Until today, I was not even aware that something this crazy would ever be going on in this country.  Check this out, did you hear about this thing called “heat running”?  Apparently every year, in Death Valley, California (there’s my answer), there is an event called the Badwater Ultramarathon.  During this event, a bunch of nut jobs run 135 miles in temperatures that top 120 degrees.

What???  Are you serious?  What could possibly be gained from this?  “Heat running”, in itself, I guess, can be somewhat boring, so it had to be spiced up a bit, so Jonathan Rice, even participant, decided to make it a little more exciting by donning a full Darth Vader costume while running part of the event.

He’s done this for the past few years…going to Death Valley and running one-mile sprints in the Lord Vader garb.  He calls it the "Darth Valley Challenge," and it's actually becoming POPULAR.  Now other runners are showing up dressed as "Star Wars" characters . . . including Princess Leia, R2-D2, Chewbacca, and Yoda.

This year, Rice did it in 129-degree heat, and clocked in at six minutes, thirty-six seconds.  That's about 20 seconds shy of his personal record.  But he was specifically trying to set a world record for the "hottest verified run."

The official temperature when he started his run was 129 degrees.  He's still waiting to hear back from Guinness.

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