Mammoth Run

I learned some valuable lessons during my long run yesterday:

1. Just because it's July, that doesn't mean it's warm.
2. Just because air is clean, that doesn't mean it has oxygen.
3. Just because you're in the mountains, that doesn't mean there will be hills. (oh wait, I guess it does mean that.)

The Mammoth Mountain "ski resort" is having an exceptionally long season and is open through the July 4th weekend. (I put "ski resort" in quotes because I'm a Utah ski snob and I am contractually obligated to say Mammoth Sucks.) We know the conditions are terrible, but this is also my birthday weekend and I always thought it would be cool to ski on my birthday. So me, Stupid Dutch, Smart Dutch's girlfriend and Miles went on a road trip.

I still had to get an 11-mile run in this weekend, so I went out yesterday morning. Our condo is in the village, and it's about 5 miles to the Main Lodge at the "resort". I figured that would be a good run to do because there would be water fountains and bathrooms there at the turn-around. 

I've driven that route dozens of times. And in my mind, there was about a one-mile climb leaving the village, and then it flattened out as you cut over to the lodge. At least that's how it feels when you're driving it. In actuality, it's pretty much a 4-mile climb. To make matters worse, the village is at about 7500 feet elevation and the lodge is 9000 feet; so the air was a whole lot thinner than the near-sea-level runs we often do. And it was a lot chillier than I was expecting. So I was huffing and puffing quite a bit.

Stupid Dutch actually likes Mammoth for some reason and wanted to snowboard every day, so he hit the slopes while I went running. I left the condo before he did, and was thinking it would be really cool if I made it to the lodge running before he got there driving. (I'm petty that way.) But about a half mile from the lodge, he drove past me. Fine. But then once I made it to the parking lot, he was still getting his gear ready so I past him and made it to the slopes first. The best thing about this is that I was able to grab a snowball, start my run back and throw it at him. Pegging your buddy with a snowball while on a run in the mountains? It doesn't get better than that.

Later that afternoon we did a 5-mile hike to Rainbow Falls and Devil's Postpile. It was not a difficult hike, but I was definitely feeling it. And then skiing today was a bit rough on the legs as well. More skiing tomorrow, then back to L.A.