Something muddy this way comes...
Now that I've finished showering (twice), I can share with you some details from the 2007 Chicago Muddy Buddy race. The 4th race in topher's Summer of Pain race series, the Muddy Buddy lived up to its name in every measurable way.
Known for it's filthy finale, this year's Muddy Buddy was especially muddy because it rained all Saturday evening. We woke Sunday morning fearing the worst. It came true. What would normally have been a moderately abusive medley of mountain biking and trail running turned into an absolutely brutal, 10-kilometer slog through every known recipe for mud. There was watery mud. There was thick mud. There was really thick mud. There was light brown mud. There was dark brown mud. There was that oddly stinky, near-black mud. And there was no going around it. We raced through it, for an hour.
There were trials and tribulations aplenty: A mud ball repositioned one of my contact lenses early in the race. My grass skirt got caught and chewed up in the bicycle's drive train, and repairs were necessary to keep racing. Melissa crashed and chewed up her leg pretty badly. And in the mud pit at the end, both of Melissa's contact lenses ended up out of place. She ran the last 50 meters of the race blind while I pulled her across the finish line. Then to prove how tough she is, she flushed her eyes out with Gatorade. (Actually, that was an accident. In her blinded state, she thought I had handed her bottled water. Oops.)
The most frightening part of the race was a 25-foot balance beam. Normally a balance beam is not something that would cause me pause—unless it was up a good ways. But this balance beam was covered in mud, as were our shoes. Friction between our shoes and the beam was non-existent. That people were making it across the beam at all was amazing. That we were racing across it fell outside the realm of prudence. Seek fun.
So how'd we do? We kicked ass. Age groups were based on the combined age and gender of each team. Melissa and I raced in the Co-ed 56-65 Division. We took 6th with a finishing time of 1:00:24.
While we're on the subject of the Summer of Pain, please don't forget that I'm spending the summer racing in an effort to raise money for the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Wisconsin. The terminally-ill tikes would greatly appreciate any kind donations you'd like to make. Thank you to everyone that has made a donation so far. I'll keep racing and telling you about my scars and scabs in the Summer of Pain section. So far I'm having a blast. With four races done, there's a little over 200 miles and five races left to go.