‘This is something else’: Two Las Vegas runners finish Badwater 135

Staring down the massive wall of the Sierra Nevada last week, Edher Ruben Ramirez said he felt small and alone.

He had been running for hours through the desert, seeing only his crew and a handful of other runners. Landmarks and towns that appeared miles ahead seemed tantalizingly close.

“When you can see it, it’s like, ‘Oh, it’s approachable,’” Ramirez said. “But after hours and hours, you’re like, ‘Oh no, this is a very vast place, and I still have to get over two more (mountain) ranges.’ It was overwhelming, to say the least.”

Along with Karla Kent, Ramirez was one of two Las Vegas runners who took on the Mount to Coast Badwater 135 Ultramarathon this year. The race started Monday night in Badwater Basin in Death Valley National Park, 282 feet below sea level, and took runners across one of the most inhospitable places on the planet to the Whitney Portal at 8,300 feet above sea level for a cumulative ascent of 14,600 feet.

This year, this grueling course had to be completed in 45 hours. The top two finishers took substantially less time to finish. Max Jolliffe broke 21 hours for the first time in the race’s history, and Carmen Maria Perez finished second overall in 21 hours and five minutes, setting the women’s course record.

Ramirez finished his first-ever Badwater in 25 hours and 45 minutes, while Kent finished her 14th in 43 hours and 10 minutes.

A 14th finish

Kent, 63, has worked as a dealer at the Bellagio since it opened. She crossed the finish line on Wednesday afternoon. She returned to work Thursday night.

“If it’s so close to the race, you have that euphoria that kind of blocks the other things,” Kent said. “Yeah, I’m tired, but I just finished another Badwater, and that makes you feel pretty good.”

Every year, Kent starts the race with one goal: to cross the finish line. She said she’ll continue to run it until she no longer makes the time cutoff.

The race organizers shortened the time limit from 48 hours to 45 hours this year. Kent completed the course an hour faster than she had in 2025. She said that this shortened limit forced her to pick up the pace.

For Kent, the race went “as smooth as it can.” She took a few 15 minute naps — a couple in her car and one in a cabin the race organizers book at the halfway point in Panamint Springs.

Although she has now run the race every year it has been held since 2012, she said she couldn’t get complacent with her training.

“Once you start thinking that you know what you’re doing and you’re like, ‘It’s just gonna go smoothly,’ without preparing enough, that’s when things happen,” she said. “Every year, I try to treat it with respect.”

After the race, Kent remarked on the scenery. She said the rising moon on the second night was “really nice.” Another highlight, she said, was watching the race leaders, who started in a later wave, run past.

While Kent said she “can’t imagine what it’s like to run that fast,” she joked that her slower pace meant that she had to suffer for twice as long.

“The people that are done 20 hours or 15 hours before me, obviously spend less time in the oven,” she said.

Temperatures on the course this year approached 120 degrees in the afternoon and cooled down to only the 90s overnight. To survive that extended stretch in the heat, Kent said that her crew was “essential” to her success. Kent’s daughter, Kerstin, travels from Hawaii every year to crew for her mom, ensuring that Kent is fed and hydrated.

In October, Kent will run The Mammoth, a 214-mile race through the Eastern Sierra. She said she’ll probably take a few days off, but will get back to running next week.

She hoped that her story can inspire others to push themselves beyond what they think they’re capable of.

“You don’t have to be the perfect athlete,” she said. “You don’t have to be young. You can do a lot more than you think you can do.”

A grueling debut

For Ramirez, the race was unlike anything he had ever experienced.

“I’ve been in Death Valley before, so I thought I knew what I was expecting,” he said. “But no, this is something else.”

Going into the race, he said his goal was to finish in under 24 hours and land on the podium.

That plan changed as he pushed through the heat, battling nausea and muscle aches. Ramirez, 41, said he was proud of this effort.

Ramirez is more of a trail runner, and said he hadn’t fully prepared for Badwater’s miles and miles of asphalt. He said he could understand why it’s considered one of the toughest races on Earth, requiring “complete focus.”

Still, Ramirez said he is an extremely optimistic person and found joy throughout the race. In the last stretch, as he entered Lone Pine, Ramirez said he began catching up to other runners, which he described as a “cool experience.”

The race is a big expense, requiring a $1,595 entry fee. Because of that, Ramirez said it was a once-in-a-lifetime experience, but he’d love to return to crew the race in the future.

“If you live close by, if you can afford it, I definitely understand why people go every year. You feel part of it,” Ramirez said. “Less people have done Badwater than climbed Everest. You feel part of that very cool group.”

When he crossed the finish line, he said he was exhausted and relieved. Like Kent, he said he was incredibly thankful for his crew, who had spent the race either pacing him or in a car leapfrogging a few miles ahead and meeting him with food and water.

Badwater is the newest addition to Ramirez’s ultramarathon resume. In the past couple of years, Ramirez has maintained a packed schedule of some of the sport’s most punishing races.

In May 2025, Ramirez ran the Cocodona 250, an ultramarathon in Arizona, finishing third overall. In September 2025, he ran The Mammoth, again finishing third. He ran a 100-mile race in February, before taking on the Cocodona 250 once again.

In just six weeks, he will travel to Italy for the 330-kilometer Tor des Géants, a brutal turnaround. On Sunday, he plans to begin training again with a run up Griffith Peak in Mount Charleston.

Ramirez acknowledged the difficulty of this feat and said he was pleased with how he has pushed through these races.

“The times that I’m more proud of my effort and my crew is not when I win,” Ramirez said. “It’s when you think you did the best you could. I think that’s when I get really, really satisfied. And right now I’m getting there.”