Carlos Sá won the Badwater

[Duke of Buckingham]

Portuguese Carlos Alberto Gomes De Sá won the Badwater, considered the world's toughest race.

The Portuguese athlete ran the 217 miles in about 24 hours (I am not sure about the time yet). The race is considered the toughest race in the world.

The race began yesterday in Death Valley, 80 meters below sea level, with temperatures close to fifty degrees and ended on Mount Whitney, at 2500 meters altitude.

It is a single stage race always contested in July, and only enter consecrated athletes. Carlos Sá is currently ultra trail national champion, best European on the marathon of sands in the Sahara Desert and record-breaking on the ascent of the highest America mountain.

Congratulations Carlos I am so happy for you.

http://www.carlos-sa.com/sites/all/files/images/Bad.JPG

[Duke of Buckingham]

Portuguese Carlos Alberto Gomes De Sá won the Badwater, considered the world's toughest race.

The Portuguese athlete ran the 217 miles in about 24 hours (I am not sure about the time yet). The race is considered the toughest race in the world.

The race began yesterday in Death Valley, 80 meters below sea level, with temperatures close to fifty degrees and ended on Mount Whitney, at 2500 meters altitude.

It is a single stage race always contested in July, and only enter consecrated athletes. Carlos Sá is currently ultra trail national champion, best European on the marathon of sands in the Sahara Desert and record-breaking on the ascent of the highest America mountain.

Congratulations Carlos I am so happy for you.

http://www.carlos-sa.com/sites/all/files/images/Bad.JPG

Portuguese runner Carlos Alberto Gomes de Sa has won the 2013 Badwater Ultramarathon, a 135-mile race through Death Valley, Calif., with a time of 24 hours, 38 minutes and 16 seconds, according to the race's official website.

[John P. Myers]

Congratulations to him. I have heard of this race before and i was in Death Valley last year about 2 weeks afterwards. I know this race is very tough and i would never try it :p I work in temps of 50C or hotter during the summer (i'm an industrial chef), but i don't run 217km uphill in a single day while enduring it :D

[Duke of Buckingham]

Congratulations to him. I have heard of this race before and i was in Death Valley last year about 2 weeks afterwards. I know this race is very tough and i would never try it :p I work in temps of 50C or hotter during the summer (i'm an industrial chef), but i don't run 217km uphill in a single day while enduring it :D

Thanks JPM it is a very hard race in deed.

I would like to know why the Badwater organization put in the their website that Carlos Sá is a Portuguese born:confused: and for all other winners they put Mexican, American or any other nationality. It seems to me he is as Portuguese as all the others are from their own countries.

Portugal is that country that have is flag burned in the Bolivia for not letting President Evo Morales land because of Edward Snowden affair.1448


Carlos Sá

Carlos Sá was born in Vilar do Monte, Barcelos, and started his sport life when he was 12 years old by joining athletics.

He began running in “Núcleo Desportivo da Silva”, a club that has achieved the podium in several athletics national championships, and participated, as a federated athlete from Braga, in different athletics track championships and cross-country running events.

As a fan of long-distance track competitions and having the Portuguese Olympic champion Carlos Lopes as his idol, one day he went to see with his teammates running on the half marathon of Vigo, in Spain. He was only 13 years old and got so thrilled by what he was seeing that asked his coach to join the running group for training. He finished his 21 km run in the amazing time of 1h26min, ahead of many other athletes.

In the same year he started working on a textile factory, studying at night to complete compulsory education and training after school. This experience taught him to develop his fighting and adventure spirit

Carlos continued to run and to reach the top places of the classification until he turned 19. Then, he decided to devote his time to MTB and Trekking, choosing the Peneda-Gerês Portuguese National Park as his favorite spot to practice these activities.

In 2003 he took part in a MTB event organized by “Associação Amigos da Montanha”, an association that promotes mountaineering. He got curious about this sport and decided to join the association.

The following year, he did a mountaineering course for beginners, followed by several other related activities, such as climbing and Alpinism courses (this last one organized by the Portuguese alpinist João Garcia) and an expedition to the Pyrenees in August, where reached the summit of Aneto and Monte Perdido, the highest mountains of this range.

In 2005 continued to develop this kind of activities in Portugal and in Spain and joined an expedition leaded by João Garcia to the White Mountain Range, in Peru. Here he climbed Toclaraju (a mountain with 6,033m) and 3 other summits over 5,500m (Ishinca, Pisco and Urus).

2006 was a year marked by different journeys to Madeira Island and to the Alps. Carlos decides to start planning an expedition for 2007 to the 6th highest world mountain - Cho Oyu in the Himalayas at 8,201m above sea level. He felt he need to train harder, so he starts doing mountain races. He managed to stand out in this activity and reaches the top places. However, in 2007, the journey to Cho Oyu needed to be postponed. The athlete changed his plans and went once again to the Alps, where conquered the main peaks of Mont Blanc massif (Mont Blanc, Mont Maudit, Mont Blanc du Tacul and Argentière).

In 2008 Carlos made his debut on ultramarathones, participating in “Ultra Trail da Geira”, an event with 45km. He finished it on the second place, confirming his capabilities as a very resistant athlete. In this year he also took part in “Transtrela”, a mountain marathon: the race began well for him, he managed to lead it for a long time but, unfortunately, due to an error on the path, he lost over 20 minutes. Even though he ended up with a 5th place finish. The Gredos Mountain Range, Sanabria and the Cantabric Range, all in Spain, were other places visited by the athlete in 2008.

The next year, Carlos continues his successful course: wins “Ultra Trail da Geira”, stays in second place on “Ultra Trail da Freita” and participates on “Ultra Trail Cavalls del Vent” in the Pyrenees, representing the Portuguese Federation of Mountaineering and Climbing, where he manages to finish in the 14th position. In 2010, Ultratrails become his priority and Carlos makes his debut on over 100 Km distance races on international events. The results can't be better: he wins the competitions “101 Peregrinos” in Ponferrada, Spain, and “Le Grand Raid des Pyrénées” in France, this last one considered as one of the toughest and most prestigious international events, with 160km and 20,000m of accumulated unevenness. Also takes part in the “Spanish Alpine Circuit”: he gets the first place on the last but one trial, with the victory and a record time in “Penedos do Lobo Marathon” (Galiza) and the second position in “Alpino Madrileño Marathon” (Madrid), where he overcame the record time in more than 15 minutes and registered the second best result ever, only beaten by the european champion in title.

He ran 4 ultramarathones in less of two months: “II Ultra Trail Serra da Freita” (Portugal, 70Km); “II Alpino Madrileño Marathon” (Spain, 42Km); “II Ultra Trail Geira” (Portugal, 53Km); “I 101 Peregrinos” (Spain, 101Km). It's important to note that participating in these kind of events every 15 days without the necessary recovery time is a difficult task, only achieved by the best.

On the 3rd April 2011, Carlos Sá starts his participation in the mythic “Marathon des Sables”, an event considered by many as the toughest in the whole world. Here the athletes must run for 250Km, in six stages, only by themselves, in deep Sahara's desert. Once again, Carlos is in the spotlight by getting the 8th place overall (3rd place among non-african athletes on his debut year).

On the 28th August 2011, takes part for the first time in “Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc”, the major event of all ultramarathons, which surrounds the biggest european mountain - the Mont Blanc (4,810m) - bordering France, Switzerland and Italy. 2400 athletes participated in the trail, having 48 hours maximum to accomplish this huge challenge. Carlos Sá took only 22h48m to finish it, occupying the 5th position overall, side by side with this sport's world elite.