I can’t believe how quickly summer is passing by… I mean, it’s basically almost over?!
Kendyl and I just got back from a sure-to-remember highlight, Muddy Buddy in Boulder, Colorado! It was amazing, and definitely a whirlwind trip… here it goes….
So this whole thing started when Kendyl emailed me while I was in China wanting to do this race with her called Muddy Buddy – I’d heard of it from when we lived in Fort Worth, always thought it would be cool, so I told her “why not?” Well the catch was that the two that are in Houston aren’t until October and March, and I was worried I might be in China at those times, so I suggested we go to Boulder in August since a) we both LOVE Colorado, b) we could find a free place to stay with our many contacts there, and c) it would be a great sister adventure together while I was home from China! She thought I was crazy, but because she was missing me, she agreed… haha
We kept up our running and normal workout schedules, though admittedly (by the both of us) we didn’t do anything extra to get ready for the 6.5 mile course in a town that boasts 5400 feet in elevation – we were plenty confident in our abilities in the current shape we were in!
On the Thursday before we were to leave (literally one day before), Kendyl called me from work to let me know that a meeting had been scheduled for 10 a.m. on Monday morning – so what was to be our leisurely drive back was to turn out to be a petal to the metal, no bathroom breaks drive back right after the race… sigh… oh well, more to come on that!
So Friday morning I was finishing getting Aurora packed up, Kendyl went into work, and by lunchtime she was at the house with the bike, her gear, and at 12:08 p.m. we hit the road – Boulder or Bust! We put in some great tunes, and I drove us to Fort Worth where we switched, then she continued on until dinner at Dairy Queen in Quanah around 7:30 p.m… I kept going until we reached Dalhart that night around 10:45 p.m., by which time we were deliriously tired… we got a room at the Holiday Inn Express there, and agreed we’d wake up at 6 a.m. to shower, eat the free breakfast, and get on the road to make Garden of the Gods for a picnic lunch.
Morning came pretty quickly, and we got our breakfast and hit the road with Kendyl taking us into New Mexico… sad side note, right before we hit the Colorado border we saw a bear that had been hit on the side of the road, I’d guess sometime the night before – I didn’t even know there were bears around Raton – but it made me sad… I called the Game and Wildlife number for Raton (iPhones are so handy on road trips) and let them know, and they told me they’d already been informed just hadn’t sent an officer out yet… so that was good at least.
We pulled into Garden of the Gods around 11 a.m. and holy smokes it was such a gorgeous day… sun was hot, wind was cool, sky was oh-so-blue, and we were in heaven. We got into our cooler and grabbed some lunchables, pudding, a kit kat to share, and some Gatorade and set off to find the perfect place for a picnic!
It was pretty crowded (not a huge surprise because of how gorgeous it was, but I hardly ever see it like that so I still kind of was), and there were a ton of rock climbers there, too, which was really fun to watch! We had our own fun on the rocks for the next couple of hours, and we were both just so happy to be there… it’s such a special place for me – like magic.
Around 1:30 p.m. we decided we’d better head on to Denver, so Kendyl called David (her coworker, who she had talked into doing Muddy Buddy with us with another coworker, Albert) to get directions, and an hour later we were at his place in downtown Denver! We got settled in, went grocery shopping, went out to get some new mountain bike tubes considering Kendyl’s had never been changed in the 10 years she’s had that bike, and then we went back to his place to get cleaned up. They worked on changing the bike tubes, and in the meantime I worked on baking David’s birthday cake (his birthday was Sunday), and then we all went out for a birthday celebration dinner to a local BBQ joint, which was really good!
Then we walked around downtown, stumbled upon a free concert in a small park,
so hung out there until we were all ready for cake (yea!) and then an early bedtime since we had to wake up in the 4’s the next morning to get to Boulder in time for packet pick-up!
Again, morning came quickly, and even quicker because Dad was texting us like crazy from Australia to remember to be careful with the altitude (I guess when we first moved to Denver when I was little he went running, felt good, and then when he stopped he almost passed out and keenly remembers that and wanted to remind us ever few hours on our drive up and up until the race, haha). We assured him we would be careful and got our last few minutes of sleep before it was time to head out… we left at 5 a.m., got there at 5:30 a.m., got our packets, and watched the sunrise over Boulder reservoir… turns out we were there WAY earlier than we needed to be, but we had so much fun watching everyone arrive, looking at the fun costumes, and getting our stuff ready so we could get the boys going (they were in the first wave, and we were in the ninth, out of twelve or so, I think? There were thousands of people there by the time we started!
The costume contest was first, and that was HILARIOUS, and then we got to hear from a boy that benefits from the charity that Muddy Buddy contributes to for challenged athletes. This boy was about 5-6 years old, and had been born with something rare that had caused his parents to have to decide to get his legs amputated at 15 months old. Since then he’s learned to walk, run, and do everything a normal boy would do using athletic prosthetics, and he did the Austin Muddy Buddy last year, has done the Kid’s Ironman, and a ton of other inspirational stuff – as they were telling his story and he was answering questions, Kendyl and I became complete basket cases… I mean, bawling – neither of us could hold it together – geez! But we for sure got our inspiration for the race!!!
And here’s a background on Muddy Buddy – in each city they set up a course that runs from 6-7 miles long where you and your buddy alternate in a duathlon-type race. Kendyl started out on the mountain bike, and I started running. After a mile and some change, she dropped off the bike, did an obstacle, and start running the next mile and change. When I finished my run, I did the obstacle, found the bike, and then I’d start riding (and pass her somewhere along the trail), so we’d continue leapfrogging like that, with me running 3.7 miles total (Kendyl biking that), and me riding 2.6 (Kendyl running that).
So when it was finally our waves turn to start, we were so excited and pumped… the sun was warming us up (it was around 8:15 a.m. by that point), she got going on her bike, and then a few minutes later us runners got to follow them! The first mile for me was the hardest of the race… I could definitely feel the altitude, and was worried for a second that the whole race would feel like that! By the time I got to the first obstacle, the army rope crawl, Kendyl was long gone! The second mile (my first bike mile) wasn’t as hard on my body, but was a really hard mountain bike mile – all uphill! First a gradual incline, which wouldn’t have been bad but it was mostly gravel so most of us girls only made it halfway up before we had to get off and walk/run to a much STEEPER hill where a line had formed for people to walk the bikes up! It was a slight bottleneck, and a huge hill, but got up it and jumped back on the bike for a nice flat area to the second obstacle which was a rock wall up one side, and a net you had to climb down the other. Kendyl was waiting for me there along with a few others, so I handed off the bike and she got going! I started running, and this mile was much easier for me, though it was longer… I guess my lungs had expanded enough and my body had started to acclimate so it wasn’t as bad…
Kendyl and I just got back from a sure-to-remember highlight, Muddy Buddy in Boulder, Colorado! It was amazing, and definitely a whirlwind trip… here it goes….
So this whole thing started when Kendyl emailed me while I was in China wanting to do this race with her called Muddy Buddy – I’d heard of it from when we lived in Fort Worth, always thought it would be cool, so I told her “why not?” Well the catch was that the two that are in Houston aren’t until October and March, and I was worried I might be in China at those times, so I suggested we go to Boulder in August since a) we both LOVE Colorado, b) we could find a free place to stay with our many contacts there, and c) it would be a great sister adventure together while I was home from China! She thought I was crazy, but because she was missing me, she agreed… haha
We kept up our running and normal workout schedules, though admittedly (by the both of us) we didn’t do anything extra to get ready for the 6.5 mile course in a town that boasts 5400 feet in elevation – we were plenty confident in our abilities in the current shape we were in!
On the Thursday before we were to leave (literally one day before), Kendyl called me from work to let me know that a meeting had been scheduled for 10 a.m. on Monday morning – so what was to be our leisurely drive back was to turn out to be a petal to the metal, no bathroom breaks drive back right after the race… sigh… oh well, more to come on that!
So Friday morning I was finishing getting Aurora packed up, Kendyl went into work, and by lunchtime she was at the house with the bike, her gear, and at 12:08 p.m. we hit the road – Boulder or Bust! We put in some great tunes, and I drove us to Fort Worth where we switched, then she continued on until dinner at Dairy Queen in Quanah around 7:30 p.m… I kept going until we reached Dalhart that night around 10:45 p.m., by which time we were deliriously tired… we got a room at the Holiday Inn Express there, and agreed we’d wake up at 6 a.m. to shower, eat the free breakfast, and get on the road to make Garden of the Gods for a picnic lunch.
One of the funnier moments of the trip (to Kendyl, at least) happened on our way into the hotel. I was exhausted, we were loaded down with our bags, and I had all of our dinner trash, including two huge half full drinks of Sprite (hers) and Pink lemonade (mine). We check in, drive around to the back where are room was so we could make sure to see the car from our room, and while we’re walking up the stairs in the back of the hotel, my flip flop gets stuck (or I didn’t lift my leg high enough – one of the two), and I *completely* eat it on the stairs! What was hysterical about it is because I had all my stuff (Vera Bradley bags AND huge drinks), I kind of went stiff like a board and just fell onto the stairs in front of me, which Kendyl found to be so hilarious she couldn’t help but immediately start laughing BEFORE she found out if I was ok – LMAO! I just kind of laid there for a second, stunned, and not believing that I hadn’t spilled a drop (how the heck?!), and then slowly got up, QUICKLY browsing the ceiling corners to see if there was a security camera. Kendyl saw me looking up and then burst into even harder laughter, asking me if I was looking for them (she totally caught me, but I mean, with you tube and stuff these days, you never know)! I landed mostly on my arm, so knew I’d have a nice straight bruise, but we were so tired, and laughing so hard we were crying at the silliness of the whole thing… anytime we even think about it we both start giggling, which then turns into big ol’ belly laughs when she starts reliving what I looked like in front of her… oh well.
Morning came pretty quickly, and we got our breakfast and hit the road with Kendyl taking us into New Mexico… sad side note, right before we hit the Colorado border we saw a bear that had been hit on the side of the road, I’d guess sometime the night before – I didn’t even know there were bears around Raton – but it made me sad… I called the Game and Wildlife number for Raton (iPhones are so handy on road trips) and let them know, and they told me they’d already been informed just hadn’t sent an officer out yet… so that was good at least.
We pulled into Garden of the Gods around 11 a.m. and holy smokes it was such a gorgeous day… sun was hot, wind was cool, sky was oh-so-blue, and we were in heaven. We got into our cooler and grabbed some lunchables, pudding, a kit kat to share, and some Gatorade and set off to find the perfect place for a picnic!
It was pretty crowded (not a huge surprise because of how gorgeous it was, but I hardly ever see it like that so I still kind of was), and there were a ton of rock climbers there, too, which was really fun to watch! We had our own fun on the rocks for the next couple of hours, and we were both just so happy to be there… it’s such a special place for me – like magic.Around 1:30 p.m. we decided we’d better head on to Denver, so Kendyl called David (her coworker, who she had talked into doing Muddy Buddy with us with another coworker, Albert) to get directions, and an hour later we were at his place in downtown Denver! We got settled in, went grocery shopping, went out to get some new mountain bike tubes considering Kendyl’s had never been changed in the 10 years she’s had that bike, and then we went back to his place to get cleaned up. They worked on changing the bike tubes, and in the meantime I worked on baking David’s birthday cake (his birthday was Sunday), and then we all went out for a birthday celebration dinner to a local BBQ joint, which was really good!
Then we walked around downtown, stumbled upon a free concert in a small park, so hung out there until we were all ready for cake (yea!) and then an early bedtime since we had to wake up in the 4’s the next morning to get to Boulder in time for packet pick-up! Again, morning came quickly, and even quicker because Dad was texting us like crazy from Australia to remember to be careful with the altitude (I guess when we first moved to Denver when I was little he went running, felt good, and then when he stopped he almost passed out and keenly remembers that and wanted to remind us ever few hours on our drive up and up until the race, haha). We assured him we would be careful and got our last few minutes of sleep before it was time to head out… we left at 5 a.m., got there at 5:30 a.m., got our packets, and watched the sunrise over Boulder reservoir… turns out we were there WAY earlier than we needed to be, but we had so much fun watching everyone arrive, looking at the fun costumes, and getting our stuff ready so we could get the boys going (they were in the first wave, and we were in the ninth, out of twelve or so, I think? There were thousands of people there by the time we started!
The costume contest was first, and that was HILARIOUS, and then we got to hear from a boy that benefits from the charity that Muddy Buddy contributes to for challenged athletes. This boy was about 5-6 years old, and had been born with something rare that had caused his parents to have to decide to get his legs amputated at 15 months old. Since then he’s learned to walk, run, and do everything a normal boy would do using athletic prosthetics, and he did the Austin Muddy Buddy last year, has done the Kid’s Ironman, and a ton of other inspirational stuff – as they were telling his story and he was answering questions, Kendyl and I became complete basket cases… I mean, bawling – neither of us could hold it together – geez! But we for sure got our inspiration for the race!!!
And here’s a background on Muddy Buddy – in each city they set up a course that runs from 6-7 miles long where you and your buddy alternate in a duathlon-type race. Kendyl started out on the mountain bike, and I started running. After a mile and some change, she dropped off the bike, did an obstacle, and start running the next mile and change. When I finished my run, I did the obstacle, found the bike, and then I’d start riding (and pass her somewhere along the trail), so we’d continue leapfrogging like that, with me running 3.7 miles total (Kendyl biking that), and me riding 2.6 (Kendyl running that).
So when it was finally our waves turn to start, we were so excited and pumped… the sun was warming us up (it was around 8:15 a.m. by that point), she got going on her bike, and then a few minutes later us runners got to follow them! The first mile for me was the hardest of the race… I could definitely feel the altitude, and was worried for a second that the whole race would feel like that! By the time I got to the first obstacle, the army rope crawl, Kendyl was long gone! The second mile (my first bike mile) wasn’t as hard on my body, but was a really hard mountain bike mile – all uphill! First a gradual incline, which wouldn’t have been bad but it was mostly gravel so most of us girls only made it halfway up before we had to get off and walk/run to a much STEEPER hill where a line had formed for people to walk the bikes up! It was a slight bottleneck, and a huge hill, but got up it and jumped back on the bike for a nice flat area to the second obstacle which was a rock wall up one side, and a net you had to climb down the other. Kendyl was waiting for me there along with a few others, so I handed off the bike and she got going! I started running, and this mile was much easier for me, though it was longer… I guess my lungs had expanded enough and my body had started to acclimate so it wasn’t as bad…
I caught up to Kendyl who had to get off the bike to walk it through part of the lake (only about a foot deep of water, but by the time we got through after 8 waves of teams it was a HUGE mud puddle so we got wet and dirty pretty early on in the race), so I helped her get the bike up the next crazy hill before she took off riding and me running again, haha! She said later she was sure glad I was there to lift that bike up so she could climb up, lol!
The third obstacle was a balance beam – piece of cake – and then I found the bike and got on my way… I passed her and cheered her on (we are huge fist pumpers, LOL) and got to the fourth obstacle, a huge inflatable mountain you had to climb up then slide down, pretty quickly. Again there was a line, but I wasn’t complaining – having a nice break to catch your breath was good bull. Then as I was running out I saw Kendyl run in, so I told her where to find the bike, grabbed some water, and got going on the last leg, which physically wasn’t that hard, but just seemed to take FOREVER! Kendyl passed me, cheered me on again, and I kept on going around the lake…
I felt like I was doing pretty good because I was passing a few girls, and even a few boys, and then finally I rounded into the sea of cars, then we had to run on the beach (running in sand in water and mud logged tennis is way hard), and finally up the hill to meet our partners who were waiting for us to go through the final obstacle, the HUGE MUD PIT, before we crossed the finish line as a team! Kendyl grabbed my hand, we ran to the mud pit, and crawled in… you have to crawl under flags, so they make sure you get dirty, but we were laughing and loving it… the mud was extremely goopy (they did a great job in preparing it!), cold, and wet, so by the time we got out of it we were oh-so-dirty!!!
Then we ran the last little ways to the finish line and crossed at 1:05:30! Not too bad! Out of our age group we placed 51st out of 77 teams, which we were pretty happy about considering all of the other teams but 2(?) were from Colorado/Wyoming with the fastest team at 50 minutes, and the slowest of our group at 1:30 minutes, so we were stoked!
We didn’t have to time to celebrate though – David and Albert met us at the finish line where they were taking pictures of us, then we got some pictures together, headed to the reservoir to jump in and get the mud off, dried off at his truck, packed stuff up, then headed back to his place in Denver. Kendyl and I were in and out of there with showers in record time, and on the road by 11 a.m. Denver time – wow!
So here was the part we’d been trying not to think about… driving home from Denver straight… I drove us the first hour to Colorado Springs where we had to stop for gas, and as Kendyl had caught a quick nap she told me to do the same so we switched (races take it out of you, I tell ya), both popped an Aleve, and then she was good until we got to Amarillo where I made her get out so she could sleep. I drove us from there until Fort Worth which was around 1:00 a.m., and then she brought us in the rest of the way home with us arriving at Mom’s at 4:15 a.m.… right at 16 hours from door to door… we only stopped 4 times, had many laughs, sang SO many songs, and missed each other the next day when Kendyl went to work. I LOVE HER! She’s the best sister ever, and I can’t wait to do a ton more Muddy Buddies!
Quotes from the trip that set us into fits of giggles and crying laughter:
“I don’t know, Tasha, I’m not a flippin’ farmer… I mean we grew up in the same place!” – Kendyl’s response to me when I asked her what a field of crops was… you maybe had to be there but her tone, face, and everything made me go crazy, it was hysterical!
“Smell deep” – me telling her to smell my pillow because it still smelled like West Virginia (not in a bad way, just how a place smells), and what was funny is even though my comment was slightly weird, she knew what I was saying so she dove her nose into it and took a deep breath, and agreed with me, then repeated, “smell deep, huh?” (writing this right now is making me die all over again, LOL)
“I love this song” – said by the both of us probably every third song, which would be maybe hundreds of times (we lost count very early on)
“No funny businessssss” – the part in Paper Planes that Kendyl loves to hear me imitate, it cracks her up every time and never got old even though we probably saw a train every hour or so? LOL
Trip theme songs:
Paper Planes by MIA from Slumdog (the train scene) – we played it literally every time we saw a moving train, which was then followed by Jai Ho… we determined the both of us are excellent Bollywood dancers, and if there was such a thing as car dancing, we’d take the award HANDS DOWN!
Use Somebody, Kings of Leon… sigh… we love this song :-)!
The third obstacle was a balance beam – piece of cake – and then I found the bike and got on my way… I passed her and cheered her on (we are huge fist pumpers, LOL) and got to the fourth obstacle, a huge inflatable mountain you had to climb up then slide down, pretty quickly. Again there was a line, but I wasn’t complaining – having a nice break to catch your breath was good bull. Then as I was running out I saw Kendyl run in, so I told her where to find the bike, grabbed some water, and got going on the last leg, which physically wasn’t that hard, but just seemed to take FOREVER! Kendyl passed me, cheered me on again, and I kept on going around the lake…
I felt like I was doing pretty good because I was passing a few girls, and even a few boys, and then finally I rounded into the sea of cars, then we had to run on the beach (running in sand in water and mud logged tennis is way hard), and finally up the hill to meet our partners who were waiting for us to go through the final obstacle, the HUGE MUD PIT, before we crossed the finish line as a team! Kendyl grabbed my hand, we ran to the mud pit, and crawled in… you have to crawl under flags, so they make sure you get dirty, but we were laughing and loving it… the mud was extremely goopy (they did a great job in preparing it!), cold, and wet, so by the time we got out of it we were oh-so-dirty!!!
Then we ran the last little ways to the finish line and crossed at 1:05:30! Not too bad! Out of our age group we placed 51st out of 77 teams, which we were pretty happy about considering all of the other teams but 2(?) were from Colorado/Wyoming with the fastest team at 50 minutes, and the slowest of our group at 1:30 minutes, so we were stoked!We didn’t have to time to celebrate though – David and Albert met us at the finish line where they were taking pictures of us, then we got some pictures together, headed to the reservoir to jump in and get the mud off, dried off at his truck, packed stuff up, then headed back to his place in Denver. Kendyl and I were in and out of there with showers in record time, and on the road by 11 a.m. Denver time – wow!
So here was the part we’d been trying not to think about… driving home from Denver straight… I drove us the first hour to Colorado Springs where we had to stop for gas, and as Kendyl had caught a quick nap she told me to do the same so we switched (races take it out of you, I tell ya), both popped an Aleve, and then she was good until we got to Amarillo where I made her get out so she could sleep. I drove us from there until Fort Worth which was around 1:00 a.m., and then she brought us in the rest of the way home with us arriving at Mom’s at 4:15 a.m.… right at 16 hours from door to door… we only stopped 4 times, had many laughs, sang SO many songs, and missed each other the next day when Kendyl went to work. I LOVE HER! She’s the best sister ever, and I can’t wait to do a ton more Muddy Buddies!
Quotes from the trip that set us into fits of giggles and crying laughter:
“I don’t know, Tasha, I’m not a flippin’ farmer… I mean we grew up in the same place!” – Kendyl’s response to me when I asked her what a field of crops was… you maybe had to be there but her tone, face, and everything made me go crazy, it was hysterical!
“Smell deep” – me telling her to smell my pillow because it still smelled like West Virginia (not in a bad way, just how a place smells), and what was funny is even though my comment was slightly weird, she knew what I was saying so she dove her nose into it and took a deep breath, and agreed with me, then repeated, “smell deep, huh?” (writing this right now is making me die all over again, LOL)
“I love this song” – said by the both of us probably every third song, which would be maybe hundreds of times (we lost count very early on)
“No funny businessssss” – the part in Paper Planes that Kendyl loves to hear me imitate, it cracks her up every time and never got old even though we probably saw a train every hour or so? LOL
Trip theme songs:
Paper Planes by MIA from Slumdog (the train scene) – we played it literally every time we saw a moving train, which was then followed by Jai Ho… we determined the both of us are excellent Bollywood dancers, and if there was such a thing as car dancing, we’d take the award HANDS DOWN!
Use Somebody, Kings of Leon… sigh… we love this song :-)!
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