So I'm sitting home yesterday at about 4 pm and I get a call from a friend that I have biked with--since I had previously expressed interest, would I be up for doing Muddy Buddy with her daughter, who I also know. 1 hour left to register! First I said no, then I decided--why not!
Went to REI, paid the rather stiff entry fee and got our stuff. We ended up in the Female 66-75 age group. As we saw on race day, most of the teams were friends of the same age, so we were a bit of an anomaly (I'm 50, she's 18). We ended up in the last wave--wave 8.
Race was at Stoney Creek Metro Park in suburban Detroit. Nice park that I have been to on many occasions. Temp was reasonable-low humidity and probably 70's for the 8:42 start.
If you're not familiar with the MUddyBuddy, it goes like this....The course was 6-7 miles long, 5 legs. You and your partner alternate bike/run and switch off at 4 checkpoints--you don't wait for them, just do your bit and go. At each checkpoint there is an obstacle to do: Climbing wall, balance beam, crawl under rope nets, slide. Final obstacle--which you do together is the crawl trough the mud pit. So in the end, you both do the whole course, but one of you runs three legs/bikes two and vice versa.
Since Elizabeth is a stronger runner, I suggested she do the run. The course was mostly on trails, so mountain biking, although the beginning and towards the end had sections that you were on the road--you were supposed to stay off the road and ride on the grass, but mostly everyone seemed to ignore that!
My goal for the race was to not finish last and keep up (does anyone really ever have fun while racing--come on, be honest!) I saw Elizabeth pass me once on the second leg, but we both missed seeing one another on the rest, I think. The transitions went fairly well, and we each managed to find where the other had stashed the bike--it wasn't an obvious thing to try to figure out a common place to put the bike since every stop was a little different.
I biked the last leg and got to the end. Then I had to wait a few minutes for Elizabeth to arrive--makes sense since she was running. We both headed to the mud pit, which felt strangely good at that point. Wasn't on my belly, so my shirt was not too messed up.
Crossed the line, grabbed a drink, and went to look for my friends Liz's parents) Eventually found them--they had been out biking. Washed off in the lake, scouted out the sponsors booths (got a Merrell travel coffee mug since I had switched out of my race shoes into my Merrell sandals.)
We finished in 51 minutes--which was good enough for second in our group! (Out of 40 teams whose times were posted). So I guess we did okay considering I had done no real training of any kind since my triathlon.
So overall, a fun race, and one that I'm glad I tried.
Maura
(Before & After Pictures to follow, if my friend emails them to me)