Home > Retiree Spotlight: Arthur Webb
Retiree Spotlight
Arthur Webb
Our spotlight is on Arthur Webb who has been running long distances for over 30 years. In July 2009, Webb , age 67, finished the toughest footrace in the world, the 135-mile Badwater Ultramarthon. He has completed this race 12 times. Webb runs the Badwater race to help motivate, inspire and encourage kids at the Valley of the Moon Children’s Home for abused and abandoned children in Santa Rosa, CA. Webb’s mantra is, as Yoda says in Star Wars, “Do or not do. There is no try.”
Arthur Webb is a retired 30-year U. S. Postal Service employee. He began his postal career as a LSM clerk at the Santa Rosa, CA, processing facility, but with a background in maintenance and electronics, became an Electronic Technician in 1982. Webb worked in the North Bay Processing Facility in Petaluma, CA, from 1986-2001. He returned to Santa Rosa as a maintenance manager until he retired in 2007.
Arthur Webb has been running long distances for over 30 years
Webb has been running long distances for more than 30 years and has covered the marathon distance (26.2 miles) hundreds of times, completed dozens of 50/100 mile endurance races and has finished the toughest footrace in the world, the 135-mile Badwater Ultramarathon, 12 times. The Badwater race starts at the lowest spot in the United States, the Badwater Basin (282 feet below sea level) in Death Valley, and crosses three mountain ranges before finishing on the flanks (8,800 feet) of Mt. Whitney. It usually happens in July when weather conditions are most extreme, with suffocating and punishing temperatures as high as 130-degrees. Webb’s amazing accomplishments were recently featured in Sports Illustrated. Click here to read the article.
Webb’s reason for running the Badwater race is to help motivate, inspire and encourage the kids at the Valley of the Moon Children's Home, a crisis center for abused and abandoned youngsters in Santa Rosa, CA.
Webb says, “My gift to these kids is that it’s not all about winning or medals or money or ribbons, it’s about not quitting. I run dozens of over-the-top extreme adventure races through the most inhospitable environments in the world and have finished every race. Once a commitment is made it is a moral obligation to honor and respect the integrity and dignity of the human spirit by finishing what we start. Period.” People ask me, “Why do you run this race?” Well, maybe it’s the tremendous satisfaction from overcoming all the adversity, maybe it’s the pain, maybe it’s the challenge, maybe it’s the finish line or maybe it’s the buckle. But, to have made such a positive impact in the life of a child, who struggles each day far more than what we will ever encounter in the desert, is the most special reason of all.
Webb has written several stories about his treks across Death Valley. Two of his favorites are “The Grinder” (Click here) and "Romancing the Stone" (Click here).
Arthur Webb, Badwater Finisher, 98, 99, 00, 01, 02, 03*, 04, 05, 06, 07, 08, 09
“There are those people who say they can and those people who say they can’t. They are both right." - Author Unknown
