Mr Trail Safety Speaks!

The Cruel Jewel 100/50 is a UTMB qualifier. This should be warning enough. Ask Karl Meltzer. If you’re looking for an easy 100, keep moving. You might even have your name announced and a podium to vault. The CJ100/50 is intensely old-school. No timing chips, themed aid stations with costumed volunteers, no noisy sound systems booming Journey or whatever dreck is deemed inspirational. Quiet reigns. Some of you 100s better listen up. Its the South, and its hot. Being Northern Georgia, a few short miles from Tennessee, N Carolina and S Carolina, even up in the mountains its hot. And steamy. Get used to it. But they put this on in mid-May, before it really gets real. There's 26,000' of vert in the hundred, and it will kick your ass. Swiftly and repeatedly. Think endless Mt Wilson repeats out of Chantry Flats. So. I went to CJ for the 50. Pulled the DNF Lever at Mile 8. Disappointed? yes. My right hip was locking up at 7 miles, and crippling dipshit heroics weren't...

Ultrarunning lost a giant today. "Uncle" Hal Winton, co-RD of the Angeles Crest 100 since its 1986 founding, died this morning. He had just completed his 35th Avalon Benefit 50 this past January. RIP. I first met Hal in 1990, at a 35mile fun run around Mt San Jacinto near Idylwild, CA. I was an ultra newbie and he was already a legend in Southern California ultras. Back in those days, he was instantly recognizable with a cross "bigger than the one Christ came down from" [in the words of my ultra mentor Tom Pontac] and wore a t-shirt saying "Winton 4 Jesus". Over the years the cross got smaller, but it was a mighty diamond of no-bullshit faith. One story I heard was that his church was debating getting new carpet. He reportedly stood up and asked why they were thinking of carpet, when there were hungry people out on the street. But if they wanted carpet, then he'd find another church. The carpet idea died. Some bio info Origina...