Half marathon course cutter Ashley Paulson, who served 6 month contamination suspension, wins coveted Badwater 135.

So what’s the deal with the unmarked van 🚐?

That happens even if you have good connectivity. Corners are cut by GPS and the signal is not that accurate.

Try running over a curved bridge in a city and you'll find your GPS position having you floating in space. A GPS device will "prove" you ran through a mountain, ran through a raging river, ran through a building, ran head on into speeding traffic and emerged unscathed, or took a shower in your mom's bedroom, next to her ned, while she was there.

Next to her *bed. I do not if her BF is named Ned.

Are vans required to be "marked"?

I have seen several photos from this year's race - in some, both of the ladies had their watches facing outward, and some others (including finishing) the watches facing inward.

Just an observation, not trying to support either side.

maybe this has been covered already, but in the first few checkpoints of the race, Ashley went out slow compared to the runners who finished ahead of her/around her in the final placings. Then at the end of the race, the winner and 4th place in particular really paid for that fast start with very slow final couple of splits (final split just 2.29 and 2.24 miles per hour respectively). Ashley seems to have paced it better hence the faster final split. Second place finisher has a 3.824mph final split. Ashley 4.29mph.

how about Robert Becker, 77 years old, wearing bib 77, completed the 217km course in 48 hours 17 minutes, exactly twice Ashley's time.

I would be happy just to be still breathing at 77.

there was no attempt at humour. you are very odd.

looking at some of the finishers from this year on strava, a couple of them (garmin-wearers) had low HRs (in her range) during portions of the final climb up Whitney Portal Road. but their paces were also 3 to 5 minutes slower than hers. it seems extraordinary (extraordinarily badass?) that she could run a 3-hour segment up Whitney Portal Road (continuous climb from 3,700 ft to 8,300 ft), barely stopping or walking, and that her HR wouldn't even approach 130BPM or above until the final hour of that climb.

outstanding qs for me:

-what was she actually doing in the 17 minutes between her two garmin recordings?

-did she hitch a ride during any portion of the whitney climb (her gps data is janky, going well off the road, not following the left side of the road closely, unlike the 5 garmin-wearing runners from this year whose gps i looked at)?

-is she taking sus supplements again? how often has she been tested since 2015 when she incurred the usada ban?

Can anyone provide a 10,000-foot overview of the physiology of heartrate during ultra endurance events? I had heard in the past that heartrate sometimes dramatically declines for some individuals after extended extensive physical effort (e.g., ultra running events, ultra cycling races, etc).

That's not true. She was never slower than 4th overall and was in 3rd (where she finished) by the end of the first third of the race.

If you look at GAP pacing (gradient adjusted pace), that's what makes the last two checkpoint splits stand out so much. Going uphill at that gradient burns almost 3 times as many calories per mile. She ran a very uneven pace in that the GAP at the end was significantly faster than earlier in the race.

I know the course, as well as what it's like to have her level of 100-mile fitness and there's just no way. She was basically neck-and-neck with Harvey and Lee at the top of Father Crowley and opened up a 40-50 minute lead by Keeler when they a) weren't fading and b) are both much, much more talented at 100+ than she is? She put the hammer down with 50 miles to go and in her first race past 100, after going too fast too early, she turns in an elite-level split in an insanely difficult stretch after 122 miles?

She's a great athlete, but she's not much more than very good at 100+. I'd expect her to pull away from those two when they're not fading just as much as I'd expect her to pull away from Sara Hall after mile 18 in a marathon if Sara Hall was having a good run. It just didn't happen — she's not capable of it. Everybody who knows knows it, but everybody who knows is also afraid to speak up.

I’m not seeing many of you talking on the threads about the World Championships.

How can you so confidently put a limit to someone's "100 mile fitness" when she had won all the ultra races before badwater 135? How do you know she didn't hold back because she was already winning?

Frivolous comment. People talk about what they want to talk about.