Muddy Buddy Results!!

Well I'm happy to report that we completed our first adventure with the 2008 Muddy Buddy. And although Glenn did not participate with me, I recruited my sister-in-law Kaitlin onto my team and she ended up doing an AWESOME job!! Go Kait!! We left ft. Myers kind of late and headed for Orlando to check into our "Mansion" and start getting ready for our big adventure in the morning. Before we got to the house we stopped at Disney's Wide World of Sports where the event was going to be held and headed to packet pick-up. The first thing we had to do was check with a man who was holding a clip board and let him know of the "buddy-switch." Because Kaitlin is a 19 year old female and not a 29 year old male, they had to put us into a different wave. They divided teams into waves depending on their combined age and gender. So we were now in the 45 and under female division. Yay! So after all that was finished we picked up our packet, goody bag and T-shirt. Next it was off to Wal-mart to pick up a few needed items. We had to get Kaitlin a helmet, some bottled water, and some kind of decorating stuff for our bike. When we arrived at the house we were all excited to find that the house we were all staying in was BEAUTIFUL!! All together, staying in the house was Glenn, myself, Kaitlin, Aidan and Rylan. Scott, Leah, leah's dad Jim and Jason and Carly. And Eric, Terra and baby kaitlyn and maddie. The house was professionally decorated and each room was so cozy and warm. They even had a "boys" room with bunk beds and a girls room with a ballerina theme. Everyone had their own room with a bathroom attached. Not to mention a heated pool. This house was amazing and I almost didn't want to leave!! So we settled in, got the boys bathed and in bed and started getting our bikes ready for the big day. We were given stickers of our team number that had to be put on our helmets, and also a sign with our number put on our bike. They asked us to decorate our bikes with something that will stand out so that you can find your bike easily at the drop off stations. We decided to put purple curly wrapping string on ours. So we finished all that and it was off to bed!

In the morning we all got up and dressed with the exception of Jim, Glenn, Carly, Jason, Aidan and Rylan. They were going to meet us up there later. As we pulled up to the Disney wide world of sports complex there was just a Sea of people there with their mountain bikes. 1250 teams participated!! It was amazing. Some people were dressed up in funny costumes and had their bikes decorated too, there were some really good ones. They went over the rules and how to follow the signs and then we lined up according to our waves. unfortunately for us, we were waaaay in the back. The race started at 7:00am but by the time we finally made our way up to the start line it was almost 8:00am. They started us off one wave at a time, with the bikers in front of the runners. Kaitlin took off firs and then I started running a minute later. I'm proud to say that for about the first 1/2 of mile I was in first place, but then quickly started falling behind. I hadn't been training very hard like I should have. So I ran for the first mile and then we had to complete our first obsticle which was a rock wall with a rope net on the opposite side. After completeing that I found my bike and started riding for about another mile. Then the next obsticle was a rope ladder with a blow up slide. I then started running again. We leap frogged eachother a few more times completing more obsticles like a balance beam, and an up and over wooden thing. Finally at the end of the race there was a HUGE bike drop off/ Buddy pick up waiting area. Kaitlin did awesome and showed up about a minute after I did and we headed for the mudd pit. It was disgusting and refreshing all at once!! We had to army crawl under nets through the big black mudd pit and then cross the finish line together. We completed the whole race in 1hr and 49mins putting us in 8th place for our age group!!! Yay, way to go Mudd Studs! The whole thing was a great experience and alot of fun. So if anyone is interested in participating next year, we'll see ya there!!!