2026 Badwater 135 Ultramarathon Application

Race Overview

“The World’s Toughest Foot Race”

Covering 135 miles (217km) non-stop from Death Valley to Mt. Whitney, CA, the Badwater® 135 is the most demanding and extreme running race offered anywhere on the planet, as well as the 135-Mile World Championship.

Course Details

• Start Location: Badwater Basin, Death Valley, the lowest elevation in North America at 280’ (85m) below sea level.
• Finish Location: Whitney Portal at 8,300’ (2530m), the trailhead to the Mt. Whitney summit, the highest point in the contiguous United States.
• Elevation Gain: The course covers three mountain ranges for a total of 14,600’ (4450m) of cumulative vertical ascent.
• Elevation Loss: The course features 6,100’ (1859m) of cumulative descent.

Notable Landmarks

• Landmarks: Competitors travel through places or landmarks with names like Mushroom Rock, Furnace Creek, Salt Creek, and Devil’s Cornfield.
• History: The ancient and still current Native American name for “Death Valley” is Tüpippüh. Learn more here and here.

Event Details

AdventureCORPS® will host the 49th anniversary of “the world’s toughest foot race” on Monday-Wednesday, July 27-29, 2026.

• Participants: The Badwater 135 pits up to 100 of the world’s toughest athletes against one another and the elements.
• Time Limit: The time limit is forty-eight hours.
• Finisher's Award: The finisher's award is the coveted Badwater belt buckle, the Holy Grail of endurance sports.

Application Process

The Badwater 135 is, and always has been, an invitational race. Applicants will be considered purely upon their race application and its specific written merits.

• Application Dates: The application submission period begins on January 2 at 1000am PST and ends on January 20 at 500pm PST.
• Announcing Field: The race field will be announced February 1 live on FB.
• Participant Composition: Anticipated to include women and men from twenty or more countries and twenty or more American states, both veterans and rookies.
• Participant Ratio: Approximately 2/3 rookies and 1/3 veterans will be invited.

Required Links

If you are a veteran of this event (or some, but not all, other AdventureCORPS events), please find and input your official AdventureCORPS History via this link: http://dbase.adventurecorps.com/individualHistory.php.

You will also need the link to your UltraSignUp.com personal history and your d-u-v.org history.

Preparation and Submission

Before completing this application, please study the Race Application and Information page. Incomplete race applications will be rejected.

Note: Do not begin this application until you are ready to submit all of the information QUICKLY.

We recommend you study the questions, then go elsewhere to prepare all of the information. Then return and open a NEW version of the application page to submit your information by copying and pasting from elsewhere.

If you leave the application page open for too long, it may "time out" and you will lose everything when you click Submit at the end. Be careful!