It's ALIVE!!!!

I know most of you were incredibly worried since I didn't write on Sunday after finishing my first Muddy Buddy, thinking the worst. Well, I'm alive and well with only some minor scratches on my knees from the mud pit. SIL and I finished (one of my goals) and we didn't come in last place (my other goal)!!! This thing was much harder than I first imagined, though. I chose to bike the first leg which I assumed would be a walk in the park. Not.Exactly. I managed to pass a few people in the beginning but soon realized that this task I had willingly (OK, somewhat dragging my feet) signed up for was going to much more daunting than previously believed. I was huffing and puffing by the time I made it to the first obstacle which was a wall that you had to climb over with a rope net on the other side. After the first obstacle, I proceeded to try and catch my breath while walking at a brisk pace...notice that I don't start running...you might see a trend here. After spotting a girl who looked exhausted while running but was, in fact, still running, I decided that I should pick up the pace and jogged for a few minutes. By this time, I start to notice that I'm being passed by the first set of runners now on bikes from the group behind us who started a full 7-8 minutes after we did. This, along with the huge hill that comes into my view, does not help with my motivation as I fully realize that I did not train near enough for this thing. I slow back down to the brisk walk and start sucking air with the long walk up the hill. The next obstacle was a balance beam which I must say I really excelled in. When I was in Junior High, I was picked to be on the balance beam for the gymnastics team but turned them down as I'm slightly scared of heights. Back on the bike. At this point, I'm telling myself that I'm a little over 1/3 of the way finished and this makes me slightly happier. I am almost to the next obstacle when I see SIL with a buddy that she has met...this makes me nervous b/c we're quite close to the obstacle and I know she'll probably end up waiting for me at the end. The obstacle (my favorite, by the way) was a blow-up slide that we had to climb up on the rope net and slide down...very fun. Start walk/running again. This is the last leg that I have to walk/run and it makes me very happy. I am speed walking at this point (swinging arms and everything) and see a skinny lady who is also walking. We are now friends. I could have passed her but she's interesting and we start to walk together. My new friend and I proceed to run on the downhill portions and rejoice when we see the next to last obstacle. I'm almost there. The last leg of biking about killed me b/c I had a cramp in my side but I managed to finally make it to the last bike drop. The man in camo kept telling me to take my bike farther over but finally shut up when I told him that I had no more energy and was leaving the bike where it was just dropped. We crawled through the mud pit and crossed the finish with a time of 1 hour, 17 minutes and 1 second (32nd out of 41 teams). The organization had a great system to wash off...we got in the lake. This goes against almost all of my principals of never getting in a lake (ask me about this sometime) but as I was covered in mud, I went ahead and joined the crowd.
All in all, I would suggest participating in the Muddy Buddy if it comes to your area but make sure you have a good training schedule before signing up!