Thirteen competitive runners present themselves with the ultimate challenge -- a 135-mile voyage through Death Valley to the peaks of Mount Whitney. Director Mel Stuart and his crew follow these men (two of whom are handicapped runners who've lost limbs to land mines) as they confront blistering heat, violent windstorms, and one of the most grueling courses imaginable in a competition that is more about each runner testing his own physical and psychological limits than the prospect of winning (there is no prize) or physical conditioning (a doctor who helps coordinate the race informs them, "I don't think there's a thing about this that's good for the body"). Running on the Sun: The Badwater 135 received its premier at the 2000 Hollywood Film Festival.