Mr Trail Safety Speaks!

  "Some records are meant to be broken" I just saw this post from the AC100 Official Very Official FB page. The record here is Jim O'Brien's 1989 AC100 GOAT 17:35:48. Nobody's come close. Ever. Ben Hian admitted it was untouchable. Since the 2026 date is finally moved back to its nearly original Oct 6, somebody thinks they have a shot at it. Which begs the question: How? Reining in my usual withering sarcasm, but fully activating my years in the sport: here goes.  THE COURSE First. You’d have to run it on the original course. No cut outs. That means up over Mt [Sonny Boy] Williamson, no PGT [Pretty Good Tunnel] on Highway 2. Then, the original Cooper Cyn. The local MYLFs [Mountain Yellow-Legged Frog, you perv] will watch you thunder by. Again, no Pleasant Valley bypass trail. Up and over to Cloudburst, Glenwood Springs, Sulphur Springs. Mt Hillyer, with the Original Crotchless Gorilla suit. On to Short Cut via Charlton Flats. Down the Edison Road to Newcombs. Up a...

Dead. More or less, whatever! Someone’s gonna die out there on race day, in the heat. The race needs to move back to October. Period. And Kenny will never budge. In Before Times The race was in October. You got your summer heat training. Days of endless high noon all fucking day. When Race Day came, it was delightfully mild. The sun races across the sky. And it got chilly at night. But various fires and other cryptic factors moved the race date from October, to September, now to early fucking August. And course changes like running for miles on blistering blacktop don't help. Here's how we got here:  I magine AC100 Without Baden-Powell   Let's review, from a professional medical viewpoint The single biggest change the race could make in terms of safety is to move the race date back to the late September, dare I say October time frame. So do the math: 300 runners x exposure to heat stroke level temperatures = highly likely outcome. I’d argue that the fire danger is only frac...

The 2023 Notional AC100. The venerable Angeles Crest stumbled into 2023 with a finally redone website.  Congrats! Most of the photos are bright and shiny, and non-synchronous to actual locations. However, it's a considerable improvement. No idea if the signup is as buggy and weird as it was when the Next Day Lotto was unleashed several years ago. Everyone Has A Plan… RACE CANCELLED FOR 2023: SKIP TO THE END The Race has been able to rejoin its point-to-point origins, with continued mods by fire and bio-edict. RIP incinerated Mountain Yellow-Legged Frog [MYLF]. 2022's out-&-back is now an asterisk in the rear-view mirror. The new course map and descriptions are confusing. It was deja vu to 1990 for me all over again, only in color.  Map shows a Chantry pass-thru, while text indicates an out-n-back from Red Box to Newcombs, then up the Kenyon Devore over Mt Wilson. Thence over the top down to Idle Hour, to its eventual conclusion at Loma Alta in Altadena CA. Any Kenyon Devo...

"if you can dream it, you can do it!"       “If you can dream it, you can do it!” said venerable RD For-Life-Ken Hamada from an undisclosed location.  JULY 28 2022/WRIGHTWOOD CA Angeles Crest 100 announced their brand new 36 hour finisher buckles this morning. Public pressure had been building since there were no plans to award buckles for the 33-36hr finishers, except maybe as an NFT. The buckle reflects the new realities of course changes and actuarial probabilities. Servers reportedly crashed on the news.

  “I wouldn’t be in your situation…” Thus said Chuckie, the Cheez-Kutting Cougar. Star of the trail noir classic “Touchez Pas à Ma Merde”, where he uttered the unforgettable “J'ai pris les collations de Dom, baise-le!” Chuckie seriously doesn’t give a fuck about your training run. Or your race.

its Notional Recent AC100 rumors suggest that 2022 33-36hr finishers will not get a buckle.  Behold the 2022 Buckle, which was orignally presented to the 2016  deserving DFL Post-Cutoff Finisher [Unofficial]. This proposed buckle is now the Second Life as the Avatar of the New Out-N-Back Urge Version of the venerable AC100.  Because everybody deserves performance. This may come as a shock to a generation that has gotten used to 50k buckles, and may be an especially tough burn for those lucky enough to have brought *two* shitloads of dimes to the Mt Baden-Powell Toll Booth. Yes, that’s Elder Times Humor. You’ll adjust. I’m sure it’s nothing Grindr can’t fix. However, Mr Trail Safety has a solution. “Idiot child, must I tell you everything?” Sorry, that was a past-life memory working in an ad/design shop on Robertson Blvd in the early 1980s. Because Bobcat Fire. However, there exists a true image of one "Marco", who brought a PNFT [Physical NFT, before they were a thing],...

  The 2022 AC100 is now an out & back due to forest & trail conditions from the 2020 Bobcat Fire.    Fun fact: its uphill from Chantry to Wrightwood. With a few downs interspersed. I learned that in Before Times, from Jimbo Training, ‘93-‘96.   Here are some fun sections: Islip backwards to Vincent Gap: 12mi Inspiration back to the start/finish: 10mi And of course The Fred Flintstone Scenic Stoner Wilderness, between Chilao and Three Points. Also the PGT* that runs under Mt "Sonny Boy" Williamson on Highway 2 back to Islip. So. The Wise Runner will learn the course backwards first. Because the AC course seriously DGAF about you. _________________________________________ *PGT: Pretty Good Tunnel, aka The Jimmy Moorhart Road Cone Section; again from Before Times.  

USFS Bobcat Fire Closure Map   As of October 7, 2020 at 6:00 a.m. Mandatory evacuations for the Bobcat fire burning in the Angeles National Forest have been downgraded to warnings, the U.S. Forest Service said. ... The fire has burned 115,769 acres and was 89% contained as of Tuesday, Oct. 6. [ Mercury News ] The course is charred from Chilao thru Chantry, then up and over Mt Wilson [prevented from incinerating the telescope complex] to Idle Hour, and down to Sierra Madre. In short, a shit ton of burn. Winter will bring mudslides and more downed trees on trail washouts. Those familiar with the course know that in many places the trails are 'notional', ie stapled to the side of the slope in the best of times. Now that the manzanita has burned off, be prepared to welcome The Purple Poodle Dog Bush [ Eriodictyon parryi ], which is a native recovery species. For those not familiar with it, it makes poison oak seem like a bad coffee date. T his is the likely end of the Angeles Cre...

This seems apropos somehow The Tarahumaran/Raramuri runners of northern Mexico have an exalted ultra reputation. Their legendary running skills have cyclically transfixed ultras here in the USA going back to the early nineties. Coming out of deep, remote canyons in Chihuahua, the optics were magnetic. What gets lost in the media pixie dust is that they are desperately poor, sustaining themselves in a harsh landscape, and beset by loggers, narcos, and an indifferent ruling class and government. Starvation is a constant threat, now exacerbated by global warming climate change. Here it comes: “Born To Run” McDougall’s “Born To Run” book is often cited as a primary source on the Raramuri. Last time it was mentioned by an aggrieved SJW who was newly woke on ultras, I nearly shot coffee out my nose. Wikipedia can be like that. But McDougall’s done well with it, bullshitting TED talks in Davos etc. I get it, writing doesn’t pay much, and Davos can be fun.  Rewind! The Raramuri h...

The Legit Solo Runner in its purest form is almost a unicorn. I know several of you—and I respect it. My first two hundreds were pacer-less. I got thru Angeles Crest in '91, and Wasatch '92 without a pacer. I had a crew in '91, no crew in '92. But crews and pacers can be fun, if you're willing to be responsible. More on that here . I hear distant “Chariots of Fire” trumpets.  The Solo Runner heroically running the 100 all by themselves—without an entourage, posse, or circus caravan.  The Solo Runner idea was to encourage or goose signups in the Lottery Age we now live in. It's obvious that this can be gamed by  clever people, with few penalties.  However rules are mysteriously bent when celebrity or a course-record might be involved. Take the doddering AC100 for instance. RD Ken Hamada was trying to get less cars up on Highway 2, because each runner had 14 friends with 2 cars each, creating traffic and confusion. So the answer there is to only let in pe...

Baden-Powell, with Angela Shartel, 2013. The AC100 is asking the public’s support for the race’s survival as a trail race. At stake is the iconic portion from Vincent Gap over Mt Baden-Powell. Which could disappear.  Their email came to my attention: This past December, the San Gabriel Mountains Foothills and Rivers Act was presented by Congresswoman Judy Chu. The legislation adds new wilderness areas the San Gabriel Mountains National Monument, and the effect on the Angeles Crest 100 Mile course would require another road section skipping the pinnacle of the course, Mount Baden-Powell. We need your help to reach out to your congressional representative to help get AC100 trail access and prevent the race from becoming a road race. Then the following text on how to locate your congressperson: Step 1 : https://www.house.gov/representatives/find-your-representative  Step 2 : Contact your Congressperson via their website. Copy and paste the following letter (a...

Last year's AC100 winner gets to wait his turn in the wait list. Just when the AC100 is getting its act together, it reverts to form.  Rene Dorantes  won it in 2018. And here he is, #93 on the wait-list. Really? Rene Dorantes, focused and unstoppable. All the previous years champions went up in flames. The previous year's winner used to be invited/admitted into the next year's race.  This used to be customary and automatic.   Another quaint and delirious custom from a bygone epoch is now buried in a shallow grave. Which begs the question: who's gonna get Bib #1? Again, this used to be worn by the previous year's champion. And the following 9 bibs were worn by other worthies of note. Things like this will be fun to note when they're assigned. Think I'm kidding? See for yourself . Merry Xmas and Happy New Year! UPDATE: Somebody got woke, on or around Jan 2 2019: The revised entrant list Revised Dec 31 1400hrs. Because I'm pissed. ...

There's always an exit. Finally. Proof that the ice-caps are melting, Rapture, whatever.  The Ultra World learned this afternoon that the venerable and creaky AC100 was now on Ultrasignup . This transition finally happened, long years after it had been suggested by parties irreverent and impertinent.  RD Ken Hamada is famously cheap, and that somehow the idea that runners were going to pay a fee to effectively process their entry had gotten through to him.  Assistant RD Jakob Herrmann simultaneously announced his departure, and has left Uncle Kenny's Kabin. Hermann didn't go into great detail, but its safe to surmise that enough was enough.  Jakob had the patience for this kind of glass wall-climbing, but has decided to suffer better elsewhere.  AC100 had already startled long-time observers several months ago by finally getting on board with a wait-list, paired with an entry open date in December, not the day after end ...

The Solo Runner category in the current 100-mile race scene is bullshit, and should die immediately. Its unenforceable, and subject to gaming by the more clever out there.  "Oh hey, I didn't really understand that part of the rules where it said a solo runner was Lonesome Me, with no crew or pacers, gosh..." Somehow these people pass their DMV tests. In theory it supposedly confers a registration advantage at the AC100, and reduces the number of cars out on the course and in aid stations. On the face of it, OK; because this is America, and every runner has 3 friends and 4 extra cars. But is a solo runner theoretically a nobody, with no casual admirers?  At the AC100 this is Panic Level DefCon 2. Runners got a multi-signature contract form, pretty much like buying a house. You swore that you know all the rules, you read the rules, understand the rules. Got that Adventure Pass, Crew Parking Pass? Don't give aid out on the road [because there's 12 miles o...

Regular folks, out for a 100, 2017. What is a solo runner? And who is an out of towner?  Both questions got worked during the recent 2018 AC100. Observers noted that ostensibly solo runner and eventual women's winner Darcy Piceu seemingly had a crew. Then it transpired that RD Ken Hamada had approved a category switch for Ms Piceu several weeks before the race.  Nobody else seemed to know. All the listings had her as SOLO. But no, Kenny is cryptic.  The race book rules are specific, as follows, f ull text: SOLO DIVISION RULES  When accepted into the race in the Solo Division, a runner agrees to follow the above race rules plus an additional set of rules set forth for the separate division. All Solo division runners must sign the Solo Runner Agreement form at race check-in to confirm their knowledge and acceptance of the following rules. Violators will be disqualified  from the race and may be banned from future runnings of the AC100. If you ...