Mud Run

                                       HOUSTON -- Texas authorities are investigating the death of a 30-year-old man whose body was recovered Sunday from Dallas-Fort Worth's Trinity River after he disappeared while competing in an outdoor obstacle race called the “Original Mud Run.” It was still unclear Tuesday how Tony Weathers died, investigators said. Staff at the Tarrant County Medical Examiner's Office conducted Weathers' autopsy Monday, but Fort Worth police were still awaiting toxicology results Tuesday, Sgt. Pedro Criado told the Los Angeles Times.

CAMP PENDLETON - For football fans, it's the Super Bowl. For followers of horse racing, the Kentucky Derby. Baseball? The World Series. But for the weekend athlete who likes to run, jump, slither and dog-paddle through mud, it's the World Famous Mud Run at Camp Pendleton, complete with hills, tire obstacles, river crossings, two 5-foot walls, a slushy tunnel, a slippery hill climb and, near the finish line of the 10K course, a 30-foot mud pit....

After more than six miles of running and crawling through chest-deep ponds of mud, about 1,200 dirty Marines and civilians scrambled across the finish line in the sixth annual Volkslauf (people's run) at the Tustin Marine Corps base Friday. All proceeds from the $20 registration fee for entrance in the annual mud run are donated to the Orangewood shelter for abused and battered children.

Whose stupid idea was this? Stupid mine. In another outbreak of arrested development, I ran a five-kilometer "mud run" the other day, down in toasty Temecula, the kind of place where the wiper blades melt right into your windshield. This was one of those days. By my 9 a.m. race time, it had to be pushing 90. This is my first mud run, and what I immediately like is that as soon as you get a little warm, the course takes a turn and you're splashing across a pond, or bellying through some glop.

They were all clean at the starting line. More than 450 people turned out Saturday for the Los Angeles County Sheriff Department SWAT team's first-ever Mud Run. Every one of them needed a shower by the time the running was done. Held at the Jack Bones Equestrian Center at the Pitchess Detention camp in Saugus, the event provided an opportunity for the public to meet, and get dirty with, SWAT and other law enforcement officers. "Most of the community sees us in emergency stiuations," said Sgt.

It's so hard to know how to dress for the mud. Several weeks before Sept. 11, a friend had invited me to join him in the 10th annual fall Armed Services YMCA "mud run" at Camp Pendleton and I had agreed without hesitation. I'd been looking for a race as an incentive to focus a running regimen that had become rather lax. And running on muddy trails for 10 kilometers with a few river crossings along the way sounded different enough from the run-of-the-mill road race to be enticing.

There are muddy events for everyone - from 5K to 12 miles, timed and untimed, and somewhat difficult to super difficult. All are very, very dirty. Some of the most popular series: Tough Mudder: 36 races a year, 10 to 12 miles long. Untimed, team-focused events founded by Will Dean, former counter-terrorism agent for British Special Forces. Upcoming California events: July 7-8, Snow Valley Mountain Resort at Running Springs; Sept. 22-23, Truckee; Sept 29-30, Patterson. http://www.toughmudder.com.

Civilians will have a chance to race with U.S. Marines at Saturday's third annual Camp Pendleton Mud Run, a 10K course featuring slimy earthen pits, military training obstacles and rugged terrain. Registration begins at 7:15 a.m., with the race beginning at 8:30 a.m. at Lake O'Neill on Camp Pendleton. The entry fee is $20. Last year's event drew more than 1,200 runners. Information: (619) 725-6836.

Her lips were blue. Her teeth were chattering. Her legs had become dysfunctional logs that could barely walk, much less run. For four hours on a sunless Arizona day in January, with 30-degree windchill over 121/2 miles of steep trails, 28-year-old Keri Dionizio of Fullerton was covered in mud, soaked to the bone and freezing. She had jumped with three teammates off a 30-foot plank into a muddy pond. She'd crawled on hands and knees through water-filled tunnels, scaled 12-foot wooden walls and 40-foot nets, carried a giant log over her shoulder for 100 yards and plunged into a pool of ice water, fighting through 3 feet of giant ice cubes to reach oxygen.

The thrill of victory. The agony of defeat. The love of mud? About 1,500 civilians and military personnel competed Friday in the 15th annual Volkslauf Mud Run at the Tustin Marine Corps Helicopter Air Station, where participants tackled the mud-laden obstacle course filled with barriers such as the Rambo Death Ditch. "We're just here to have fun and finish together," said first-time competitor Steven Hodge, 28, of Los Angeles.

                                       HOUSTON -- Texas authorities are investigating the death of a 30-year-old man whose body was recovered Sunday from Dallas-Fort Worth's Trinity River after he disappeared while competing in an outdoor obstacle race called the “Original Mud Run.” It was still unclear Tuesday how Tony Weathers died, investigators said. Staff at the Tarrant County Medical Examiner's Office conducted Weathers' autopsy Monday, but Fort Worth police were still awaiting toxicology results Tuesday, Sgt. Pedro Criado told the Los Angeles Times.

There are muddy events for everyone - from 5K to 12 miles, timed and untimed, and somewhat difficult to super difficult. All are very, very dirty. Some of the most popular series: Tough Mudder: 36 races a year, 10 to 12 miles long. Untimed, team-focused events founded by Will Dean, former counter-terrorism agent for British Special Forces. Upcoming California events: July 7-8, Snow Valley Mountain Resort at Running Springs; Sept. 22-23, Truckee; Sept 29-30, Patterson. http://www.toughmudder.com.

Her lips were blue. Her teeth were chattering. Her legs had become dysfunctional logs that could barely walk, much less run. For four hours on a sunless Arizona day in January, with 30-degree windchill over 121/2 miles of steep trails, 28-year-old Keri Dionizio of Fullerton was covered in mud, soaked to the bone and freezing. She had jumped with three teammates off a 30-foot plank into a muddy pond. She'd crawled on hands and knees through water-filled tunnels, scaled 12-foot wooden walls and 40-foot nets, carried a giant log over her shoulder for 100 yards and plunged into a pool of ice water, fighting through 3 feet of giant ice cubes to reach oxygen.

On terrain normally reserved for the training of young combatants, more than 4,500 civilians of various ages, body types and costumes ran, walked, dog-paddled and slithered Saturday along a 10K course under a deceptively cloudy sky. Southern California is chockablock with weekend running events, but the annual World Famous Mud Run here offers unique incentives: bragging rights for having completed a Marine obstacle course and the primordial joy...

It's so hard to know how to dress for the mud. Several weeks before Sept. 11, a friend had invited me to join him in the 10th annual fall Armed Services YMCA "mud run" at Camp Pendleton and I had agreed without hesitation. I'd been looking for a race as an incentive to focus a running regimen that had become rather lax. And running on muddy trails for 10 kilometers with a few river crossings along the way sounded different enough from the run-of-the-mill road race to be enticing.

The thrill of victory. The agony of defeat. The love of mud? About 1,500 civilians and military personnel competed Friday in the 15th annual Volkslauf Mud Run at the Tustin Marine Corps Helicopter Air Station, where participants tackled the mud-laden obstacle course filled with barriers such as the Rambo Death Ditch. "We're just here to have fun and finish together," said first-time competitor Steven Hodge, 28, of Los Angeles.

The race promised mud pits, tire obstacles, 5-foot walls--and 10 grueling kilometers of hills and river crossings in between. Who would answer such a call to arms and legs? Try about 1,000 gung-ho U.S. Marines. Throw in about 900 civilians. And just for good measure, toss in a lone reporter, just your average muckraker snooping around where others fear to tread. It was the third annual Camp Pendleton Mud Run--a dirty job that nobody had to do, but did.

Scores of Marines arrived at the Marine Corps Helicopter Air Station here Friday morning knowing two things: To win the 10-kilometer race ahead of them they had to make it through the "Rambo Death Ditch" and they had to beat the Navy Seals. A little less than an hour after the opening cannon blast, the first group of Marines stormed across the finish line of the 10th annual "Volkslauf," having mastered the mud ditch and various other obstacles strewn along the course.

They were all clean at the starting line. More than 450 people turned out Saturday for the Los Angeles County Sheriff Department SWAT team's first-ever Mud Run. Every one of them needed a shower by the time the running was done. Held at the Jack Bones Equestrian Center at the Pitchess Detention camp in Saugus, the event provided an opportunity for the public to meet, and get dirty with, SWAT and other law enforcement officers. "Most of the community sees us in emergency stiuations," said Sgt.

The race promised mud pits, tire obstacles, 5-foot walls--and 10 grueling kilometers of hills and river crossings in between. Who would answer such a call to arms and legs? Try about 1,000 gung-ho U.S. Marines. Throw in about 900 civilians. And just for good measure, toss in a lone reporter, just your average muckraker snooping around where others fear to tread. It was the third annual Camp Pendleton Mud Run--a dirty job that nobody had to do, but did.