Mr Trail Safety Speaks!

"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.

Buckles in ultras used to be seen mostly in 100-mile races. Occasionally they’d be seen at the 50-mile events. Here in California they were given out in some capacity at the long-gone San Juan Trail 50-Mile and Nugget 50-Mile. In recent years they’ve surfaced at some 50ks and marathons. Now they’ve appeared at the Austin TX 1/2 marathon .  Half-marathon buckle, Austin TX Marathon You’ve gotta be fucking kidding. First, a little history. Finisher b uckles in 100 -milers originated at the Western States 100, as a direct lineage from the Tevis Cup Endurance Ride . Not all 100s had buckles for the post-24 hour to final cut-off finishers. Angeles Crest didn’t offer them to the 24-33hr finishers until 1996, after 1995’s winner Fred Shuffelbarger leaned on RD Ken Hamada, hard. Wasatch had at last count three: sub 24hr, 24- 30 hr, 30 -33hr. I am lucky to have earned the latter two. Because Wasatch is fucking difficult. AWARDS CREEP The buckle was a compelling marker th...

Eventually all AC100 entrants will be in this category The Solo Division was announced with great fanfare after the 2014 AC100 Race. When this concept was introduced, I saw text  suggesting strongly that solo runners would increase each year, and the non-solos would be correspondingly reduced, so that by 2020 it would all be Solo. Of course, then there would be no useless and annoying spectators, right? Boom! Problem solved! Now the runner could compete under Pelican Bay Ultra Club Rules—and not take any aid from family, friends, groupies, or even people he or she owed money to. Doing so would be a lightning DQ. 
The incentive for this that you could sign up an hour earlier than the regular scrum . 
You think I'm shitting you, right? 

in the meantime I'm waiting to see how the AC100 Lottery is going to play out. I predict it will go something like this: it will occur the Tuesday after close of Race 10:35 AM in a remote, unverifiable location somewhere between Wr...

The venerable Angeles Crest 100 has taken historic steps to advance into the front ranks of Legacy 100-mile races in the USA. New buckles were unveiled this morning to showcase the innovations in lottery and entrant management. The Race will go full-Lotto on Aug 8, 2016 "to allow more people to enter the race" according to website spokesbots. AC100 401 K Division Buckle, to honor the estimated 60+ DNS for their heroic sacrifices Race Director Ken Hamada celebrates his 30th year as the RD saying "I've outlasted all of the original race directors, so I must be doing something right. I'll live another thirty years thanks to my diet and sheer determination. If you can dream it, you can do it, just like Kim il-Sung" The current race Awards structure will remain unchanged, despite repeated assaults by forces of reason and logic. "If you are 50, like Jussi was, you'll do well here." AC100 2nd Lottery Sunrise Buckle for those who entered ah...

Screenshot of my original Facebook post, for those who need pictures It was bound to happen. The sport has "matured", if that's a proper term; to the point that sub-24 hr WS100 buckles are now being sold by their recipients on ebay. The first incident I heard of was a dealer selling one several years ago. It was recovered by the Western States 100, and it wasn't cheap. Frankly, I'm startled. Yes, its his to do with as he pleases. He could lose it in a card game for that matter. But still. I was under the remarkably quaint impression you just didn't do this kind of thing. Here's Jared Hazen's Facebook post: the ebay listing: Jared's post: show me the money. I caught a lot of flak for posting this. I made it clear that yes, I understood that he could do what he wanted with it. That seemingly overshot many of my critics.  Whatever.  Twitter was especially fun, as a bunch of aliased weenie-boys hid behind their keyboards...