The time has come for Jon Sutherland, local Santa Barbara trailrunner, to toe the starting line of the Angeles Crest 100 mile endurance run. This will be his second attempt at the race after missing a cutoff time at the 2022 edition of the race. Four years later, and many mountain adventures, long days on trail, and a solid summer of trailrunning, Jon is back to finish what he started. The race starts at 5 AM Pacific Standard Time in Loma Alta Park, Altadena, California. Jon will run 100 miles, with 20,000 feet of vertical gain and loss, in the Angeles National Forest. This is Jon’s journey to the AC100 finish line.

In this episode, Jon and his longtime friend, Anders Maagaard, sat down with me at my kitchen table to discuss strategy and ideas going into the race. Anders gave a brief history of his relationship with Jon and his own hobby-turned-profession of photography and filmmaking. Anders has interesting stories of his own to share, including finding ultramarathon running. He made a documentary on Jon’s first attempt at the AC100 in 2022. Watch it here:

Anders also created the documentary of Jon and Will’s 2025 Born to Run 100 mile race. You can watch that on the website page for that podcast, episode one.

I full heartedly believe Jon has what it takes to finish this race. I look forward to witnessing him achieve his goal alongside our great friends. We are all in this together…