Editor’s note, July 16 at 2 p.m.: Due to a recent foot injury, Adam Kimble will not be running the Badwater 135 this July in Death Valley. Instead, he is deferring his entry to 2025.
Adam Kimble had an athletic background growing up in the Chicago suburb of Minooka, Illinois, playing baseball, basketball, and football in high school; he even played baseball at Bradley University. But he had no experience with running as a sport. That all changed a little over a decade ago when he ran his first half marathon.
“Prior to running my first race, I had no running background,” Kimble wrote in an email to Moonshine Ink. “I only ran when sports forced me too!”
Kimble’s journey into ultramarathoning began in 2011 with the Rock ‘n’ Roll Half Marathon in Chicago. By 2014, he had run his first three ultramarathons: the Tyron Farm 50k in Indiana, the Leadville Silver Rush 50 mile in Colorado, and the Yellowstone Teton 100 mile in Wyoming.
“When I ran the 100-miler, it wasn’t a super competitive race,” he said. “But I finished third.”
That race marked a turning point. Kimble’s respectable showing in a field of over 150 runners gave him new confidence, and the ultra-distance format emerged as his new specialty.
What started as an interest and hobby blossomed into a career as he left behind his job as an event director in Chicago to be a professional athlete. “I thought it was going to be a one-and-done situation,” Kimble said. “I felt like that distance was my favorite.”
Five years later, Kimble won Discovery Channel’s reality survival show The Wheel, where six people must survive alone in six extreme ecozones for 60 days. When he emerged from filming, he found out that his wife, Karen, had landed a job as a financial analyst at Northstar, and that they were going to move to Tahoe City from Illinois; they now live in Truckee.
Today, Kimble — 37 and father of two — is a prominent figure in the ultra running community, known for his busy racing schedule and pursuit of course records and fastest known times (FKTs). Organized races typically refer to their best times as course records. An FKT is the best time on an established route (such as the Tahoe Rim Trail) that isn’t an organized race.
Kimble typically trains six days per week on popular local trails like the Tahoe Rim Trail, the Pacific Crest Trail, the Donner Lake Rim Trail, and on the Peavine trails in Reno, among others.
“I love running all over Tahoe,” he said.
In the scorching July heat, Kimble will soon compete in his most demanding race yet: the Badwater 135. Known as “the world’s toughest foot race,” it covers 135 miles starting 283 feet below sea level at Badwater Basin in Death Valley National Park. As the competitors endure extreme summer temperatures, they will race to the 8,300-foot trailhead of Mount Whitney, the highest point in the contiguous United States. Along the way, runners will traverse three mountain ranges and climb over 14,000 feet of total elevation.
Kimble’s ambitions are grander than victory, though. “I really want to win,” he said. “And I also think that if I have the day I’m capable of, I can run a course record as well.”
But the unpredictability of racing conditions is never far from his mind. “When the temperatures are over 100 degrees for the entire race, anything can happen,” he added. “Your goals can go out the window pretty quick.”
Preparing for such a grueling course requires a rigorous training regimen. Kimble incorporates long-distance running, strength training, and runs on pavement during the hottest part of the day in a special nod to Badwater’s temperatures. He also sits in the sauna and does hot yoga to mimic the extreme conditions he’ll face in late July. A balanced diet and ample rest are also crucial aspects of his preparation.
“Traditionally, I’m a trail runner,” he said. “So, it has been a lot more pavement.”
Living in Tahoe provides him with a natural advantage from altitude training.
“Thankfully, I live at 6,000 feet,” he said. “So that always helps.”
Kimble gained entry to the Badwater 135 by winning another race in the series, the Badwater Cape Fear race in 2023, where he set a new course record. That race, held on Bald Head Island in North Carolina, introduced him to the Bald Head Island Conservancy, a nonprofit that facilitates scientific research to benefit coastal communities.
He now supports the organization financially. “I would volunteer if I lived locally, but since I don’t, that’s how I stay involved,” he said.
In addition to his racing achievements, Kimble serves as a race manager for Beyond the Ultimate, an English company that puts on multi-day ultramarathons which he has worked with since 2019.
“Everything I do revolves around running,” he added.
Kimble holds FKTs for the Tahoe Rim Trail from 2020, as well as a combined route in Great Britain. Together with his friend Kris King, Kimble set the FKT for the Three Peaks Challenge, which involves climbing the three highest peaks of Scotland, England, and Wales, often within 24 hours, and the John O’Groats to Land’s End traverse, 874 miles that stretch the length of the island of Great Britain. The duo took 30 days, 8 hours, and 18 minutes to complete the route in 2017.
Locally, Kimble stays connected with the running community through the Donner Party Mountain Runners, who ran a series of events called the Mountain Running Fest over 10 days last month.
Kimble acknowledges the growing popularity of ultra-running. “It’s more popular than it’s ever been, without a doubt,” he said. “But it’s also still a very niche sport.”
Whether he’s racing on dirt or pavement, running in competition over incredible distances or on local and shorter routes, home with his family or coaching, managing, and working with a nonprofit, Kimble is a renaissance runner in the modern world.
“I love the mental battle of it all,” he wrote. “The races become so much about winning the mind game. I love that.”
~ Bill Hatfield is a freelance writer specializing in travel, nature, and outdoor sports. After over 20 years of seasonal jobs in the West, he decided to slow down and now delivers the mail and rides his bike across countries. Follow him on Instagram @bike_rack_on_tour.
