Muddy Buddy

Derrick and I headed out to a horse farm in Gilbert IL for the Muddy Buddy. For those who don't know what a Muddy Buddy is, it is kind of like a team duathlon where one person runs and the other person bikes to various checkpoints where they do an obstacle then switch sports. They leap frog each other like this for about a total of 10K.

Derrick won this event back in 06 so I knew we had a good chance. When we got to the event and I saw my Titus Fireline 29 was about 10 times more expensive than any other bike there, I knew we had a really good chance. Most of the people were wearing costumes and had reflectors and bike racks on their hybrids, so perhaps we came into this event a little too seriously. Still there were 2798 other competitors there and the key to this race is running, not biking, so you never know who the competition would be.

Waiting in really long lines for smelly outhouses with no toilet paper, I lost track of time. When I got out, we walked toward the starting line. When we got near then front we noticed a wave of riders had just left the start corral. "What wave is this?", I ask. A couple guys shout back, "your wave."

I run back to Derrick who's talking to the ladies, I grab my bike and make a bee line to the starting area. I stomp on the pedals with anger and chase down as many people as I can in the first mile.

The course had some hills and swampy grass to ride through but overall was nontechnical.
Our bike exchanges went off without a hitch and we kept making up time on the field throughout the course. All of our practice and planning paid off.

When it was all said and done we had come from behind to put down the best overall time (39:03) and win the title 2008 Muddy Buddy Chicago champions.