117: Badwater 135: Vanessa Kline's Journey Into Ultrarunning

<p>In this episode of the Tribe of Runners Podcast, I sit down with Vanessa Kline, a Badwater 135 finisher, race director, pacer, and endurance athlete who has built an incredible life around running.</p><p>Vanessa&#39;s running story didn&#39;t start with ultramarathons. After burning out as a high school runner, she stepped away from the sport for nearly a decade. Eventually, one marathon changed everything and reignited the competitive side of her that she thought was gone.</p><p>That comeback eventually led her to the world of ultrarunning and all the way to Badwater 135, where she finished as a top-10 female.</p><p>But getting through 135 miles in Death Valley is about much more than running. Vanessa and I talk about the behind-the-scenes reality of Badwater 135: crew logistics, pacing, heat management, fueling, sodium, nausea, sleep, and the mental decisions that keep you moving when your body is begging you to stop.</p><p>We also get into the other side of Vanessa&#39;s running life. Through Beast Pacing and Beast Coast Production, she has built a community of pacers and helps put on races ranging from 5Ks to 100-milers and 48-hour events.</p><p>In this episode, we talk about:</p><ul><li>Vanessa&#39;s journey from burned-out high school runner to ultrarunner</li><li>The marathon that brought her back to competitive running</li><li>Making the jump from marathons to ultras and eventually 100 miles</li><li>What makes Badwater 135 so uniquely difficult</li><li>Why Badwater is as much a crew and logistics puzzle as it is a running race</li><li>Heat, hydration, sodium, nausea, and fueling in extreme conditions</li><li>The mental strategies Vanessa used when things got difficult</li><li>How pacing became much more than simply running alongside another athlete</li><li>Building a business and community around pacing</li><li>What it takes to organize and direct races</li><li>Balancing running, parenting, business, and all the other things life throws at you</li><li>Why every ultra can become a mental toolkit for whatever hard thing comes next</li></ul><p><br></p><p>Vanessa&#39;s story is a great reminder that you don&#39;t have to have your entire running future figured out. Sometimes you step away.
Sometimes you start over.
Sometimes you discover that you&#39;re capable of much more than you thought. And sometimes the hardest race you&#39;ve ever done just becomes preparation for the next thing.</p><p><br></p><p>Find Vanessa Kline on IG: @<a href="https://ww