Muddy Buddy Chicago Race Report

Saturday morning we packed up the Prius, threw the bike on the top, and made our way down to Chicago for the 2008 Muddy Buddy on Sunday. We spent the day on Saturday getting our packets and enjoying some lunch in Chicago.

Saturday evening we spent time running from store to store to finalize our “outfits” for the race. Oldest Mini decided that we would dress up as 1970’s basketball players / jocks. So, how would that look – short shorts, basketball jerseys, knee pads, head bands, and more. A stop at Goodwill and a few other places and we were ready to go.

Sunday morning we woke around 5:30 and got into our “outfits”. Oldest Mini has grown quite a bit in the last two (2) years and now is basically my height. The mini shorts (we used girls shorts) made his legs look very long and he fit the part of a 1970’s jock perfectly.

Not only were we participating as a team, but Mrs. Team BRAZO and our sister-in-law were making up another team and Youngest Mini was doing the Mini Muddy Buddy.

We happened to be in the 2nd wave of the day and made our way over the starting line. Around us were guys in suits, wigs, penguin outfits, underwear, and on and on – it was very fun. The race starts off with one team member riding the bike and the other team member running(the biker goes out as fast as they can). You go on the exact same course and you switch off from the bike to the run and visa-versa every time you hit an obstacle that you need to clear. Oldest Mini con’d me into starting out on the run and he’d be on the bike.

After about a mile run or so, you hit a climbing wall that you needed to scale with cargo netting on the back side. Over the wall I went and onto the bike. Oldest Mini had of course already been there with the bike, completed the wall climb and was on his way on the run. I had no plans on actually racing the event, but instead to have a great time racing with my awesome 15 year old.

I then made it to the next obstacle, threw down the bike and through the obstacle I went. We continued this through 4 obstacles and about 6 miles combined running and biking. The last piece of the race was at the end when both team members ran together to a mud pit and had to do the military-crawl through the mud pit. Oldest Mini and myself made sure that we left no part of our body without mud and had a GREAT time crawling through the pit.

Youngest Mini competed in his race and at the suggestion of his Aunt, he completed a belly flop / belly slide at the finish line. He had some much mud on him that you could barely see his face.

It was an absolute awesome time and something that I’ll cherish for the rest of my life – being able to compete in an awesome/fun race with my 15 year old (looked like John Lennon with his outfit).