we went and conquered

ok, so i have been talking about this race since at least february if not before. and finally the weekend came for alisha and mine's adventurous race, the muddy buddy race. we left college station on sat and arrived in austin, at what we thought was the only rei in austin for registration, but we later found out was that there are two rei's in austin and we were at the wrong one. so we got directions and headed over to the other rei. we signed our lives away and got our horrendous technical shirts (i'll post a picture). then we headed over to andrea and jocelyn's place to hang out and get ready for the race on sun. upon arrival we finally got to explain the race and andrea looked at the race's website and of course found the costume contest. she proceeded to ask us what we were dressing up as. (at this point we didn't know, we figured we would just make some t shirts or something) but andrea and jocelyn were like wear that awesome teal 80s dress that andrea owns. so i tried on, but it didn't fit but we rigged it up to my shirt so that i could wear it. but then we were like what is alisha going to wear? and we decided that we would be beauty queens. so we had to go get alisha a dress. we headed on over to goodwill and found her a black and blue sparkly dress. it was so pretty that the women who checked her out said, 'well, didn't you get a deal? this dress is so nice' and alisha didn't have the heart to tell her that we were going to wear it through the mud. then we grabbed some dinner and picked up a few more supplies (some tiaras and white t shirts) and then rented little miss sunshine, because none of the girls besides alisha and i had seen the awesomeness. so we watched little miss sunshine, which was so much fun to watch andrea, jocelyn, and katie's reactions to the movie (i even think andrea shed a few tears). we made our miss muddy buddy 07 sashes and attached our crowns to our helmets, then we hit the sack. we set the alarm for 5 but i didn't even hear it, so we got up at 5:30, ate some cereal, got dressed, took some pictures, and took off for the race. once we arrived, we had to park about a mile away. we also felt a bit ridiculous because all the people around us weren't dressed up at all, but we put the bike together and headed toward the start point. when we finally got close to the start point, we heard the annoucement for all of the costumed racers to come to the stage for the contest. so we headed up to the stage, which was a bit hard to find because of all of the barriers and things in the way. we started to feel a bit better about our outfits once we saw everyone else around us. even though we looked awesome, the two guys that were dressed up as the ambigously gay duo beat us for the road atlas. there were other people dressed up as chicago bears football players, some master's graduates (they both had just gotten their masters at tu), some people in those fat bikini suits, molly shannon as superstar, dirty nurses, and some girls wearing lingere. well, the race started in waves and we were in the 9th wave which meant that even though the race started at 8, we didn't start until 8:50. the race course was a bit more difficult than we expected but we made it through. there was serious mountain biking and a mountain that alisha had to push the bike up (she's a hoss). there were balance beams, cargo nets, a small climbing wall, a ranger weave (it was a bit lame) as the obstacles at each checkpoint. but alas we arrived at the mud pit and crawled through the grossest mud i think i have ever encountered. it was thick liquid mud. and because we had those tiaras on our helmets, we had to stick our faces into the mud to get under the flags that made you crawl through the mud. but it was amazing. here's a picture after some of the mud had been sprayed off of us.

my dress was so heavy from the mud that it was falling off, but i did have on another shirt underneath. more pictures will be posted soon.

we are awesome

muddy buddy...

so today i went with alisha to purchase her new bike helmet. she got this light blue louis garneau helmet with lots of ventilation. it looks pretty cool. i know you are wondering why this post is about alisha, well it's not. the reason why alisha needed a helmet is because in two weeks she and i will be participating in the most amazing experience in our lives (well at in our racing lives). we are doing what is referred to as the muddy buddy race. now there are several of these races across the country but instead of going somewhere like orlando, we will be heading to good ole' austin, texas to participate in this run/bike race, or what is more commonly referred to as a dualathon. but this isn't your average dualathon. this is a partner race. so alisha will start off running and i will start off biking. there are five to six legs of the race. so once we arrive upon the first checkpoint we will overcome some sort of obstacle and then switch, i will being running, she will begin biking. and we do this 5 times until we reach the final obstacle. this is the best part. we will have to crawl, not run or walk, maybe it will involve a bit of swimming through a huge mud pit. yes, a mud pit. it will be glorious. i can't wait. if you want a little bit more info, head on over to
http://www.muddybuddy.com/info.php - theres a video you can watch, but it's not great or anything, but it will give you more of an idea.

when we complete this feat, i promise to post my thoughts, feelings, excitement (maybe pictures) of the awesomeness that is known as the muddy buddy race.

identity theft

so val is doing her stat homework and wants me to update her blog...but its kinda hard writing as someone..like being a ghostwriter...you know those people who actually write the book, but its credited to someone else

anyways, i tried and couldnt do it, so i've resorted to come clean...this is not Valerie, its her best friend.

at ECU, where I was at grad school this past year..we started school the 2nd week of jan, so i finished up with everything on the 27th of april...its nice. i'll have a small break, but then i have to finish up my portofolio.

Val landed a student worker job at the International Programs Office. she will be working 20 hrs week for the summer & its kinda ironic: i've been applying for jobs there and she actually sent me a rejection letter today...but hopefully she'll put in a good word for other apps i send in.

in other news, Disturbia is a avery freaky movie. Valerie thought it was good, me on the other couldve lived a fullfilling life never having seen it..but then again, i'm not a fan of scary/suspenseful movies.

thats all ive got for my debut appearance on val's blog.
now that i have access..who knows? maybe i'll sneak on again :o)
stay tuned. hopefully val will be getting back to regularly updating this thing!

alisha