On the 30th of August, I received the following text from Carl:

Just giving you the heads up, our race may be canceled due to the fires on the mountain.  I’ll keep you posted.

Up until that moment, I hadn’t been paying very much attention to the news and images of the Angles Crest National Forest burning through countless nights.  I knew it was going on, but didn’t connect that what was burning was the same forest that I had filmed Brian and Carl doing trail maintenance on not three months ago.

The next day, Carl sent me this:

The race has officially been canceled.

And moments after:

We both have other 100 mile races solidified.  Mine is on Oct 31 in AZ, BMack is doing HURT in Hawaii, Jan 16.

In less than 24 hours, in my mind, this project had gone from possibly dead, to completely dead, to alive again but in a different form.

While it’s a tragedy on many levels that AC100 had to be canceled this year, I am supremely grateful that this project has not become yet another victim of the fires.

The races Carl mentioned are the Javelina Jundred and the HURT 100.

Taken directly off the JJ website, Carl’s race will look like this:

The Javelina Jundred is comprised of six loops on the Pemberton Trail and a seventh “partial” loop using the Pemberton and Tonto Tank Trails. The race begins in the clockwise direction (Javelina Jeadquarters to Coyote Camp to Jackass Junction) and alternates each loop. The seventh and final loop begins in the clockwise direction and upon reaching Coyote Camp, returns to the finish line on the Tonto Tank Trail. The course has been unchanged since race inception in 2003.

There is a 30-hour time limit at the Jundred, with the racer needing to have completed 6 full loops in 27 1/2 hours.

Carl posted this on his Facebook page the same day he gave me the news:

AC 100 has been canceled, got a spot for Javalina now.  Should be interesting running 100 miles 3 days after getting back from Australia…

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Getting a course description on HURT 100 is a little more difficult.  From the information I’ve been able to find, the race is also a looped course, starting and finishing at the Hawaii Nature Center in the Makiki Valley on the island of Honolulu.  The trail is almost exclusively single track and the altitude ranges from between 300′ and 1800′.  There is a 36 hour limit.

Talking with Brian, he’s told me that he believes HURT to be one of the hardest 100 mile races out there and that it’s been a goal of his to finish.  He’ll have five months to prepare, and it will be interesting to see if he adjusts his training volume to accommodate the new race date.

Since I was scheduled to fly out for the race in a week anyway, I’m going to head out to Newport Beach to spend a few days with Brian and Carl and talk with them about all the changes.  I’ll keep things updated here as I get more information on the new races and what the guys think about them.

Recently received a few pictures from Brian while he was doing some trail runs as part of his training.  With about a month before the race, the heat is on.  Here’s what Brian had to say:

I did a double today. 14 miles. Chowed a bacon cheeseburger and half a banana shake at turn around…

Took a knee’er! Starrett cleaned me up afterwards.

Felt awesome though. No issues other than eating shit and not bringing salt. Need to bring electrolytes! Had to slow a bit due to feeling cramping coming on. Talk soon…

I pulled this off Brian’s Facebook today and just got through reading 20 year old Shane Skowron’s account of running and completing the Vermont 100 Mile Endurance Run, using CF & CFE as his training regime. Haven’t gotten through much of the blog, but it seems to cover his training leading up to the race in great detail.

A few quotes:

Why this way? I chose to train this way to experiment with this radical CFE program, and because it worked well for my goal — to build the physical fitness and mental strength needed to become a Navy SEAL.

Someone who looked over my training program called it a recipe for disaster. That was just the motivation I needed…

I was confident, but at the same time worried about minor things that could stop me from my goal. I probably hadn’t even run 100 miles in the last three months, and I expected to do it in a little over a day. I remembered what Carl from Crossfit Endurance told me, that my training will get me through it, but I just had to wrap my mind around the fact that it’s going to be a really long day.

It’s a fine read and a true accomplishment by this young man. Read the full article here.

Brian talks about the decision he made years ago, to train his clients as he saw fit, not as they saw comfortable.

There’s very little of substance here, but I was running through some tests and thought it was humorous enough to share.

This was shot during the first weekend of production, down in Key West, FL.

A worthy cause and an inspiring story. Good luck to Keith Zeier, who will be running the Key West 100 this weekend. Click through for more information on what you can do to help.

First Giving.

Carl talks about the importance of self-perception in running.  The boys utilize and teach the POSE technique, and as such, form is essential.  The longer you can maintin that form, the more efficient you can be and the longer you can go before your body begins to break down.

Just getting back from a few weeks on the road for CrossFit, a trip that began with a couple days down in Key West with Carl and Brian as they put on a Cert for some guys in the Special Forces. Had a chance to do a little filming at the Boston Marathon before leaving, and want to thank Mel from CrossFit Boston and Darrell from Alamo CrossFit for taking some time out of their weekends to talk with me.

Walking around the city in the days leading up to the marathon, I realized something. Somewhere between getting to know Brian and Carl, researching endurance events and training and prepping for this film, the notion of a 100-mile race started seeming like something less epic than it is. It started seeming normal. Like something people do everyday.

But walking around that weekend, down streets runners would soon parade down, through the endless maze of running shoes and recovery drinks that overwhelmed the senses at the Health and Fitness Expo that lures racers in every year, the reality of it all hit me in the way it hit me the first time I heard Brian talk about 100 mile races.

They’ll be running the approximate distance between Boston and Hartford. Between New York City and Philadelphia. San Diego to Newport Beach.

There’s nothing normal about it.

Yet when you talk to them, when you talk to Brian or Carl or any of those marathoners, it’s almost as if you were the abnormal one. Why wouldn’t you want to run 26.2 miles? 100 miles? Why wouldn’t you want to test the limits of your body against the limits of your mind?

And you start asking yourself the same questions. You start thinking about running a marathon. You mention it to somebody. You hear it out loud and recall the last time mile repeats came up and the two hour nap they required afterwards. You start thinking about running a 5k. You don’t mention it to anybody…yet.

It may not be normal, this desire to challenge legs and lungs and mind, but it’s a beautiful abnormality. It’s the kind of abnormality that makes you think about your own capacity, which in turns opens you to the possibility that it’s greater than you once imagined. And I suppose that’s a helluva first step.

Photo of Jessica Piecuch Thompson of CrossFit Boston, who PR’d Boston with a time of 3:31 using CF + CFE.

Brian speaks in front of a group at a recent CFE Running and Endurance Certification, talking about making the mental and lifestyle shift from LSD to high-intensity training protocols.