Race Coverage

Quicksand Death, Chicken Hats & Frog Kissing...

Tuesday, 31 August 2010 04:00

Muddy Buddy Stuff - By Bonnie Froschkussen

If you've ever been caught in a rip-tide or an undertow, you'll know exactly what I'm talking about....

Two Sundays ago my friend Matt and I decided to go to Afton Alps to do some mountain biking to shake up our tri training. We were pretty impressed with the size of the mountain biking enthusiast crowd- somewhere in the neighborhood of 900 people were sporting bikes. As we headed toward one of the trail heads we also noticed that half the people there were wearing some sort of Halloween costume to include large objects taped to the top of their helmets such as chickens and boats. A very odd crowd indeed... I heard my name being called out from the midst of a throng of mountain bikers at the base of a trail and so I waded into the crowd to find some friends within the huddle. They seemed a bit..

enthusiastic for an early Sunday morning ride and they began to excitedly tell me that we were racing something called the Muddy Buddy. Wait. (Insert sound of screeching brakes here.) We?!? The next thing I knew someone slapped a race number onto my helmet and a giant horn blew.

That rip tide I mentioned early?.... There was no escaping it. I had only one option: Take on the first hill and hope to find a way to escape at the top. Right when I thought I might be able to break free a school of sharks called Volunteers descended upon me like a pack of drill sergeants, ordering me off my bike and through some obstacle course. I finally saw Matt and he was now also sporting a race number, looking wild eyed and sputtering out something about being forced into a pack of frenzied runners. We kept trying to connect so we could get out of the madness but kept criss-crossing paths and pulled along through multiple bike run legs, somehow seeming to go entirely up the ski slopes verses down, as well as obstacles. Finally we met up at the exit only to be thrown into a pit of mud so thick and deep that thoughts of quicksand death flashed before my eyes. After we finally emerged out of the muck we made a mad dash for the exit with only one way out being to cross a finish line. We were free! As we looked around we noted there were a number of booths surrounding the mud pit so we grabbed some cool samples of everything from shampoo to protein drinks. Matt and I suddenly heard our names being called so we went over to the man with the microphone. He threw some medallions over our heads and congratulated us on a great race. Two things I learned that day: 1. Mountain bikers are insane. 2. You can tape a lot of wierd stuff to the top of your biking helmet.

After I made it home safely I did some research. Come to find out the Columbia Muddy Buddy Ride & Run Series is part of a cool off road race series that involves mountain biking, trail running, obstacle courses and costumes. It is a load of fun and even 3x Ironman World Champion Chrissie Wellington helped out at the Colorado event this year. The course lengths are 6-7 miles total with 5 obstacle courses. If you get a chance, check it out over your morning cup of joe- WEBSITE