Muddy Buddy Weekend

2 Men
1 Mountain Bike
1 Flat Tire
5 Obstacles
2 lbs of Chorizo Sausage
20 Pacificos
1 Mud Bog and a lot of mud in our eyes, tear ducts, mouths and ears....

A couple months ago I heard about a crazy athletic event called the "Muddy Buddy Race". From the muddy buddy website it is described as follows (http://www.muddybuddy.com)

Both partners start at the same time, one running and one biking. The course is approximately 6 miles long and is separated into 5 legs by obstacles along the way. The first obstacle is near the one mile mark. Assuming that the biker is traveling faster than the runner, the biker will approach the first obstacles transition area first. The biker will drop the bike and conquer the obstacle and start running to the 2nd transition/obstacle. The runner will then approach the first transition area, conquer the obstacle, find the bike and start riding to the 2nd transition/obstacle area. The team will continue to leap frog throughout the course switching from biking and running along the way. Because the course has five legs. The person who is the stronger biker should begin the race biking, and the stronger runners, should start out running so they are doing three legs of their stronger discipline, and two of the other. There will be five obstacles on each Muddy Buddy course. Mystery events could be challenges such as a cargo net crawl, a wall, monkey bars, or a hay bale obstacle. At every race teams will have to conquer the famous Mud Pit before crossing the finish line together. The race divisions include All Male, All Female, Coed, and Beast (team combined weight over 400 lbs.)Female, and Coed will each have age divisions of 45 and under, 46-55, 56-65, 66-75, 76-85, 86 and over. For the males, the first five divisions are the same with the last age division being 86-95. Those ages are the combined ages of the two team members on race day. There will also be a Masters division for all teams with a combined age of 96+. The Masters and Beast categories will be open and not separated by gender. Medals will be awarded to the top 5 teams in each division.

This race sounded like a lot of fun so I began to ponder which of my friends would be my partner. My good college buddy, fraternity brother and groomsman, Bryan Sendelweck immediately came to mind. He is quite an extreme outdoor athlete. He is constantly off for an afternoon rock climb or a Kayaking trip and I've seen him do things on the ski slopes that would make you weak in the knees. He's a true beast. I sent him an email to see what he thought about flying out to Cali for a race.....

After a few email exchanges between San Jose and Colorado Springs we decided we'd sign up. Less than a week later Bryan forwarded me his itinerary for his trip to San Jose and it was time to start training!

Here is how it all went down...

The Training: The race is half running, half biking which would require competence in both areas. Bryan's training program consisted of fitting a few mountain trial runs and bike rides between his normal schedule of kayak and rock climbing trips. Living at 6000 feet in Colorado Springs, he naturally included some altitude training for the sea level race in Cali.

Being a varsity high school cross country runner, I used to be a big fan of running but I have nearly abandoned the activity for a couple reasons:

• I do not think it is a fun sport
• It is bad for your body

I came to this conclusion while pursuing an aggressive weight loss goal for my wedding and suffered a running injury. A stress fracture in my foot meant that I had to lose the rest of the weight without any exercise at all. They say everything happens for a reason and I believe it. This injury helped me embrace my true athletic passion of mountain biking and it helped me focus on rearranging my lifestyle around a healthy diet.
Needless to say I have not run in over a year. I have, however, biked more this year than in the last five years combined and I've loved every mile of it!!

Gear and Equipment:We had to make a decision about which mountain bike we would use for the race. I own two mountain bikes that we had to choose from. They are as follows:

"The Beast": A 2005 Speclialized Stumpjumper Full Suspension machine with hydraulic disc brakes, upgraded rims.... the works... The bike is worth roughly 2500 dollars and for the layman, all of these attributes I mention above mean that my bike is a really bad-ass, super light, super fast machine with over 400 miles of intense off-road trail on the odometer this year alone. We were very confident in this bike's performance capability for a race.

"The Grocery Getter": A 300 dollar mountain bike that I recently purchased for the purpose of buying groceries at Safeway and Trader Joe's. I bought it to save gas and burn a few extra calories. It is equipped with a baggage rack that holds two open faced grocery bags and I have some bungee cords so I can strap on additional packages such as a carton of eggs, cereal boxes or even instant oat meal. This bike and the Toyota Prius are some of my 2007 exercises in environmental consciousness and money saving (see my "Joe's Grocery Getter" page which will soon be ready)..

So which would it be for this rugged race??? "The Beast" or "The Grocery Getter"? Bryan and I decided to take the two bikes for a quick ride the day before the race to perform some scientific tests on the two choices.

Being a chemical engineer and a Mathematics major we used our analytical capabilitiesto determine the Grocery Getter was our machine of choice for the race. We didn't think the riding would be too extreme and we were a bit worried about leaving the expensive bike between race intervals with the potential of some other racer taking off with my beast.

The test ride revealed that the Grocery Getter would require the addition of $6.00 toe clips so we could stay on the bike without sliding off the pedals.

Day Before the Race/Ride Strategy: With Bryan in town and a couple other college buddies that live in the bay area, we took advantage of an opportunity to get all the fraternity brothers together for a BBQ. The Reeves, the Sprools (to be) and some other bay area friends all came over for a Mexican BBQ!! How better to prepare for a race right?

We really had a really great day. About 10 beers through the night and after eating abundant portions of chorizo, beans, carne asada and carnitas Bryan and I began to think about our race strategy for the following morning at 8:00 AM. We thought we might be better off sprinting to the front and gassing everybody behind us. We were pleading to the gods that the name "Muddy Buddy" wouldn't bring an un-wanted pun to meaning.

I write this not to disgust you, but merely because it is the truth!! All joking aside, we did break the course down from the internet and determined that one athlete would run 3.7 miles and bike 2.6 while the other would bike/run the inverse. We had to determine who was the stronger biker and runner, factoring in a couple other important pieces of information.... A coin toss later we decided Bryan would do the heavy running and I would do the heavy riding.

Race Day: The alarm went off at 5:30 AM and I hit snooze but the noise did not stop. In my confusion I realized it was my stomach growling from chorizo! I slowly crawled out of bed, showered and went downstairs for a breakfast of champions: coffee and oatmeal.

Bryan and I were in good spirits and excited about the race. We loaded into the truck and headed off to Grant Ranch Park. When we got there I made a stop to the restroom and when I returned Julie told me that the previous day's test ride had left the Grocery Getter with a flat front tire. It was only minutes before the race and we didn't have a tire repair kit with us. Luckily a guy in the truck next to us had a bike pump and he helped us fill the tire. The air seemed to hold and we held our breath praying it would do so for the duration of the race. We joined up with our heat, the shotgun sounded and I was off on a remarkably steep uphill climb.

There were tons riders in an extremely tight bunch. Shoulders were bumping, handle bars clipping one another and a lot of cursing was heard as a group or riders strived to emerge from what appeared to be a herd of cattle on a narrow trail. Mountain bike climbing is one of my key strengths and I was out for blood! I aggressively moved up in the pack focusing on the leaders in the group and the previous heat of runners ahead of us. It was a thrilling experience to test my months of training against that of complete strangers. Knowing all the hard work I had put into training I had tremendous respect for the other riders and wondered what passions they had that drove them to ride so hard on such a steep trail. "Were they excellent bikers? Were they just runners in good shape that could pedal a fierce cadence?"

I passed several bikers and emerged towards the front half of the pack with a couple strong riders at my side. Together we started to pass runners and bikers from the first heat and my energy level rose dramatically. We reached the top of the hill and it became clear that I was a biker and they were not. I took on the downhill at a very fast speed and left them in the dust. "They must be runners" I smirked to myself. They were obviously uncomfortable with fast downhill.. We arrived at the first obstacle; I dropped the bike, thankful that the front tire still held air. I approached the first obstacle and leaped over the rope wall on my way to my first running leg...

My historical running experience came back to me and I felt quite good. I continued to pass a few guys when a super fast runner flew past me at an alarming speed!! Maybe it was the runners turn to smirk at the mountain bikers!! The complexity of the race started to become much more evident. I pressed on up another hill looking for Bryan to pass me on the Grocery Getter. I reached the second obstacle but he still had not passed me! I thought maybe in all the excitement I might have missed him as he passed. I approached the second obstacle, climbed over and under some wooden beams arranged in a truss shape. After dominating this truss I was on the lookout for Bryan.

Off in the distance I saw a tall rider on a green bike with a red shirt. It was Bryan! I hoped everything was ok. I noticed he was swerving in an "S" shaped line and he seemed a bit out of control. As he came nearer I saw that our fears had come true. The front tire was completely empty and he was still riding it! He rode up to me and we had a quick exchange about how to proceed. We agreed the rim was easy to replace so we'd try to ride the flat as opposed to walking the bike to the finish line. There were still about 5 miles ahead of us.

I got on the bike and experienced a new challenge: balancing a bike with a flat tire on a rocky dirt trail. I almost wiped out several times and recalibrated my speed so I could sustain control of the bike. A flat tire makes so much noise when you ride which called a lot of attention. Several bikers passed me but I held a grin and pressed on. I tried to focus on keeping the maximum sustainable speed without face planting in the dirt. This was attained by leaning back as far as possible keeping very little weight on the front wheel. This minimized the flat tire's swerving influence on the bike. As I built comfort with this position I was able to pass a few bikers which gave me some confidence and a new goal to attain. How many riders could I pass having a flat?

Bryan and I proceeded with this strategy for another leg. I ran to the final exchange where I met Bryan again at a wooden balance beam. It is very difficult to balance on a small plank after enduring miles of heart pounding fatigue. Due to the swerving tire he had crashed the bike and sustained a good amount of road rash on his arm, knee and shoulder. He wasn't phased at all though the crash appeared to have been significant. We bent the Grocery Getter's handlebars back into position and moved on to the finish line.

At the finish a large mud bog awaited us. The competitors are forced to get down and dirty crawling under rope nets that are hung very low over the mud. My arm snagged the net which forced my face deep into the mud and I lost my helmet visor to the elements of Earth. Bryan saw my mistake and moved forward. I coughed, spitting dirt out of my mouth and squinting due to mud in my eye. We crawled to the finish and embraced in happiness as our challenge was complete!

Julie was waiting with our good friend Cornelius O'Sullivan who recently moved to the bay area. We became very good friends with Cornelius when we lived and worked in Mexico City. He was nice enough to come out and cheer us on! We took some photos, washed up and cracked some of the cold beers from the day before.

This race was a ton of fun. Even with complications it far exceeded our expectations. We are already making preparations for the Boulder Muddy Buddy in August. We finished 35th out of 65 in our heat in 1:01. I think this is quite good given our challenges. We both agree that without complications and with more training we can shave a lot of time and improve dramatically for the Boulder race.

Regarding the BBQ. Thanks to everyone for making it so much fun. Thanks to the Reeves family for the Funfetti cake and the amazing fudge brownies. Thanks Bryan for flying out. Thanks Corny for the bottle of wine. Thanks Tiny for the Pacificos. Thanks Valdez clan for the ceviche, chips and for the last minute help with the tortilla warming. Thanks Sprools (to be) for the Margaritas! Here are some photos:

Our End Goal

In the Zone

Our Team:
"The Garnillabuddies"
What's it mean?? Nobody knows...

Heading to the starting line.. Julie and Cornelius waiting to cheer us on!

The Garnillabuddies have landed!
Catching our breath
Bad-ass #1 Bad Ass #2 Oh yeah!!
The 900 team event sold out..
All cleaned up and ready to relax
Relaxation!