Eric Tadt had been a cross-country and distance runner at Janesville (Wis.) Parker when he enrolled at the University of Wisconsin in 2005. The quality of runners competing for the Badgers was well beyond his ability, so he became a hobbyist as a distance runner.
And then some.
On July 15, a Monday, Tadt left the starting line for the Badwater 135 at 9:30 p.m. in Death Valley's Badwater Basin. The sun was down, so it was only 115 degrees.
Tadt was 279 feet below sea level and, over the next 38 hours, 41 minutes, 59 seconds he would climb to 8,360 feet and the finish at the portal to Mount Whitney.
There were 95 runners in the field, men and women, and 79 would finish the 135-mile ultramarathon. This included Tadt, officially the 45th overall finisher.
The Badwater 135 lists winners starting in 1987. The race became notorious from the 1999 documentary "Running on the Sun," produced and directed by Mel Stuart.
"When I was training for my first 50-miler in 2008, I came across the documentary," Tadt said. "And someday being able to run Badwater became a goal of mine."
Tadt left Madison with a master's degree in civil engineering in 2011. He was hired by Kimley-Horn and Associates and moved to the Twin Cities. He loves the running areas that he found here.
