PreMudder

I went up to the race course the day before to check things out and I walked a little bit of the course.




After checking out the course, I felt much better. The signs were funny and over the top, but really looked easier than I thought it would be. And meeting some of the other racers made me feel more secure about how I stacked up against the competition.




And the ankle brace was a very, very good investment.



I headed back to the quaint inn I had reservations at and immediately after checking in headed next door to the Lube Room and grabbed a beer and a burger, a perfect pre-race meal, right?




The Dorrington Hotel was a lovely inn, but when the innkeeper took me upstairs to my room telling me how much I was going to love the decor, I had to wonder who he thought he was talking to. I mean, here I was a single dude coming up to run in an event called the Tough Mudder.



It was a nice room granted.



The embroidered pillow, the old fashioned doll or the quilt rack, how to choose my favorite.




Your my favorite, you'll be my inspiration in the mud pit.




I was still worried about the water sections of the race. 40 F that's cold.





This was the reading the morning of the race. However, the temperature which would be ranging from the mid 50s and the low 70s, which when you're running up hill in a long-sleeve compression shirt with gloves on, actually feels pretty toasty.


I got to the site hours ahead of time, checked in, signed up for the free tattoo and then waited and waited.

Let's go.

Acclimating in Mammoth

High Altitude Conditioning

I knew that of the many elements and obstacles that were going to being involved with the Tough Mudder, the one most people don't think about and the one that can become crucial real fast is getting your body ready to exert effort at a higher elevation than it's used to.

The race was going to summit at over 8000 ft so I headed up to Mammoth Lakes to acclimate.
.
Plus I love Mammoth



I went for a 4 mile jog the morning after getting there, with my new ankle brace. It's so beautiful there I just wanted to keep going and going.

Later on in the day I bicycled around town a bit and did some body-weight exercises later . In the evening, I definitely felt the effects of the altitude and realized even with my restraint, I have over done it. Rest, rest, rest was all that was on the menu for the following day.




Already a bunch of snow on the mountain up at the Main Lodge.




I plan to make a point of getting up into the mountains more.







A shot out the window as the sun comes up on my way back home to Los Angeles.

Next post
TOUGH MUDDER

As the Ankle Turns, or (hopefully not)

A few days before the race, my ankle started feeling a little tender. So I started trying out the various ankle braces and supports.




Protection Level 3--Seemed like a bit much and could definitely be a little hard to run in and according to the instructions might take a few days to "adjust', days I didn't have.









All strapped up and ready to go. I got a blister first run out, two days before the race.

The night before I walked part of the course. It was full of ankle twisting terrain. So the next I smeared New Skin all over my heel, plastered my foot with moleskin and the strapped and tightened up the brace. I then jammed the unwieldy bundle in my shoe and hoped for the best.

I Survived
Uninjured
Unscathed
I Endured

Caging Fire or Stove Bondage or...

One of the many 4oth birthday gifts to me from me was a wood-fired pizza oven. I suppose it is more accurately a wood fire oven that in addition to firing up amazing pizzas can be used to cook loads of other fare. I have mostly just cooked pizzas.

I ordered a kit from Wildwood Ovens, a local company(Eagle Rock) that makes these amazing kits, can't recommend them enough. Anyhow, I had "professional" masons install it, as well as do some other jobs. At the time I was thrilled with their work and professionalism, I mean they even called me when we were in Paris to let me know they weren't going to be by that day. They got the job done on time and on budget and cleaned up after themselves. I was so ready to recommend these guys, except everything is falling apart, including the pizza oven.



The chimney had no structural support. It lasted without incident until my father leaned on it and it cracked. During a game of hide and go seek the chimney and one agile child took a tumble.




Note the banged up top vent. After much ado I was able to locate a wonderful metal worker who made a structure support to keep this tower from tumbling down again.



I made a crazy cardboard template, which he used to a certain extent. He came over a couple of times, good think his shop is just like 15 minutes away.





The end result is both practical and visually appealing.



This chimney's not goin' nowhere. Wait double negative. It's not going anywhere.






Wonderful attention to detail.

The never ending adventure that is home owning.

To Mammoth and Beyond

Skye and I are both having adventures.

I dropped her off to go to a Girl Scout horse riding camp. She's very excited and fortunately they have an indoor arena so the weather won't be an issue. That is certainly not the case for me.

After sending her on her way, I turned north to head up to Mammoth to start acclimating to the elevation and doing as much last minute prep as possible for the Tough Mudder event, I'll be doing on Saturday.

Lone Pine

I stopped off in Lone Pine. Cindy and I worked up there for a few weeks years ago on GI Jane. It's not changed all that much. They've been doing movies there for a long time. In fact, this weekend in the Lone Pine Film Festival.






This little community garden caught my eye.



It's amazing how much the Local Food/Community garden is catching on.




Every little bit helps, more in education and awareness than food production, but the longest journey....



I love the drive up to Mammoth. Fall and winter are definitely on their way. Hopefully it warms up a little this weekend. There are several water obstacles I am not looking forward to doing in sub-freezing temps. I'll have to find my polar bear spirit to cross these Alpine lakes.


The guys over at Tough Mudder were kind enough to give us a preview of what's in store for us




You've got to swim out and then under the barrels.



Then you have to climb out and continue through more obstacles.

I am freezing to death just looking at it.

Better get back to training.

Go with the Glow

And the beat GLOWS on...

It's difficult enough to capture the essence of a festival with photos, but at night with a point and shoot and then trying to be in the moment and.....

Ok enough excuses....




N-04 Celeste Boursier-Mougenot--shaped noise

Bubble, bubble, toil and trouble. This was definitely a crowd favorite. It was fun, true, but maybe it reminded me of when I put the wrong soap in the dishwasher, just last week. Or maybe it was reminiscent of all those foam parties in Ibiza, I was reading about while I was on neighboring island Mallorca.


Follow the light




These big glowing orbs dotted the coast and marked where the various exhibits were.





No 4--Steve Roden--coast lines

In my opinion and that's all it is really, I thought that a lot of the exhibits were interesting concepts that for various reasons missed their mark, at least for me. Part of it was being tired, but a bigger part was hoping and wanting something more, or at least more different.




Often the juxtaposition was more moving than the individual piece. So hat's off to the arranger of that. I mean really hat's off to many, many people who pulled this night off.




N-14-Rafael Lozano-Hemmer--Sandbox

Many of the exhibits relied on audience participation, which of course can have mixed results.
I loved the concept of this and really enjoyed it.





More of the sandbox, hard to know what's going on, also hard to get it all in the frame.


N-16 Hadrian Predock & John Frane--Luminous Passage




A long line, a beautiful installation, lots of work, but rather pedestrian at the end of the day, for me, but still got to appreciate the work.

No Orb, Not on the Menu

A fallen angel, a very tall fallen angel.

If you're what's waiting for me at Heaven's door,
leave the keys under the mat.

Speaking of menu:

Not N-07 Pentti Monkkonen-Barbecue Train

In the Northern parking lot there were a bunch of celebrity food trucks that made up No 07. These are trucks in a parking lot way south of the official exhibit. In my mind they make up the caboose of the train.





N-17 Syyn Labs--DNA Sequencer

Are the brains or controls part of the exhibit? They were certainly a site to behold. We were entering the Rave Zone.




N-13 Robert Chapin, Jessica Cail, Ian Forrest & Team--Muscle Beach Glow

This one definitly took audience participation to new heights



Literally, ........



There were many, many other exhibits and highlights. Too many to get too, too many to shoot. Looking forward Glowing forward.

Stair Climb to the Top

CLIMBING THE TOWER

At 1,108 feet, the tallest building in Los Angeles is the tallest building west of the Mississippi. Climbers will race or walk the 1,500 steps (75 stories) and take an elevator down.* Most participants will climb to the top in 20 to 45 minutes. Elite climbers will race to the top in 13 minutes or less. The course record is 9:28.





This race is tough enough without all the gear the fireman have to lug up. Pretty impressive.




The party hadn't really started when I got there, however by the time I finally got to race, most of the booths had shut down. At least the beer tent was still open. After 75 flights, I figured I deserved it.




Let them eat cake.

The Tower got more beautiful as the evening came upon us.



A View from the Top




I DID IT!!!!

I missed the climb last year but in 2007 and 2008, I ran 17:32 and 17:09 respectively. I was hoping to beat those times but came in at 17:20. It was my first race since tweaking my ankle a few months back, but still.


Here's how I stacked up next to the competition.

Runner Details	Race Results
Bib: 380 Name: Jon Danniells Gender: M Age: 43 Hometown: Los Angeles, CA	Overall: 93 out of 514 Men: 79 out of 267 M 40-49: 18 out of 54 Finish: 17:20 Pace: 57:46 Tag Time: 17:20 Gun Time: 5:05:20

Looking forward to running in Chicago and running up an even taller building, the Sear's, I mean Willis Tower. 110 Stories. Yikes