Badwater Ultra Marathon Comes to Bald Head Island

The BADWATER® ultra running experience comes to the East Coast for the first time when the inaugural BADWATER CAPE FEAR race takes place on Bald Head Island, North Carolina on March 22, 2014. 

With 50km and 51-mile options, the race features a twelve-mile warm-up on the car-free, one-lane-wide roads of Bald Head Island, followed by either 19 or 39 miles of running on the wild and secluded sandy beach between Cape Fear and Fort Fisher. The race is held along the Atlantic Seaboard with spectacular views of the Frying Pan Shoals to the east and wild and undeveloped marshlands to the west. It is a dramatic, invigorating, inspiring setting to experience Cape Fear in all its grandeur!

Currently 58 runners are registered for the inaugural edition and there is room for more adventurous runners to be part of this historic new event--registration is open online.

The Official Charity of BADWATER CAPE FEAR is the Bald Head Island Conservancy, a leader in barrier island conservation, preservation, and education. Race participants will appreciate that BHIC cares for this race route's pristine setting and its role as a sea turtle nesting site, and are encouraged to fundraise for BHIC and support its mission. 

The goal of the race is to raise $10,000 for Bald Head Island Conservancy, which is enough to purchase one of the special electric UTV vehicles which BHIC uses to patrol the beach and care for sea turtle nesting sites, as shown in the attached photograph. 

Local Sponsors include Coastal Urge, which will host a pre-race social at their Bald Head Island location, featuring local brew by Natty Greene's. The finish line feast and the post-race breakfast will be catered by Maritime Market. Special home rental offers on Bald Head Island are available through  Bald Head Island Limited,  Seabreeze Rentals, and Wendy Wilmot Properties. The event is being hosted under special permits from the Village of Bald Head Island and Fort Fisher State Recreation Area.

Badwater Cape Fear is the first leg of the BADWATER ULTRA CUP, which includes Badwater Cape Fear on March 22, the 81-mile Badwater Salton Sea on May 5-6, and then Badwater 135 on July 21-23. Those runners who complete all three full-distance events in the same calendar year will be featured on the Badwater website and their virtues will be extolled throughout the Internet and in future editions of BADWATER Magazine. The male and female runners with the lowest combined times for the three events will be recognized as the 2014 Badwater Ultra Cup champions.

Published on Friday, January 24, 2014