DarqByte

It’s been said before that I don’t venture outside my comfort zone much, and that’s probably true. I tend to not initiate hanging out with friends, I often let them do so. I don’t just jump at the chance for new experiences that often…

So here I was, sitting at home poking around Facebook and talking to Laura and she started telling me I should do this Muddy Buddy thing with F. Andrew Taylor. I had actually just seen Andy post something on Facebook, looking for someone to run this thing with him, and Laura started talking to me about it, saying I should volunteer to do it with him because he really wanted to do it.

So I did a quick bit of research on what the Muddy Buddy is. It’s a 6-mile course where you trade off every other mile who is riding a bike and who is hoofing it on foot. Every mile there’s an obstacle that the two members must clear before swapping the bike. And at the end is a big mud pit the two have to slosh through.

I sat for a moment and thought “I dunno, do I really want to? Does it sound like fun? It sounds like… Wait, wait a minute. What the fuck. I never do anything different or out-of-character or interesting. I’m in.” Thus, I informed Andy he had his muddy buddy and that I would join him on this trek.

This spur-of-the-moment decision now has me making damn sure I get to the gym this week. Not that I haven’t been hitting up the gym, but if I’ve got things or errands to do right after work on Mondays or Fridays, I don’t make the gym. And I was marginally sick last week, so I didn’t work out after classes, either. So I’m making sure I get to the gym and do a combination of walking/running machines and the bike machines.

On a side note, I’ve also begun my ab exercises. I need them, badly. My gut sucks.

Anyway, so since then I’ve been also looking into just what I’m going to have to wear for the event, and it seems a lot of people dress up in interesting (to say the least) duds for the race. I’m not sure Andy and I are going that far, but I do want to make sure I don’t ruin any of my good stuff and that I’ll be appropriately dressed for the weather. I don’t want to be mega-freezing or dying of heat exhaustion either.

The race is out at Lake Las Vegas, and Weather.com lists the expected high at 57, so I… have no idea what to wear yet. Probably a short sleeve shirt and pants. Maybe I’ll wrap a longer-sleeve shirt around a bar on the bike or something, who knows. The course is here.

In final prep before the race, I plan on taking my bike at home out for a bit and getting used to riding again, on Saturday. Then the race is early Sunday morning, like 9am. Should be fun.