The Muddy Buddy is a 10K adventure race and ride event. Proceeds go to the Challenged Athletes Foundation. Bob Babbitt of Competitor magazine is a co-founder. He is Mr Frog at the events held around the country.

"We never want the racing part to overshadow the having-fun part," says Bob Babbitt, who founded the race and co-founded the Challenged Athletes Foundation (CAF), for which the Muddy Buddy is a fundraiser. "Muddy Buddy is sort of the alternative to going out and trying to win your age group or train and do all that other stuff. I don't believe in any of that. I believe in getting out and having a good time."

Babbitt, himself an Ironman competitor and member of the Ironman Hall of Fame, came up with the idea for the Muddy Buddy -- birthed in southern California and now a nationwide series -- as a way to put the fun back in sports.

"It's all about getting out there and enjoying yourself," he says. "This isn't brain surgery. It's about getting out and having fun on the weekends."

But for Babbitt, the first goal isn't the race itself. The goal is to use the race to raise money and awareness for the CAF, which provides disabled athletes with equipment that allows them to remain active in competitive sports, most often through prosthetic limbs specifically designed for athletics.

"We give people the tools and the mentoring to find the sports that are right for them," Babbitt says.

Since 1997, the CAF has raised more than $11 million, helped champion rights for disabled people in Ghana (documented in the Oprah Winfrey-narrated film "Emmanuel's Gift") and started Operation Rebound, an outreach program for American soldiers who have been permanently injured in combat.

www.dailycamera.com/news/2008/aug/08/mud-slinging-for-a-caus e/ (less info)