A one-mile sprint…
At the hottest time of the day…
On the hottest day of the year…
In the hottest place on Earth…
Dressed as Darth Vader.
Obviously.
The Darth Valley Challenge is very simple. Dress in a Star Wars costume, head to Death Valley on the hottest day of the year, and run a mile as fast as possible!
Darth Vader’s record is 6:13 for the mile… in 2013 it was a world-record June temperature of 129F but he still managed a 6:36 mile!
WHO WOULD DO THIS?
Jon Rice, originally from England and now living in the USA, is the mastermind/bumbling idiot behind the Darth Valley Challenge.
As he told The Washington Post in 2023:
He’s willing to accept the possibility of being hurt in exchange for the joy the project brings to his life — and, he said, to the lives of others. Early in the era of his Darth Valley runs, he noticed people leaning out their car windows and staring with shock and amusement as they passed him on the road.
“I just thought, ‘What a fantastic thing, to bring a tiny little bit of wonder back into someone’s life,’” Rice said. “I loved the idea that people had stories to tell when they got home.”
No joke. Pushing your heart rate this high, in this heat, could kill you. Jon takes safety incredibly seriously, and trains year-round in the sauna to acclimate to the incredible heat. And he only runs fast when he’s crewed.
Our strong advice: do NOT try this stunt in extreme heat. Learn more about Death Valley safety here.
Death Valley is one of the most beautiful, and dangerous, places in America. In summer the pavement can reach 200F. People die every year due to poor preparation and bad luck. Don’t be one of them.
When the ambient temperature is higher than your body’s temperature – 98F – then the body cannot radiate heat and sweat will not evaporate. Instead of cooling, the air around you increases body temperature – quickly resulting in dehydration, heatstroke and eventually death.
Well, yeah. Anyone who does this is probably a little crazy / dumb. If you truly want to try extreme temperature running, please visit Heat Running for some useful ideas on training and safety. It could save your life.
When George Mallory was asked why he planned to climb Mount Everest, he replied simply, “Because it’s there.”
So why does Jon do this? “Because he’s an idiot,” is probably the right answer, but it doesn’t sound so noble.
Asked for his advice to others who might want to take on the challenge, Rice said, simply: “Don’t.”
“This is exceptionally dangerous,” he told Insider. “The human body is not designed to do this.”
From the sure-why-not file comes word of another successful year for the Darth Valley Challenge, a costumed heat-running adventure that’s the brainchild of Colorado resident Jonathan Rice.
It’s exhausting. It’s exhilarating. It’s also, Rice freely admits, incredibly stupid.
“I don’t agree with anybody else doing this,” he said, adding: “I don’t even really agree with me doing this, particularly.”
Jon Rice, the man behind the mask, is helping uphold Death Valley’s reputation as a magnet for the eccentric.
Our annual review of the renegades, rebels, and plain old everyday heroes who make this country great.
The force was with him. It must have been, otherwise he’d be dead.
“Even a mile in that heat is exhausting, more so when you’re recovering from an injury, so I was feeling pretty heavy in the legs and wished I hadn’t had to turn back to face the sun at the halfway point from the car,” Rice told ABC7, adding, “The mask just kept getting hotter.”
It gets as hot as 180 degrees under that iconic black mask.
When asked why he does this, Jonathan replied ‘When you run in the heat, muscles get warm very quickly. There is pleasant sense of euphoria being in the wilderness, beautiful desert, no people around. That is what running is all about.’
It’s a near-annual tradition for Jon Rice to run a mile as fast as he can in California’s Death Valley on the hottest day of the year while wearing a Darth Vader costume. So why? Rice says the thrill of the 128-degree run is worth it. Anyway, let’s hope he remembers to hydrate, because, as you all know, Sith happens.
OH, AND DEATH. CAN'T FORGET ABOUT THE DEATH.
