This year's Badwater Ultramarathon -- 135 miles from the lowest point in Death Valley (and the western hemisphere) to the Whitney Portal -- was July 23-25. My introduction to the race was last year, crewing for Jay Hodde. This year, I crewed for one of his other crew members, Nikki Seger. We lucked out with great weather -- "only" about a high of 115. The race saw its highest finisher rate ever.