Race Report: Muddy Buddy Orlando 2010

I did Muddy Buddy with Jason this morning, and it was a lot of fun. Our team name was Alice in Muddyland, so I dressed up as Alice (or my take on what she'd look like as a runner), and Jason dressed up as the rabbit. Doesn't he look amazing? We were impressed at how many awesome costumes there were. I think being hosted at Disney brings out the creativity in people. We even found Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum while we waited for the costume contest to start. Unfortunately, in the midst of excitement and nervousness, I neglected to take more photos so I'll post more when the official ones are available.

After the costume contest, we quickly ran to the car to shed some of the accessories (wig, ears, nose, jacket), listened to the pre-race meeting, then lined up to wait for wave #7 to start, which took at least 30 minutes. Since I have very little experience riding off-road, I started the race running so I would run 3 legs and only bike 2. I did not wear my Garmin, so I have no idea how fast I was running but I was working hard. My goal was to run the whole time, and I did that. Since Jason is faster than me, he got a little break at the obstacle courses while he waited for me to arrive with the bike, but I had no such luck. I was moving the entire time. Every time I got to an obstacle, I was glad to get a breather and riding the bike was a nice change of pace. For a moment, I wished I was riding more than running, but when I ran I was glad I was not riding through some of that terrain.

The Course:

• Leg 1: Ran 1.4 miles, climbed a small rock wall, then climbed down a cargo net on the other side. The grips were pretty small, but the wall wasn't too big and I used the beam on the edge to help me up.
• Leg 2: Biked 1.23 miles, spotted Jason and handed him the bike, then ran to the obstacle. I climbed a 25 ft inflatable wall with a cargo net, then slid down the inflatable slide on the other side. Grabbed a sip of water and started running again.
• Leg 3: Ran 1.12 miles, then walked over a short balance beam. This was not as hard as I thought. Maybe I was not running fast enough because my legs did not feel as wobbly as I expected. This leg of the course had a mini mud pit and I was really glad I was running instead of biking and did not have to carry my bike over that.
• Leg 4: Bike 1.42 miles, handed Jason the bike and asked were the obstacle was. It was a lame crawl under a net a short distance. I wish they had substituted this with running over some tires instead, but I guess it was a nice breather before the final push to the end.
• Leg 5: Ran to the buddy meet up area, including some stairs towards the end where I found Jason. We crawled across the mud pit together, then ran hand in hand to the finish line. This last leg was a bit tough, mainly because I was so tired, but we were running on the side of the road at an incline. My foot felt really funny running lopsided like that.

We're still waiting for official results, but I wore a cheap watch to get an idea of our overall time, which was around 1:05. I'm pleased with my performance and this was a fun race, but I am not sure it's worth the price to do it again. One thing is for certain, I am in far better shape because while it was challenging I did not feel impossible. It was also the kick in the ass I needed to finally sign up for some triathlons. While I may not do my best at these events, I enjoy the variety and would miss it if I didn't try. So this afternoon I registered for the Central Florida Triathlon Series 3 Race Package. I'll be doing a sprint tri each month in June, July and August. I also registered for the Firefighter Challenge to round out my month of crazy adventures :)

Official Stats:

• time: 1:07:05
• coed 56-65: 92 / 149
• overall: 1007 / 1495 finishers