Muddy Buddy Ride & Run

Team Muddy Mueggs (that's my cousin Halie and me) completed our first Muddy Buddy and we are hooked. It was hands-down the hardest 5.7 miles of my life, with narrow dirt roads, tough hills (including one nicknamed: "the hill of death"), rocky hazards, and 5 obstacles throughout. The race works like this: teams of 2 take off from the start, one running and one biking. After about a mile, the first teammate (the biker) encounters an obstacle. The biker, drops the bike, completes the obstacle and then takes off running. The runner completes the same obstacle, grabs the bike and rides the next leg. So, the teams leapfrog each other, switching off at each obstacle. The final obstacle is a giant mud pit, that you army-crawl through together and then race to the finish line. Costumes are encouraged and each teammate receives 2 Redhook beers at the finish line.

We completed the race in 54:46, which put us in 9th place out of the 60 competitors in our age bracket. Not bad for a couple of rookies on a rickety old bike with bad gears!

All fresh and sparkly at 5am.

Beginning our crawl through the pit.

Emerging from the pit, victorious!

Still excited!

Enjoying our refreshments.

A few funny things that I heard during the race: "Biker on your left! And I'm out of control!" From Halie, while buzzing past me on our bike, "The first partner across the finish line gets to drink her partner's beers!" "If you trip and fall in the woods, but nobody sees it, does it count?" "Only if you fall in the mud. Because then there is evidence." "My partner is a drill sargent... in a tutu."