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Harvey Lewis Wins Badwater 135 for the Second Time

The vegan ultrarunner covered 135 miles through Death Valley in 25 hours 50 minutes

Vegan ultrarunner Harvey Lewis has won the Badwater 135 for the second time, covering 135 miles from Death Valley to Whitney Portal in 25 hours 50 minutes 23 seconds. The 45-year-old from Ohio first won the race in 2014, and this was his tenth finish.

Badwater is billed as the world's toughest foot race, and this year's edition lived up to it. Runners set off in waves on Monday night and faced 14,600ft of climbing across three mountain ranges, with the heat index in Death Valley at 117F. Lewis spent most of the race in a three-man battle with Ukraine's Igor Gotsuliak and Russia's Sergey Ionov, and was almost an hour behind Gotsuliak at mile 90. By mile 122 he had turned that into a one-hour lead.

Gotsuliak finished second in 26:35:08 and Ionov third, while Sally McRae won the women's race in 30:48:47.

Lewis has been vegetarian since 1996 and went fully vegan in 2016. He told VegNews that the change has been central to how long he has stayed competitive:

It's the single most important ingredient to my longevity in the sport. My health, energy, and performance as a runner changed dramatically when I became vegetarian [and, more recently, vegan]. I truly believe it's possible that I could win 24-hour races for many years to come.

He said that in 2019, after winning the USA 24-hour title for a third time, and two years on he is still beating the best in the desert. He credits plant-based eating with helping him recover quickly between big races too.

We covered that third 24-hour national title at the time. Over in England, Damian Hall broke a 30-year-old Coast to Coast record in May, and Catra Corbett set the fastest known time on the John Muir Trail at 53. Robbie Balenger ran 3,175 miles across America on a vegan diet.