Mr Trail Safety Speaks!

"A man alone with his thoughts lives in a crowded house" –Dr Sevende Sandia, obscure Mexican mystic, as quoted in "Westwards The Flow Of Empirical", 1968, Coprolite Press, p 666 The BBT68 is a low-elevation Wasatch, a course that mocks the smugness of "Cali Carpet-Trails" jibes heard periodically.  BBT68 winner Jeff Browning ran it as if it was paved. His 11:36 FKT is refreshing because a disinterested 3rd party was running the timer. Also note that the BBT100 only had 5 finishers, as the cutoffs were mega-serious.  RD's Howard Cohen and Mike Epler threw down a challenge, and many weren't up to it. This is a reminder of what a tough 100 has to offer, in a time when many buckle-chasers drawl "I'm gonna do a hun-doe..."

The numbers find me. I was well and truly back in UltraLandia when halfway up Sandstone Peak at 53mi, I'm taking a desperation nap on a sandy flat spot, under a full moon.  Minutes earlier I’d been lurching from side to side, falling asleep on my feet. I had one more cut-off to meet by 0630, and I gambled I’d be better with a nap than to stagger on and lose an ankle in a chuckhole. SAME AS IT EVER WAS The BBT68 is really a 100 in sheep’s clothing. With over 12,000’ of elevation gain in 68 miles, you won’t go home hungry for vert , and y ou’ll definitely be running your own race. It was a long day-n-night-n-day; showing that my endurance training was basically correct. After the finish I was walking, rather than stumping. My vain regret was that it took 25hrs. But that beats a DNF. I ’ll spend the summer digging a deeper base, and trying for more speed. THE BACKBONE TRAIL The Backbone Trail 68 runs the entire length of the Backbone Trail—from Will Rogers ...

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...

  Lotteries are a reality in 100-mile ultras. RealEndurance. com's Gary Wang summarized that " The sport has grown more than 10x in last 20 years. In 1996, there were 973 runners finished an 100 miler, and there were only 18 100m events." Several images swiped from RealEndurance.com In l ate 2016, Hard Rock 100 was accused by Aaron Denberg; alleging fraud in the raffle system, insider favoritism, and financial hardship by runners who’ve spent $17,000 to get to the starting line. Where he got that $17k number is beyond me. But it seems to fuel a lawsuit animus. Denberg also alleges misconduct in the trail-work process, scree spillage etc. All this is chickenshit compared to what the USFS deals with on a daily basi s; especially in light of a savage in coming Trump Administration and its bla zing l ove for all things logging, mining, fr acking and drilling. Western States has had a lottery since 1981 . The draw is public, and you’re welcome to sit in the Pl...

This too can be yours. Oh, you must feel betrayed by age I'm reading from a later page    You can't hear me at your stage... — Oscar Brown Jr At the 2016 Ray Miller 30k start  today, I was chicked— yesterday. Waves of fine, talented women surged ahead and I was chill with all of it. Last time I'd done a 30k was probably 1987: the qualifier for the 1988 Catalina Marathon. Things were different then.  Snapping off a Pro Log But I was happy—I'd just recovered felony-function in my right arm. Six weeks earlier I'd skidded into an ER with a fractured upper-right humerus. As broken bones go, it was a stage 1 greenstick fracture: no bones sticking out of flesh, no cast or surgery. But it fucked up my life for the next 5 weeks. Hurt like hell, and all the rest. It was a replay of 2014's broken wrist.   More drugs, now. The Self-Aggrandizing Dean Karnazes-grade Race Report Bullshit Here I'd originally signed up for the RM50k. When things...

You're drunk, fuck off. There's been an upsurge in recent years of running/drinking pairings. First Beer-Miles. Now this one Javelina 100 dip-shit has taken it to a hole-new level. Yeah, I wrote "hole". This is not cute, he is not cute, he's a drunken asshole. And he wants you to know it, as this was wild-posted on Facebook this past weekend. Think about it. Eighteen beers at 33 miles, in daytime temps in the high 90s. A race-director's nightmare. Dumbfuck codes out, and guess who gets sued? Three guesses, first two don't count. You're welcome. Don't say you weren't warned of oncoming attractions.

Stay tuned for the U-Decide-When-U-Finish Buckle, new for 2017! The Lottery for the 2017 Angeles Crest 100 kicked off on Monday, Aug 8, 2016. It only had 214 names, so race management put it on hold until Thurs, Aug 11. More names were added.  The lottery software is reputedly LottoWare 404, and is based on the Random Rejection With RD Override Algorithm; conducted at a secure, undisclosed location somewhere in the world.  By contrast, the Western States 100 Lottery is: a manual draw in front of a live audience, Placer HS, weekend after Thanksgiving.  Entry window: A week in November, several months after that year's race Pre-qualifications already in place New for 2017: a wait-list! Adapted from the Hardrock 100, its an idea that may have unforeseen consequences if it survives the harsh passage over the San Gabriel Mountains. Of course, that's way too difficult for RD Ken Hamada to implement.  There will also be 1 nominated entrant from each a...

Pre-race go-go. The Santa Barbara 100 asks a tough question: are you ready to run two nights and a day? This is what happens when the start is 6pm Friday night, concluding 36 hours later at 0600 Sunday morning. The course is a lot tougher than the low-elevation would suggest, as it runs in the east-west Transverse Range  instead of north-south. This means you spend the day running in a complete furnace. There is minimal coverage, very dry and even fewer water opportunities. RD Robert Gilchrist has seemingly overcome a lot of bad PR regarding previously inadequate aid stations, awkward customer relations, and mobile dates. The aid stations I saw at the tail end were well-stocked, volunteers in good morale and attentive to the runner. Pre-race popane lantern ‪Macgyver‬ hack. Needed a locknut, used a ‪Corona‬ bottle cap. Yes, I had time on my hands. The Why I’m Here Part I wasn’t there to do a peripatetic Aid Station QC, but rather to pace Jeanne, who was looking for a re...

The Angeles Crest, looking east from Mt Wilson The Angeles Crest 100 is facing serious threats to its continued existence. Both are man-made.  The AC100 had been given an informal pass though the Pleasant View Ridge Wilderness by the USFS since 2011, because of their over-stressed/underfunded assets. Since 1996 the Race has contributed thousands of hours of trail work. This has been extremely important . Hal Winton, co-RD, has been the lead on all this. He's sat through more endless grinding meetings, then driven to remote areas, bucked chainsaws and deadfalls, and introduced hundreds of runners to trail-work. The 2014 Monument decision merely opened up the whole mess for review. Yes, the 1984 Granite Chief Wilderness decision affected the Western States 100, and they were able to grandfather the race in. Antonio Rossman was part of the legal team that made that happen. Was a phone-call put in to Reagan from his old friend Wendell Robie? Maybe. That would sure...

RD Ken Hamada has made clear that the AC100 is a "man's race". A sufficient number of men and women disagree. The 2016 AC100 is bearing down on us less than 8 weeks out, and there are interesting scenarios building in three areas: procedural, legal, and 2017 entries. The Procedural DIY The Race was recently looking for qualified medical team. This used to be handled by Nick Nudell’s Ultra-Medical Team . Nick had begun to retool his business model to move in a different direction earlier this year .   T he tim ing of Nudell's withdrawal, notification were not known to me at the time of writing. The well-regarded John Emmons stepped up, and that problem has been solved .  When Hamada fired Lambert Timmermans and Jean Ho as Assistant RDs [Oct 2015], he evidently deleted Negative Split Running’s timing service as well. The Race will supposedly be timed from Kenny’s phone w a scanner that will read the chip on the bib.  It's a flying start alrea...

This is the flowchart of your emotions while in the AC100 Vortex. The average AC100 Entrant®™ will have many questions about the Race, in addition to the usual "where the fuck is Wrightwood?" This looted MC Escher artwork has been hacked to describe your emotional state upon entering the AC100 Vortex. Race Day is a slam-dunk bonerific snap after all this. Study this carefully. Then memorize your possible Awards options . Get to the finish line 30 times, and you get The Ring To Rule Over Them All . Now that Jussi Hamaleinen DNF'd in 2015, after 26 or so finishes, there's no danger to Race Mgmt to cough up the money to make one of these for years to come. Meanwhile, Back To Reality The real AC100 FAQ flowchart is below. No, I didn't make this up after eating a weed-brownie. This was created by an engineer that they let work on airplanes. Big ones. That so far have not all fallen out of the sky, thanks to built-in redundancies. Go ahead. Read the orig...

This explains the inexplicable. You think I'm making this up? From the AC100 Racebook. The original AC100 Aw ards diagram didn't do this masterpiece justice. So now its described by a cryptic 3D graphic, and in a fancy frame. If you made the Two Minute Lottery Cutoff, and then make it past Cloudburst on Race day, you'll have 33 hours to ponder this.    AC100 RD Ken Hamada came up with this Awards structure decades ago. Nobody's ever been able to make sense of it. Unless you had a degree in advanced calculus, or had a lot of time left over from solving Mysteries of the Illuminati, chem-trails, Bermuda Triangle, whatever. And no matter who you are, nobody rides for free.

Course profile map with cryptic hand gestures. Wonderfulistic. I was passed by the finest names in SoCal ultras at least once. It helps when you're running different races to get the full impact of major talent. Wh at bites was that twenty years ago I ran th e 50-mile in the same time as I lurched thru the 50k. There was an astonishing number of polite people out on the course, who also included newbies trying on their first trail run ever. It was great seeing them trying and getting it. They got their money’s worth. I met people last year that I completely forgot until this year, when they called me by name. Holy fucking shit—that’s a mind-slip. But they were chill, still dropping me like they owed me money. Race Particulars The course is a perverse T-shaped out-n-back that humps over several ridge lines in northern LA Co. Last year I tried on the 50-mi outing for size, and got pulled at 29 miles, taking the drop-down to a 50k . Yes, it used to be a loop, but that w...

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...