Muddy Buddy - Biathlon (run/bike)

Richmond, Virginia United States 74F / 23C Sunny

Total Time = 50m 13s Overall Rank = / Age Group = M56-65 Age Group Rank = 6/124

if you haven't heard about muddy buddy, it's basically a team off-road duathlon using 1 bike. one team member is running while the other is biking. there are 5 legs with obstacles in between. at each obstacle you swap so that the other person is biking while you are running. so although you are racing as a team, you are not together on the course until you get to the end. at that point, you dump the bike and crawl through a mud pit to the finish line together. it is very laid back and lots of fun.

we did the muddy buddy last year and found that camping at the park was great, so we did that again this year. on saturday, we drove to the park with my sister and nephew (also doing the race) and met my mom there.
i needed to get a run in and my family wanted to see the course, so they rode the course and i ran it. pretty much identical except they swapped the location of two of the obstacles and took out an early technical section of the bike. they also added a part that had just been cleared in the forest so although it was flat, it had lots of roots and the ground was very spongy. i'm glad k had to ride that part and i got to run it.

we finished the loop and then had turkey dogs, baked beans and s'mores on the fire. awesome!

we woke up ~6:30am and walked over to the start. it was fun watching all the people and checking out all the costumes and crazy outfits. people are insane at these races.

i started as the runner, so i ran secions 1,3,5 and rode sections 2,4. the start was extremely crowded and there was a lot of scrambling by a log jam of mountain bikes. ~1/4 mile in, everything cleared up though and we were off.
the obstacles were the same this year. it was an easy climbing wall, some over/under bars, balance beams, and a climbing net up to a big inflatable slide. they aren't very difficult, and luckily, i had them all to myself at every one this year. good timing. after each obstacle, you either grab the bike or take off running depending on what you did previously.

the final leg goes through a stream and then up a short steep hill. then you have to go up the road for ~ a mile to the finish area with the mud pit. they make you crawl under ropes so that ou have to stay low and get muddy. i was flying through the pit this year by throwing the rope over my head and diving forward. i was about to get away from k so she couldn't tackle me again this year at the end. instea, she tackled me half way through by diving onto my back to slow me down! we were covered head to toe and my legs/shoes were at least 15lbs heavier caked in mud.