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| Team 4inOne before the race. |
The event was at the Boulder Reservoir, in Boulder, CO, the same location as last year. Ample people were helping with the free (awesome) parking. We showed up just about 30 minutes before our start time, as we had picked up our race packets the day before. The atmosphere was relaxed and the facilities more than adequate.
When we lined up to start, we were informed that they would be staggering the heats slightly, by 45 seconds per about 60 people or so, to alleviate some pile ups they had with the first heats. We were the 2nd group in the 9:30 heat and no trouble with back ups at any obstacles, save for one girl who was real nervous getting over the top of a cargo net climb that slowed us up a bit.
The course layout was nearly identical to last year, with only a slight variation of the route towards the very end. Muddy Buddy is heavy on running (4.65 miles) and light on the obstacles. The longest stretches of running are along the bottom of the dam and then back along the top during the 2nd half. The bottom is a dirt access road with some ankle twisting grapefruit sized rocks and a few couple short, steep hills to negotiate. The return on the top is long and flat. It's about a 1.5 mile stretch with an obstacle to break it up about midway through.
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| 4inOne at the first major obstacle. |
For the obstacles, there are a couple cargo climbs and slides, some ropes, a couple signature buddy obstacles and the obligatory mud pit crawl at the end. They do make use of the reservoir and you will spend some time slogging through the water, which isn't too cold in August, fortunately. The buddy obstacles consist of some balance beams and a traverse wall where you brace and balance with the help of your partner. For Muddy Buddy, you must run with a buddy, you share a bib number and timing chip and are required to finish together.
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| Buddy obstacle. |
The fairground is decent sized and the beer garden is very nice with offerings from O'dells. The Muddy Buddy also has some great sponsors, including our own sponsor, GoalZero and probably the best swag bag I've seen. This year they bumped up their shirts to tech tees and the medals included the year of the event which is always nice. They also give out a lot of trophies, honoring 1st-3rd for not only every class, but for each heat as well.
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| Team Lean and Mean at the finish. |
We ran well, even though I was slowing my buddy down when I got a stitch in my side on the back half. We managed to pull off a 3rd place finish, same as last year, with a total time of 55:08 in the male open class, which was a few minutes slower than the previous year.
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| Lean and Mean and Team Live Badass standings. |
Overall, Muddy Buddy is a fantastic event with top notch staff, great organization and a nice course layout. It's very family friendly, with a minimum age of just 12 and a Mini-Buddy race for kids down to 4 years of age. Muddy Buddy offers a run only, bike and run, and a partnership with Rock and Roll Marathon, giving you the opportunity to get a 3rd medal for completing both events in what they call the Rock and Mud Challenge. It is a tad on the expensive side, but you definitely get what you pay for with this event. We will be back.
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| Team 4inOne post race. |
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