Marco Giuoco from Fricktal is taking part in the legendary ultramarathon in California. His preparation for the Badwater 135: He jogs for an hour every morning with his dog.
On the eve of his brain surgery in 2008, Marco Giuoco wrote his will. If he survived the operation, he promised himself that he would one day run the Badwater 135. Giuoco had a brain tumor the size of two eggs and was not even a hobby jogger; he was more at home in martial arts.
A friend had told him about the “hardest race in the world,” as the organizers like to advertise the race. That stuck with Giuoco, who often thought about the comfort zone that life in Switzerland offers. About how we hardly know what it’s like to “have to fight for something substantial.”
On the evening of July 22, Giuoco is now standing at the starting line of the Badwater 135, in Death Valley in California, a few meters below sea level. The runners cover 135 miles (217 km) and climb 4,450 meters in altitude. The time limit for the ordeal is 48 hours. Only 100 of all qualified applicants are invited each year, and the finisher rate over the past decade was 82 percent.
Death Valley is considered the hottest place in the world. It is currently experiencing a heat wave: air temperature around 35 degrees at night, 50 degrees during the day. The route runs along a highway; 30 centimeters above the asphalt, temperatures can reach 70 degrees Celsius.
Marco Giuoco loves the heat. He loves the desert. The combination of extreme physical exertion and inhospitable terrain makes him feel happy. However, the man from Fricktal has never experienced more than 45 degrees in his ultra runs to date. In the weeks before Badwater, he put an exercise bike in the sauna at home and rode for an hour at 80 degrees two or three times a week. Whether this helps the body to adapt better to the heat is debatable. “But if I know when it’s 50 degrees in the desert that I’ve already endured 80, that might help,” says the 59-year-old.
Otherwise, only one thing helps: experience. Anyone who applies for the Badwater has fulfilled a long list of requirements, for example, can prove that they have run enough kilometers in the heat. Giuoco’s palmarès last year was so high; he had already run through deserts in Mauritania, Morocco, Jordan and South Africa. In the year after the brain operation, after recovering, the economist started jogging. Half an hour, then an hour.
“If I have to die now, it’s a good thing”
When he turned 50, his four sons challenged him to run a marathon. That sounded too much like the classic midlife crisis program to Giuoco. He came across the Biel Running Days with their 100-kilometer run. The debut in 2016 went well, but Giuoco wanted more. He had running coach Dan Übersax write him training plans, which he has continued to do to this day. He has never been injured.
Today his training program looks like this: In the morning before work he runs for an hour with his Malinois dog Uma. On Saturday he does a session on the rowing machine indoors, followed by a two to four hour endurance run on Sunday. On average he runs 60 kilometers a week, sometimes 110 kilometers, rarely more.
He has given up on one race, the Engadin Ultra Trail. Mountain running is not his thing; he prefers monotony, a certain flow. In Mauritania, he saw nothing but sand dunes for hours, in all directions. “You are one with the universe,” says Giuoco. “In that moment, you say: If I have to die now, that’s fine. You have made peace with everything.”
In February 2024, he wanted to complete the 330-kilometer version of the Tankwa Crossing in South Africa; he had completed the shorter, 207-kilometer route the year before. But the race was canceled due to a lack of participants. Giuoco decided to make it a solo project. In addition to rain and hail, he also experienced the highest heat of a race to date, at 45 degrees. His hands burned because the sunscreen kept coming off when he held the ice to cool down. His helpers, including his wife, finally cut up a piece of cloth and wrapped it around his hands. For the first time, he was afraid of collapsing.
Technical aids such as cooling vests are not permitted
The heat will also be the biggest challenge at Badwater 135. Technical aids such as cooling vests are not permitted. The runners will cover as large an area of their bodies as possible with towels that have been dipped in ice water to avoid overheating or heat stroke. Giuoco, on the other hand, has to accept dehydration – he cannot absorb as much liquid as he loses. The plan is to drink around 250 milliliters every 20 minutes. With the targeted race duration of 44 hours, that is over 30 liters.
Giuoco’s body always rebels in the first few hours of desert ultra-runs. When the cramps come after 30 or 40 kilometers, he has to vomit. This is a test of his body, asking: “Are you serious about what we’re doing here?” If he keeps moving, he usually feels fine an hour later. During the solo project in South Africa, however, it took 18 hours for his body to reach this point.
Hallucinations are also loyal companions. Bedouins eating something in the bushes by the side of the road. Garden furniture in the desert. Birds attacking the running sticks of a fellow runner.
But sometimes, despite all the shimmering heat, Giuoco sees things very clearly. Like last September during a 100-mile race in Miami, when he decided to take early retirement at the end of 2024. “You come out of every ultra race as a new version of yourself,” says Giuoco, “as if you had had an extra life after the extreme highs and lows of the race.” He is excited to see what questions the Badwater Marathon will have in store for him.
Next year he will run from his hometown of Zeiningen to his hometown of Giardini-Naxos in Sicily. He wants to finish the run “in the beautiful bar on the piazza with a coffee granita with a little cream.”