Running Hot

One woman's incredible story of ultra-running endurance, heartbreak, and resilience as she attempts to complete Badwater—the world's toughest desert foot race The Badwater Ultramarathon through California's Death Valley is one of the world's toughest races. Lisa Tamati was the first New Zealand woman to compete in the race alongside such legends of the sport as Dean Karnazes and David Goggins. But Lisa's story is so much more than that one race. At the age of 19 she suffered a crippling back injury and was told she should give up running. She took that as a challenge and, with her Austrian boyfriend, went on to run, walk, bike, and paddle her way across thousands of miles of Europe, Scandinavia, and Africa before taking on the ultimate challenge—an unassisted crossing of the Libyan Desert. What happened in that desert would change the course of Lisa's life and instill in her a love of desert running. This is a story of a life lived to the max—a story of challenges, setbacks, heartbreaks, and triumph.