Horner begins Badwater, currently in fourth place

BADWATER, DEATH VALLEY, Calif. — Hendersonville barbershop owner David Horner, 50, began his second Badwater Ultramarathon on Monday with the elite runners in the 10 a.m. (Pacific Time) time slot, and he’s showing that’s exactly where he belongs.

After two checkpoints, Horner is in fourth place in the 135-mile race and is just a little more than an hour off the blistering pace of race leader Jorge Pacheco of Los Angeles. Pacheco has a time of 5 hours and 32 minutes after the first two checkpoints (a total of 41.9 miles), and Horner has a time of 6 hours, 46 minutes.

Horner was the sixth-fastest runner to reach the first checkpoint at Furnace Creek, a trek of 17.4 miles that is 165 feet below sea level. Horner’s time was 2 hours, 32 minutes, giving him an average speed of 6.87 mph in temperatures soaring above 110 degrees.

The next checkpoint was a grueling 24.5-mile stretch to Stovepipe Wells Village, and Horner completed that in 4 hours, 14 minutes. His next checkpoint at Panamint Springs Resort will be one of the toughest so far. It has an elevation change of close to 5,000 feet.

Horner finished the 2006 Badwater race in 37 hours, 1 minute and 20 seconds and ended up in 15th place out of 85 runners.