Driving along Ocean Avenue around 3:30 a.m. on a cool Friday morning in March, most of Santa Monica is perfectly quiet and still. But as the car approaches Colorado Avenue, a low din of voices begins to build. Every block, it grows louder and louder, until suddenly its source becomes clear, illuminated beneath the blazing neon at the entrance to the city’s iconic pier.

Hundreds of people have gathered here for the start of The Speed Project, an annual relay event that attracts brave souls from all over the world. The energy is electric: Team RVs covered with DIY signage line the street, massive flags ripple in the wind, and a drone flies overhead, casting an otherworldly glow on the undulating crowd. As the clock strikes 4 a.m., the teams scatter off in every direction.

Members of Los Angeles’s Koreatown Run Club (KRC) and New York City’s Old Man Run Club (OMRC) have been training for this day for months, joining forces from their respective coasts to take on the grueling 300-plus-mile route through the Mojave Desert to Las Vegas. There are no rules, no support stations, no spectators, no rain delays just the runners, their navigators, their crew, and the open road. And that’s a big part of the appeal.

The team’s Speed Project route took the runners out of Los Angeles, up through the Antelope Valley, past the San Gabriel Mountains, through the Mojave Desert, along the edge of Death Valley National Park, and finally across the finish line in Las Vegas.

Through it all — the rugged landscape, the sleep deprivation, the dehydration, the extreme temperatures, and the pouring rain — Apple Watch Ultra 2 was an essential companion, offering the 12-member team the ability to instantly keep tabs on each others’ locations, take hands-free calls, keep an eye on their pace, provide visibility in the darkness, and view their elevation.

“Apple Watch Ultra 2 was our instant lifeline to each other,” says Cindy Le, the team’s veteran navigator and crew captain — a sentiment echoed by cocaptain Ja Tecson.

“The watch is truly made for the conditions we were going through, especially when we did our trail runs at night,” Tecson adds.

Made from aerospace-grade titanium, Apple Watch Ultra 2 is Apple’s most capable and rugged watch, with the best battery life of any Apple Watch, advanced running metrics, easy-to-read Workout Views, a range of training experiences, and Apple’s brightest display.

The team’s photographers — A.J. Lising, Jeremy Jude Lee, and Ja Tecson — documented their journey in a series of images shot on iPhone 15 Pro Max, and edited in Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop with an analog aesthetic, capturing the emotion of each moment.

Death Valley Road, Baker, California. Shot on iPhone 15 Pro Max by Jeremy Jude Lee; edited in Adobe Lightroom.

For more on the race and more photos, read the full Apple report here.