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 Name: Louie Anderson Birthday: October 20, 1966 Occupation: Contractor |
34k run 34 mile bike 34 gym boulder problems (min V2) 34 gym routes (min 5.10) 34 laps in a pool (1.03 miles) 3 shots and 4 beers 3.4 King Pin apple fritters 34 games of 8-ball 34 bullseyes 340 push-ups, pull-ups, sit-ups 34 12oz. Diet Cokes |
As an omen that this wasn't going to be just another challenge, we received this message the day before Louie's birthday.
Steve -
I was able to contact king pin up in Berkeley, and they are fed-exing (4)fritters to me so I can substitute the donut holes for 3.4 fritters.
There's nothing left now but pain and suffering,
- Louie
Here's how the day went, with first hand reporting by Doniel Drazin and photos from Bart
Groendyke, owner of Megalith Mountain Products.
Here is Louie's Challenge Tracker.
It’s funny. I think Louie may have been the most confident of all going into the birthday challenge. About 2 days before the event, I called Steve and said that Louie is feeling that he needs more of a challenge. Steve suggested making the run longer than the original 3.4 miles. Louie on the other hand didn’t lose a beat off his confidence. He was determined to finish with a victory over his first challenge. In many ways he did.
It all started at 3:30 a.m. on Friday morning. Louie turns on the light in his living room and we sit down for a bowl of oatmeal. When the clock strikes 4, Louie cracks open his first diet coke and we get straight to business, with about 100 pushups and sit-ups and about 70 pull-ups. Then we got our shoes on and headed out for a run. We ran out of the canyon where Louie lives and took about one hour and 45 minutes for close to 12 miles. On the way back up hill, Louie’s ankle and knee began acting up. He refused to rest. He would stop for 5 seconds and then run 30 seconds.
Once he got home, there really wasn’t much time for rest and he was on to the next challenge of the bullseyes. Maybe to others this part of the challenge may have seemed difficult, but not for Louie. He cranked them out in about 25 minutes, while interspersing pull-ups. As soon as the bullseyes were done. Louie guzzled a few more diet cokes and we went on the bike ride. We both thought that the bike ride was a great rest activity and the day could only begin to get serious. The entire time, Louie was hoping that the fritters had made it to Rockreation.
When we got to Rockreation. Louie was definitely disappointed when there were no fritters. I think he was scared of the unknown. It was the only mystery to the whole event. It should have been called the Fritter Challenge.
After settling down for a few minutes, we got our shoes and headed to the bouldering cave. Luckily, the bouldering area had been completely redone with classic boulder problems for the next day’s Rockcreation Boulderblast. Louie started off with a few v2-v3’s and by his fifth problem he did a v5. Louie wasn’t even sitting down at all. He would go crank one problem and then the next. I think there were only 2 problems that he had to try 2x other than that, the rest he onsighted. Obviously, he has a little advantage, being a well known hold shaper, but nonetheless after what he had already done in the morning, this didn’t seem hard. (Note to Louie: you need to increase this for next year, maybe 350).
After 17, we headed outside for a celebratory toast of
tequila and a beer. As we looked at the clock, it was 11:30, and there it was. That blue
and white truck that had the mystery package. As Louie opened the package, we all peered
over his shoulder to see the infamous king pin fritters.
| Louie said,
"They don’t look bad at all, they don’t look any different than regular fritters, what’s the big deal?" So there he was, just him and the fritters. He started eating one and said: "They’re pretty good but really sweet. I think there is a ton of butter in these." He stopped after 2/3 of it had been eaten because he was concerned that there might be an effect later on. Louie suggested going in and doing some routes. He was still feeling confident and jumped on a 10d and then a 11a and onsighted them both on toprope. After those routes, he seemed to have an uncomfortable look on his face, aka, the fritter challenge officially began here. |
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He looked like he
needed a break. He sat down on the mats and didn’t look good at all. He kept
saying, "I wonder why I’m feeling like this, maybe it’s the fritters,
but it can’t be. Maybe its the tequila, beer and diet coke mixing." We couldn’t help staring at him, he just looked so uncomfortable. He said, "there just might be something to these fritters." Louie isn’t a person who would let a fritter control him, so he got right up to lead the red 10a that goes out the roof. I told Louie that he should probably rest. He said, "no worries, I’ll work it out of me." He gets up on it and gets about halfway shakes on a hold for a while (he never shakes on routes). And makes it to the last hold after skipping two bolts and he pretty much just let go instead of clipping. He came down and that was it. As he was taking off his harness he said he needed a break, and that up there at the rest, it was like apple pieces were coming up his throat. |
| After about 20
minutes and a few bathroom stops, Louie was slowly back on track. He finished about
17 routes in about 2 and a half hours. Usually doing sets of three and then resting
awhile. Most of the routes were 5.10 but they seemed like he was climbing 12-. During
this time, he was definitely fighting the fritter that was in him. I think he was worried
about eating the rest of the fritters. After the gym, we enthusiastically attempted to run half of the remaining 9 miles at a track. After a necessary stop at Rite Aid for a knee bandage Louie was back in a port-a-potty on the side of a local HS track. We started to run and it seemed like both of us were infused with energy and ready to crank out the 9 miles. By halfway around the track, the pace was decreasing and Louie’s knee and ankle were hurting. He had to stop. We both knew this was going to be the most difficult of the tasks to complete. Louie knew that at this point it barely had been 12 hours since we started the challenge, and he had 22 hours left. Maybe some rest and ice and he could finish the rest in the morning. Louie seemed to be a little discouraged but we knew a change of environment would surely let him forget about it. |
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Recently, Louie had built a huge wall for a friend in a separate building with a swimming pool and Jacuzzi attached to the side of it. This place was perfect for the challenge. It had everything, from a fridge to store the fritters and diet cokes, new boulder problems and routes, and a billiards table. Louie continued to keep up the pace and immediately jumped in the pool for 17 of the 34 laps. The laps went by quickly. He got out and we began playing 8 ball. This was definitely a fun part of the challenge. Any time we got tired from doing pull-ups, we would just play a few games of 8 ball.
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Louie came up with
a great idea for the fritters, he decided that he would cut up the rest of the 2.75
(3.4-.66) into tiny pieces and put them in the fridge. All through the night he would go
eat miniscule pieces of fritters and slam Diet Cokes. The next 8 hours were spent mostly doing pull-ups, pushups, sit-ups, routes and boulder problems. By 1, we had been up for over 20 hours and all he had left was 12 diet cokes, 17 laps in the pool, 75 pull-ups, 80 pushups, 7 routes, 6 games of 8 ball, some fritters and a beer, and the 9 miles of running. We crashed for about 41/2 hours and were up before 6. Louie was still determined to finish every part of the challenge. The running loomed over his head but he was icing and sitting in the Jacuzzi and he still had some confidence. By 8:30, he only had the routes, the swimming, the running, 6 diet cokes and 1 beer. |
It was time to hit the track. We drove over there and we got out of the car and he seemed like he was ready to try and do it. He stretched a little and began running on the track. About 1/3 of a lap underway, he stopped and turned around and walked back. He was hurting and he knew there was no way to finish it. Louie got back and climbed the routes, did some pull-ups and swam the last bit. He seemed a bit saddened but why, he had done 90% of it. By 10am , Louie had finished everything but he still had 2 diet cokes and a beer in his hand. He got in the tub and slammed all three in about 3 minutes. He said, well if I can’t do the running then at least I can finish the challenge in only 30 hours. And he did it, he finished his entire birthday challenge (except 9 miles) in 30 hours.
Happy Birthday Louie, it was a good fight and we can all
anticipate next years challenge to top this one!
