2013 Muddy Buddy - Boulder

Four years ago, I had just moved to Colorado Springs to start teaching.  Nikki was still in PT school so she flew out to visit me, and we decided to do the Muddy Buddy in Boulder.  Neither of us knew anything about Boulder, so it wasn't until we drove out there that we realized how bad my idea was to camp out there.  There is no where to camp in Boulder.  So we ended up sleeping in my car in a  hotel parking lot.

Four years later, we decided it would be fun to do the Muddy Buddy again.  But wow how things have changed in those four years.  Nikki is now Dr. Nikki and lives and works in the Boulder area and is married.  I am back in Colorado Springs not teaching after leaving for a while to live in Pohnpei and Boulder.  This time around we both slept in real beds because we knew better than to try pitching a tent somewhere.  All of these changes, however, did not detract one bit from our fun!  I even think round 2 might have been even more fun!

Being a little more prepared, we also got way more into our team name and costume aspect of the race.  We were the A&Mazing Aggies.  I found some overalls at Goodwill and my mom and I transformed them into Aggie overalls! 

Yet again so thankful I have a crafty mom

We met up early on race morning to get decked out in all of our Aggie attire.

Making the overalls a little more running and climbing friendly

Tattoos on!

The maroon socks really finish off the whole look

Workin' the class of '08!

Since we had put effort into our look this year, we of course had to enter the costume contest.  Plus they were offering a free pair of Keen shoes to each buddy of the winning team.  That's a great deal worth looking ridiculous for!  We worked it as much as we could.  We did an Aggie yell, we jumped and screamed, we showed off the overalls.  But in the end we were just in the wrong state.

Trying to get the loudest cheers

The competition - Mario Cart girls took 1st

After the costume competition came the real competition and muddy fun.

Serious buddy moment...I can't really remember what we were
saying but maybe something to the effect of "You are my
buddy.  I will not leave you."

Ok, we're ready to race!

Nikki was all about lining up at the front because we're
just that good.  Haha!

And we're off!

It was about a 5 mile course along the reservoir.  Along the way we climbed over walls, slid down huge slides, climbed ropes, balanced across balance beams, waded through muddy water, climbed through a web, caught up on each others' lives, and completely enjoyed ourselves.  That brought us back to the final and biggest obstacle...

Up and...

over

Up and over again, a little bit slippery this time because those
guys on the sides are spraying water in your face the whole time

I think they were having a little too much fun with that

And finally to THE MUD PIT!!!

We're all in, army crawl!

Now we really are MUDDY buddies!

Yay!  Muddy A&Mazing Aggies

We think we're so tough in our mud ;)

Evidence that Nikki did a "mud angel" at the end

Afterwards, we of course wanted to hang around to enjoy all the race goodies.  Free Noodles & Company, sock give-aways, Blue Bell (my personal favorite), Powerbars, etc. 

We also took advantage of the chance to play around
and dream that we're that good

#1! Whoop!

Fans get to benefit too.  Can't pass up the Blue Bell!!!

While we were at the Blue Bell stand, we started talking to the guys about Texas and how we've taken the Blue Bell tour more than once because Brenham is so close to College Station.  We're having a good time appreciating how great it is to have Blue Bell in Colorado now.  Then my mom heard our name over the speaker.  Why would they be saying our name?  Maybe they're talking about costumes again?  We kind of blew it off and got back to more important things...getting our scoop of Blue Bell.  Once we were enjoying the deliciousness we decided that maybe we should make our way back towards the stage and see what's going on.  Pretty soon some other ladies came up to us and told us that they've been calling our name because we got 3rd place!  Us?! Really?!

It's true!  And we got these cool little trophies.  That's
a little tube of the mud on the right.

It's not 1st, but hey we'll take 3rd!

How did we manage to get trophies?

We don't know, but we're excited about it!

The race is all around a lot of fun.  I mean, what could be better than a morning full of being goofy and playing in mud with one of your best buds?

I couldn't ask for a better buddy!

Look for this A&Mazing team on the Amazing Race one day.  That is our big dream! :)