Badwater Ultra Marathon

This morning the Badwater Ultra Marathon, arguably one of the worlds hardest ultra marathons.

Source

The Badwater Ultramarathon describes itself as "the world's toughest foot race". It is a 135-mile course starting at 282 feet below sea level in the Badwater Basin, in California's Death Valley, and ending at an elevation of 8360 feet (2548 m) at Whitney Portal, the trailhead to Mount Whitney. It takes place annually in mid-July, when the weather conditions are most extreme and temperatures over 120 °F, even in the shade, are not uncommon. Consequently, very few people—even among ultramarathoners—are capable of finishing this grueling race. Source

While I dream of one day running an ultra marathon (anything longer than 26.2 miles) I don't aspire to run this one. It's an incredible race, I would love to crew someone some day. It would be so amazing to help someone reach that goal. I have no idea how you get involved but one day I will.

People competing in this race will be running over night tonight so send them good thoughts when you tuck yourself in.

Would you do it???

Ironman

I know that I want to do an Ironman sometime in my life. You probably already know that I am signed up to do a half ironman in June and I am really enjoying training for it so far. As I was reaching about mile 12 of my 16.2 mile run on the treadmill last night I really started to think about racing an Ironman this year. I have been thinking about racing Vineman in 2012 but I really feel like I want to push through and complete a full this year.

The race I am considering is the Grand Colombian, it is a unincorporated iron-distance race, meaning it is not owned by ford or braded “Ironman” (but I don’t care I still call it an ironman).

It takes place on September 17th in Washington and should be gorgeous, the website describes it as:

“For 2011, the Grand Columbian Super Triathlon will take place on the 17th of September, and will be bringing back the Ultra Distance (Iron) triathlon as well as adding a Super Triathlon! The course will be both challenging and fantastically rewarding, and will most definitely earn you bragging rights! Additionally, we are really looking forward to utilizing our new race to help the local community for their fundraising project to build a new school for the Grand Coulee Dam School District. You can find out more info on this project at http://gcdnewschool.com/. And we'll be sure to send more information on this project as we move forward.”

Proceeds go to building a school, how could I NOT participate???

So here are some reasons I think I should do it:

• I am on a roll with training
• I feel good so far
• I don’t really want to wait over a year to do an Ironman
  

Reasons to wait:

• This is only my second year doing triathlon and Ihave never ran a marathon or ridden my bike more than 62 miles
• A (very small) part of me wants to make this year about my half ironman and not
  overshadow it with a bigger race
  

So I want your advice should I do a full ironman this year or not?

Either way I do want to complete a 50k this fall, anyone have any they would recommend? I am willing to travel.