Quick Badwater 2026 Recap
Mini Post #1
Just a quick post, in light of Jolliffe and Perez breaking the Badwater 135 Course Records this week.
While I wasn’t able to find historical splits for all of the 2026 checkpoints, I was able to capture most to show Max and Carmen chasing Yoshihiko’s and Ashley’s CR ghosts.
Looks like Max was ahead of course record and finally took the lead between 72 and 90 miles in. On the other hand, Carmen was ahead of 2023 Ashley for the entire race (and so was 2026 Ashley, until her unfortunate bonk; props that she still pulled off #6 overall):
Badwater is always hot, but the 2026 was slightly cooler than prior years (110°+ days are still unbearable). Interestingly, 2026 was warmer than 2019 and 2023, when the men’s and women’s CR were set.
Combined Rally Chart
Seeing as two of the top 10 were from the women’s field, I’m combining the men’s and women’s fields in a single rally chart. Impressively, Max Jolliffe was in 8th place overall into the first checkpoint (!!), then went on to rally and ended up first place with his 39 minute CR. Carmen also had an impressive rally, moving from 5th place at 17 miles in to 2nd place overall at the end of the race. Impressive rallies from Been, Sergey, and Edher as well:
