Muddy Buddy by Rani Freeman

Dale Martin, a dear friend of mine that now lives in Austin called me one night in April and asked if I would like to be his teammate for the Muddy Buddy in October.  I thought sure, why not.  What is it?  He told me it involves running, riding a mountain bike, negotiating challenges and getting really muddy at the end.  Sounded like fun.

Muddy Buddy is a pretty big trademark event and quite the production.  They apparently hold several  of these events all over the country, and  REI hosted the packet pick-up.  The MB folks had almost half of the entire downstairs filled with their merchandise.  There were caps, hats, t-shirts, sweat shirts, on and on.  I kind of figured it was going to be a big deal by the cost of the registration (around $90 per person).

The Dallas event was held at Cedar Hill State Park.  The course consisted of a 6.5 mile trail that was both on and off road.  There were enough slots for 1100 teams, although I don’t think they met their mark on this one.

One person from each team started out riding the bike, and the second person started out running.  All on the same route.

Each wave began with the bikes, then three minutes later the runners on the same team started.  There were four challenges, so the person that started out on the bike would ride to the first challenge, drop the bike, do the challenge, then start running to the next challenge.  The person who started out running would get to that same challenge, complete, then get on the bike and ride to the next challenge.  All team members would change disciplines at each challenge.  And then finally at the end, both team members have to crawl together, under  ropes that hovered six inches above a mud pit to the finish line.

Dale and I arrived two hours early for the event.  For anyone that knows me, you know this is normal… I was born  early.  We were fortunate enough to get a parking spot right next to the start line.  This turned out to be very beneficial since it started out at 40 degrees.  We sat in the van and watched each wave go out and did not have to get out of the van until minutes before our wave.  As we watched the first wave go through the narrow Chute to start the race, I realized  it was the biggest cluster, cat herding, goat roping I had ever seen.  At that moment I  declared Dale the first on the bike.  Thank goodness he made it through without any major problems.  I started three minutes after him with my run.  I made it to the first challenge and could not find that darn bike!  It took five minutes to find it!  Then I finally took off for the next challenge/exchange.  This went on for around four exchanges each, then I finished with my run and waited for him at  the start of the mud pit, luckily Dale was pretty close behind.  We grabbed hands and made a mad dash for the pit.  I was feeling pretty slick crawling on my knees and elbows until the MC told us to “drop to our bellies and crawl through mud”.  It was all over then.  We were covered head to toe in black/grey mud.  (Looked like that stuff you get between your toes when you first walk in the lake.) and after we crossed the finish line we made a bee line for the lake and washed ourselves down.

The finish line had energy drinks, fruit and cookies.  Paul Michelle hair salons were set up to give $15 hair cuts and there were a couple of massage tables set up for a small fee.  A lot of folks brought their dogs and sat out on the lawn to watch the fun.  There was also a children’s event that was a hoot and a half to watch.  They just basically went over a low climbing wall then straight to the pit. 

This event is a lot of fun.  It is not a competitive event.  If you are a “got to win” kind of person, skip this one.  It is a team building, crazy, fun loving thing to do on a Sunday morning in the fall.

I highly recommend it!