Muddy Buddy and Clermont

Saturday was to be my 4th Muddy Buddy (Christian's Third). This was our second one in Orlando. I was last minute getting our costumes together and made, but I got it done. We dressed up as Ms. Piggy and Kermit the Frog...team name Muddy Muppets.

Did the costume contest, LOST AGAIN. And you know, at the time I was totally fine with it. Last year, I felt we got screwed, but this year there were some really great costumes. Most of the top ones had bought their costumes, but still cool. The top two were: He-Man and Skeletor (bought), but they had made their bike to look like the tiger and that was homemade, so cool. And The Ambiguously Gay Duo (this looked bought, but I'm not sure). Ace and Gary looked awesome and acted the part up on stage, so I cheered and voted for them. All's good...except...get done with the race and see that NEITHER TEAM had RACED IN THEIR COSTUME! What the hell? How is that fair/part of the race. That's the whole point...and if I ran the whole thing in a red dress and a pig's nose (admittedly, I didn't wear the wig), they should have to stay in costume too. UGH. Whatever...

Racewise, we were only a minute faster than last year. I was a bit disappointed in that, but I pretty much blame it all on my mountain biking ability and comfort. I was just not comfortable enough to whip my bike around people and with 2000 TEAMS this year, the course was CROWDED. I tried, but not hard enough on the bike. Overall, we finished 11th in our age group (out of about 140) and 133rd overall. And it was still fun.



Since we were in Orlando and Clermont is a 1/2 hour away from my best buddy's house, we got up EARLY on Sunday morning and headed over to Clermont to do the first loop of the Great Floridian Tri (60 miles for first loop), and to get an experience of hills that we can't get in Miami. We have heard the Louisville course is pretty hilly. So, what did I learn on this ride. #1 Clermont is BEAUTIFUL, wooded, open, nice roads, nice people...and if you have to live in Central Florida, this would be the place to be. You would think you were in Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia...it looks the same. I had NO IDEA that a place like that existed in Florida. #2 Clermont is REALLY hilly. They weren't kidding. It was TIRING. And after we climbed the mountain, for some reason I thought the rest of the hills wouldn't be that bad....wrong...lots more hills and big ones. #3 Sugarloaf Mountain is a BEAST for real. Apparently about a 1/2 mile at a 17% grade...turned that corner and my mouth fell open. It was hard the first time. But coach had us do it FOUR times. OUCH! I was pretty damn proud of myself after that fourth time though! All in all we did a few minutes over 4 hours, and covered 64 miles. I was exhausted and my legs were beat, but I loved the ride. It was SO much nicer to get the heck out of the one BORING-ASS ride we can do in Miami. Maybe we will hit it one or two more times before the big day!

And this was the end of our "Recovery Week." 11:30 hours training. 4:00 of those on Sunday, so a nice week!