Into the Valley of Death

By GREER McDONALD - The Dominion Post

Lisa Tamati was told she would never run again after breaking her back. But this month she battled for nearly two days in 57 degree heat through a desert for the second time. What possesses a sane person to dodge rattlesnakes and battle hallucinations in the world's toughest endurance race?

Lisa Tamati doesn't walk through the valley of the shadow of death - she runs through Death Valley.

This month the 40-year-old completed her second assault on the Badwater Ultramarathon, dubbed the world's most extreme endurance event in what could be the hottest place on the planet.

Starting at Death Valley in the Nevada desert, where it gets so hot that temperature gauges give up the ghost, Tamati ran the 217-kilometre course non-stop in just over 37 hours, slashing more than an hour off her previous time.

Not bad for an asthmatic who was once told she would never run again after breaking her back.

"My philosophy is life's bad for your body so you may as well rust out than burn out," she says.

Tamati spent most of the endurance race battling against her own body's natural instinct to shut down to protect itself from more torture.

She returned to New Zealand this week and is itching to get out for a run, just 10 days after finishing the endurance event.

"It's been five days since my last run," she says. "That's the longest break I've had in more than 10 years."

For those strong enough to finish the Badwater race, there are no flower bouquets or polite applause just emergency first aid.

Relieved members of your support crew take turns popping the blisters on your feet.

It took an hour to peel the clothes from Tamati's battered body, then her helpers turned on the shower and the torrent of hot water stung like acid as it ran down her chafed and raw frame.

As they tended to her invalid state, shampooing her hair and scrubbing off nearly two days' worth of grime, tears streamed from Tamati's eyes.

Only then, in the shower after she had dragged her unwilling body through the race, did she begin to do what she calls "a reconnaissance" a stock-take of what was missing, injured or broken.

The gruelling course snakes through the hottest place on Earth, from Death Valley in Nevada to Mt Whitney in California. The temperature gauges in the crew vehicle broke when the heat peaked at 57 degrees celsius.

Tamati, nominated for New Zealand sportswoman of the year in 2008, has done it twice.

Back in her home province of Taranaki, she jokes about 15 hours of vomiting during the race and her encounter with a rattlesnake.

Despite being the eighth woman to finish, surpassing her 10th placing achieved in the 2008 Death Valley campaign, Tamati is extremely disappointed. "Actually, you know what, I'm pissed off," she says.

A year of training towards the event, where she hoped to slash five hours off her previous 38-hour 24-minute time, went out the window after energy gels had a bad effect on her. She spent 15 hours collapsing, stumbling and vomiting; hallucinating and battling a body that lurched into a state somewhere between awake and asleep.

"My stomach turned to acid," she says. "I lost all my hydration. The whole night was a battle with my eyes that kept closing. I passed out and quite a few times I fell asleep. The best thing I did was to vomit it all out."

She credits her "wonderful" support crew for her being able to stagger across the finish line in a time of 37 hours, 14 minutes.

"They were there at my side every step of the way. They kept picking me up," Tamati says. "They keep my brain occupied, talking at me the whole time."

The race is intense and scary: "At one stage when I was having all these dramas, I stepped over a rattlesnake. [A support crew member] just grabbed me, and pulled me up so I didn't step on it."

But she says the worst thing above all else is the mind.

"It's always your brain that f...s you up before your body," she says. "It's an internal journey that you go through, like you've got through a life crisis. Your brain never shuts off. It's one of the biggest obstacles."

It was a love affair with an "extreme" man that first lured Tamati into adventure sports. "We spent years biking around the world, tramping, crossing deserts you name it we did it. That's how I got into pushing my limits and doing things to the extreme."

During that time she had plenty of "near misses with death". When aged 21 on a trip to the South Island she fractured two vertebrae when she crashed into a tree while on a flying fox. She was told she would never run again: "And I said, 'Well, bugger that."'

And heartbreak would prove just as painful. Her man abandoned her in the Libyan desert. Tamati, then 26, was walking through the middle of an uncharted zone and carrying a 35kg pack.

But with the use of satellite pictures of the area, enough water for 10 days and support from two others, she made it to the end.

"I made it through but wrecked all my nerves and I had no feeling in my upper body for six months."

A broken heart and a broken-down body was a "double whammy", she recalls. "But I wanted to prove I could do it without him."

To prove the point she selected the Marathon des Sables in Morocco - a 240km run across the Sahara. Runners carry their own backpack but are given water, and doctors and helicopters stand by. It was to become Tamati's first solo run. "I did that and then thought: `Well, bring it on now' ... I was hooked."

Her extreme hobby, which she admits has taken over her life, has taken its toll. Not having children is a big regret. "It's something I wish I had the opportunity to do. It's just one of those things that didn't happen because I was too busy running around.

"There are worse regrets but I try not to look back. Dad wanted me to be an accountant."

Then there's her constant battle with asthma. "I'm a slow runner, not a fast runner," she says. "I've got very small lung capacity so that's made me long-distance."

It all begs the question why does she run? She says she does not have a death wish, and her mortality is something that her parents battle with more than her.

"The positives are that I've seen and been to places that a normal person doesn't get to see. I know my limits, I know what I'm made up of. I know how far I can dig. I know my body really well. The training helps me overcome traumas in other life jobs, relationships ... Having that depth of experience helps get you over and done. It's a pride you have within yourself."

Tamati owns a jewellery store in New Plymouth with her mother, Isobel, who says her "tomboy" daughter was always fighting to keep up with two sporty brothers.

"We brought them up to follow their dreams and said if you want to have a go at it, you have to have a go at it," her mother says. "I can't blame them for how they turned out, it's my fault. Your heart's in your mouth the whole time they're doing something dangerous."

Her daughter once sent her a letter before setting out to cross the Libyan desert, which said: "I love you Mum and if anything happens, I'm doing what I want to do."

The letter arrived the day after Tamati safely finished the event. "She's done lots of scary things, but most of it we heard about afterwards," Mrs Tamati says.

What worries her the most is her daughter's inability to give up: "I worry that she'll get too sick and still make herself go on because she never ever wants to give up."

When Tamati hit the wall during the ultramarathon, her mother gave her a pep talk by phone. "I tried to give her a bit of a boost. I said you just have to be tough ... not that I really wanted to say that."

Tamati's autobiography, Running Hot, is due out next month.

"It's about overcoming adversity, I hope it's an inspiring book. Challenge is not one of my things but guts and determination is what my story's about," she says.

Future plans include conquering the Gobi Desert and a charity run the length of New Zealand. "I definitely will slow down, but I won't stop."

RUN FOR YOUR LIFE

The Badwater Ultramarathon course covers three mountain ranges and must be completed in 60 hours.

This year 86 men and women started the endurance race, but only 75 managed to finish.

Between 1974 and 1986, a steady trickle of thrillseeking runners mounted 70 attempts on the course. Four succeeded.

The first was Al Arnold in 1977 in 84 hours, followed four years later in 1981 by fellow American Jay Birmingham in 75hr 34min.

The official head-to-head race began 10 years after Arnold's pioneer trek, in 1987.

The fastest man to complete the course was Brazilian Valmir Nunes, who crossed the finish line in 2007 at 22hr 51min.

The women's record, held by Colorado schoolteacher Jamie Donaldson, is 26hr 51min in 2008. She also won this year's event in a time of 27hr 20min, crediting her success to the credo: "Nothing is injured. It's just really, really swollen."

The men's winner this year was Brazilian Marcos Farinazzo in 23hr 39min.

The race entry fee is US$795 (NZ$1200).