Thursday, July 19, 2012

Catching Up: Part 2 - The Muddy Buddy

Sherri wanted to try the Muddy Buddy instead of running the Wilma Rudolph 5k/10k.  She gets bored with just running on the road.  The Muddy Buddy has obstacles along the way and a mud pit you must crawl though at the end.

When we arrived at the Cheatham County Wildlife Management Area (I believe this is where the Nashville Zoo used to be), I was surprised to see so many cars/people.  They started the event in waves of waves, so everybody wouldn't hit the obstacles at the same time.  The Bike and Run race started at 7:30.  The run only races started at 9:00. When you signed up, you got to choose what time you wanted to start - 9:00, 9:45, or 10:30.  We chose 9:45, so it wouldn't be so early at 9:00 or so hot when we finished the 10:30 race.  Then, at the starting line, they would let so many of each time group go at a time.  We wore timing chips, but we were only racing against people in the 9:45 race.  When we first signed up, I think the run races were 3 to 4 miles.  It increased to 3 to 4.5 miles.  I guess because of our course some of the other increased, too.  And, oh, we were in the Co-ed Masters category, because our combined age was over 86.

We ran along the barely wide enough for 2 cars, gravel entrance/outrance road, weaving around cars and people either coming or going.  We then turned onto a less traveled road where the gravel had mostly disappeared.  I don't recall which obstacles came in what order, but we climbed over walls, crawled under rope nets, climbed a rope to ring a bell, walked across balance beams without letting go of the other, slid down a bouncy house slide while people threw water on us, and some other things.  However, the obstacles that were really obstacles were not the man-made ones.  We had to climb MOUNTAINS!  We went up, up, and up.  There was nobody running.  I couldn't believe that the bike people had to ride (push) up such a hill.  Now, the mountain route was not on old road.  It was a path about 5 to 6 feet wide cut out for this event.  There were roots, rocks, and holes.  You also had to watch for those smaller trees that didn't get wiped out, because they would snap back at you and leave a whelp.  There were some with briers, too. 

We also got to go down a mountain.  At one point, it was so steep that you had to run, while dodging all the roots, holes, rock, etc.  Then it was back up another MOUNTAIN!

Well, anyway, we finished, hosed off, and changed clothes.  I would have like to have known how we did, but wasn't too worried about it.  I'd check online later in the week. Plus, we had to get home and take the dogs out.  Sherri wanted to see how we did, too, so ran back up to where the "action" was.  There was a big board covered with papers for all the races and divisions.  Some of the papers were on the ground; most of the race/divisions had multiple printouts as other teams finished.  I finally found 9:45 Co-ed Masters.  The places listed were 1, 2, and 4.  Where was 3?  Maybe 4 is actually 3.  t didn't matter.  We had done quite a bit of walking and I wasn't expecting a top 4 finish.  I found a top 7 - actually top 6 since 3 was not listed - after searching through the papers on the ground.  I decided to go ask someone; I had been through all the results and could see inside a tent that they were still printing them out.  I had been gone so long Sherri came looking for me.  When I asked the guy if he had the results for the 9:45 Co-ed Masters, he asked what our name was.  I said, "I Have No I.D."  I could tell on his face he was about to ask "What", but before he could look up, he saw our name, since it was close to the top - # 3.  We finished 3rd!  I guess when they were printing the sheets to post, someone said "I have no I.D." came in 3rd, so the other person didn't list it.

We got a 2 small little trophies that had vials to collect some mud in to remember the event.

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