Javelina Jundred: 100 Miles in Loops, Dressed Up for Halloween

01A joke that got out of hand

It all started with a prank. In 2003, Phoenix runner Geri Kilgariff founded the race. “The idea started out as a joke,” she says on the organizer's website: running the Pemberton Trail with a friend, they found it funny to imagine a 100-mile race in several loops. The “Javelina Hundred” became the “Jundred,” for laughs. She expected about fifty runners, she says. She got 180 entries.

The joke has had time to grow: in 2025, 491 runners finished the 100 miles, according to the organizers.

02One hundred miles, one camp

The principle is simple and a little cruel: every loop starts again from the same spot, the headquarters, nicknamed the “Javelina Jeadquarters.” The 100 miles is 5 loops of about twenty miles in McDowell Mountain Regional Park, near Fountain Hills. On the course, aid stations have names that set the tone, like Jackass Junction.

Start: Saturday at 6 a.m. Cutoff: 30 hours. One more loop, and you pass your own tent again.

03Jalloween

The organizers bill it as the “original costumed 100 mile trail run party” and call the weekend “Jalloween.” A prize rewards the best costume. For the 31 km night run, the instruction fits in one sentence: “Be in costume!” The rules also state that the race is rated R and that full-frontal nudity is not allowed. Everything is covered.

04Bacon, eggs and mermaids

The organizers' recap of the 2016 edition gives an idea. More than 300 tents around camp. A pacer dressed as bacon, his wife as eggs. A Forrest Gump (“Run Forest, Run!”). The “Beer Fairy,” who kept the costume on for all 100 miles. And the Big Bad Wolf in a granny's nightgown, crowned best male costume.

In 2023, Outside magazine ran into Barbies, Taylor Swifts and a few heavy-metal rock stars; the costume contest went to the “Montana Mermaids.” “There's so many runners at this race that you're constantly high-fiving people,” Emily Toia told Cronkite News in 2015.

05Behind the costume, a real 100 miles

Don't be fooled by the glitter. On these almost shadeless trails, “you'll be bone dry in two to three miles in the heat of the day,” Patrick Reagan, then the course record holder, warned Trail Runner in 2022. In 2016, according to the organizers' recap, 574 runners started the 100 miles, in 95 °F (35 °C) heat under a cloudless sky: only 52% made it to the finish. That year Courtney Dauwalter won the 100 km. The current records, as listed by the organizers: 12 hr 10 min 12 sec for Will Murray, 13 hr 31 min 47 sec for Tara Dower.

Jamil Coury, race director since 2008 and founder of Aravaipa Running the following year, told Cronkite News what draws him to run so far: “The draw for me is to see what my limits are and see what I can run.”