutes per mile = 1.07 miles per hour = 1:05 spent each day

Average Pace of 10 minutes per mile = 6 miles per hour = 1.43 hours or 1:26 spent each day

Average Pace of 12 minutes per mile = 5 miles per hour = 1.72 hours or 1:43 spent each day

Average Pace of 15 minutes per mile = 4 miles per hour = 2.15 hours of 2:09 spent each day

NOTE: Combined Course Records for Badwater Cape Fear + Badwater Salton Sea + Badwater 135 = 48 Hours or 5.56 miles per hour = 1.55 hours or 1:33 spent each day (This is an average of the men’s and women’s course records.)

1068 Miles Cycling or 4 x 267 (4 miles cycling = 1 mile running)

31 days = average of 34.45 miles per day

Average Pace of 20 MPH = 1.72 hours or 1:43 spent each day

Average Pace of 14 MPH = 2.87 hours or 2:52 spent each day

133.5 Miles Swimming or 1/2 x 267 (1 mile of swimming = 2 miles running)

31 days = average of 4.306 miles per day

Average Pace of 2 MPH = 2.153 hours or 2:09 spent each day

Average Pace of 1.5 MPH = 2.9 hours or 2:54 spent each day

The map of the Badwater 267 VR race route is 267 miles long and the participants need to log their miles each day on the website. Then they see themselves moving along the map. With the above, swimmers would credit themselves twice their swimming distance each day, while cyclists would divide by 4, in order to move along the map consistently so that everyone hits 267 miles at the end.

Welcome aboard, Badwater swimmers, Badwater cyclists, and Badwater multi-sport athletes!

Visit our RunSignUp page to register on or after November 1!

The Official Charities of Badwater 267 VR are Challenged Athletes Foundation and Bald Head Island Conservancy. We encourage you to donate to one or both of these fine organizations while registering for the event. RunSignUp will handle the funds and ensure that they go to their appropriate charity.

You will also have the opportunity – via RunSignUp – to become a fundraiser on behalf of one or both of the charities so that you may tie a charitable effort to your Badwater 267 VR experience.

Both of these organizations do amazing work in the world, but they also do mission-critical things to support all three of our “real world” events and the overall AdventureCORPS / Badwater mission.