The time has finally arrived…the final chapter of 4 months worth of running and has led up to this day….the 2013 Buffalo Zombie Mud Run.
On my first run that I did this year, it was an abysmal 12 minute, 10 second mile run. My breathing was a mess, my weight was 262.0 pounds and I was a disaster waiting to happen. In the four months since then, I can pound out a first mile just over 8 minutes and my weight has comes down about 20 pounds. I have hit the wall on the weight loss over the past three weeks it seems as I just cant seem to get to the that 25 pound mark.
The morning was very brisk with the weather being cloudy and the temperatures in the mid-50s. Thankfully, our run time was scheduled for 11am, after the sun came out and warmed things up a couple of degrees. Unfortunately, as the day had progressed, the course was deteriorating and becoming muddier. One of my bigger complaints of this event was that each wave was supposed to be limited to 30 runners but when we lined up at the starting gate, there were easily 80+ people. Now, you would think that there would be safety in numbers but that was not always the case. I was teamed up with my sister Michelle, her sister in law Jodie and her sister Amy. At the start of the race, you were given three flags as lifelines. Throughout the course, there were two vaccination stations, where you could get back an additional life at each station. Once your lifelines were gone, then so were you.
When they opened the gate for our wave, it was about a 2/10th mile run to the first obstacle, through 4 zombies. Easy enough given that we had a full group of runners, so the zombies were easy to evade with the crowd. Next complaint…some of the obstacles were not meant for 80+ people. It was literally about a 10 minute wait just to get through the first obstacle, which was crawling underneath a house through the mud. We crawled through the light mud under the house and emerged from the other side. From there, it was about another 3/10th mile run through before we came across more zombies…unfortunately, there was only about a group of 6 of us and 8 zombies staring us down. Well, once a zombie had his/her eyes locked on you, they were getting a flag from you….and it just so happened that I got lined up from two different zombies, so I was already down to my last flag early on. After walking through some really thick mud, we came to another tunnel where you had to crawl through a 30 foot tube that was filled with mud, applesauce, jello, baby poop, etc. Any chance of keeping clean…gone. After several more areas of zombies, thick mud, rope swing, thick mud, zombies, thick mud, cable line bridge, mud, zombies, a wooden wall, zombies, more thick mud, another long mud tube, zombies, a creek to crawl through, more zombies, more thick mud…I finally ran into my zombie nemesis. This cute little chick zombie that saw me and practically tackled me for my flag about 2.4 miles into the run. At this point, since I was officially dead, I decided to run a screen for my sister who was down to her last flag. After several more packs of zombies, a set of monkey bars, more zombies and crossing a lake, we came up to our last obstacle…
You had to climb a 10ft mud wall with a rope then head down the huge slide into a lake. Believe it or not, it was a welcome treat given how muddy we were at this point. After taking the plunge into the lake, you had to crawl out, over some pretty big rocks and gun it for the last 4/10ths of a mile sprint to the finish line, past many zombies.
This event was a blast and the course was set up very well for every participant but once you got checked in, given your number and flags, it was totally unorganized. No one was checking tickets or making sure you were lined up at the correct time, the obstacles got so backed up that we were waiting for as much as 10 minutes at times because there was too many runners and he website mentioned getting extra lives but that never transpired either. My recommendation would be smaller groups of runners going out at once, but step it up to every 15 minutes and not a half hour. Other than that, looking forward to next year…
You are probably wondering what this has to do with craft beer…first off, I had offered up a LIF (lottery it forward) on BeerAdvocate.com to the person who either chose my farthest distance before I died or closest to the amount of time it took for me to finish the race. Unfortunately, I am wearing the INFECTED medal of shame and died about 2.4 miles into the race…so one lucky BA will have a box heading out to him this week. Also, I had specific beers set up in case of victory and it was a choice between Lost Abbey Angels Share 2009 orCantillon Saint Lamnivus…or if I died, then a can of a Holland Lager that has been improperly stores for the past 15 years. Needless to say, since my best friend was in town, I could not subject to my misery so we cranked out the following beers that night:
- Sloop Brewing Sauer Peach ~ Berliner Weissbier ~ 4.3% ABV
- Hair of the Dog Fred from the Wood ~ American Strong Ale ~ 10.0% ABV
- Hair of the Dog Bourbon Fred from the Wood ~ American Strong Ale ~ 12.0% ABV
- Brick Market Brewing 1945 ~ Berliner Weissbier ~ 3.8% ABV
- New England Brewing Attempted Redrum ~ American Barleywine ~ 13.0% ABV
Drinking Tales of a Wandering Idiot 