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.