Tri-and-a-Half-lete

My buddy Craig (one of the six people who happen to read this blog) and I are going to race through the mud at the Muddy Buddy race on 11/2 in San Dimas. This entails alternately riding and running a mile, then going over (or through?) obstacles, then doing it again 6 times, culminating in a run through a huge pit of mud. Then we get washed-off with fire hoses. Sounds fun right?

Right. Except, of course, for the part about riding a mountain bike, which I have, but haven't ridden in the mountains! In fact, I've even put on "smooth" tires (knobby on the sides, smooth down the middle) to make road-riding more comfortable (of course, this was long before acquiring an actual road bike).

In preparation for this dirtfest, Craig and I headed up to Mulholland to ride 3 miles to the Nike missile monitoring base and back. Of course, when Craig said "3 miles" he really meant "4.6 miles, mostly uphill, through sand and gravel." Well I did it (with only a bit of whining). I didn't get mountain biking at all until we hit a long downhill.

As my daughter would say, "OMG!" What a blast! The downhill rides made it all worth it: it felt like skiing and even sounded like skiing! I was riding just barely in control at times, getting up to 20mph at some points. Too much fun.

Now I just need to get a shock absorbing fork for the front of the bike, switch the tires back to knobbies, and I'm good to go!

We are going to DOMINATE the Muddy Buddy!