I told Jeff that I was going to do this race this past weekend, and he thought it might make for a good race report, so if you’re interested, read on.
“Crazy Legs” is an 8K race held each Spring in Madison, WI. Money raised benefits University of Wisconsin athletics. I ran this race for the first time last year with my friend Bob. It is a blast. The race starts at the WI state capitol in Madison and finishes at the 50-yard line at Camp Randall Stadium (UW’s home football venue).
Bob and I made the trip to Madison with Diane and Mary Lou, our wives, on Friday. For a little extra motivation, we have a sort of competition with Bob’s son Jonathan and his friend Jim, who live and work in Madison. Last year, our collective finishing times were 1:42 slower than the “boys”, so our goal was to narrow that gap (secretly, to beat them straight up!).
We picked up our race packets at the Best Buy at West Towne Mall (one of 3 packet pick-up locations) and checked into our hotel. We met Jonathan and Jim at the “Old Fashioned” right on the capitol square on Friday night for a classic Wisconsin Friday night fish fry and to sample their wide selection of draft beer (they have 53 on tap!) – mostly from Madison or other Wisconsin breweries. Order a Bud Light here, and you’ll get a very strange look. Wisconsin, or at least Madison, is definitely the land of “beer snobs”. Most of the brews are full bodied brews made by local breweries.
Choices include varieties such as Hopalicious, Spotted Cow, Supper Club, Dominator, etc. Not exactly the ideal pre-race carbo-load, but hey, it’s five miles and the Friday night fish fry is a must. My wife had Walleye, and I had Lake Perch. Of course we had to have fried cheese curds and onion straws for appetizers. It was a great time and we held the consumption in relative check with the impending run on Saturday. The smack talk that we had expected, and experienced last year, was curiously absent. Hmmm?? Psych? Or, did they really not train?
Speaking of the friendly competition, I have to talk a little more about that here. Last year, Jonathan finished in 37:18, well ahead of me at 38:40, Jim at 38:47, and Bob at 39:07. While I had no shot at Jonathan, Bob tried to make a move on Jim toward the finish, but Jim turned, saw him, and turned it on to stretch the lead and finish ahead. This year, we wanted to ensure that we didn’t have a repeat, and to add a bit more fun to the run. So, we devised a scheme to disguise ourselves after the start. My disguise was a Y t-shirt on top of my “real” running shirt, a pair of sunglasses hidden on one hip, a hat on the other, and a fake mustache purchased at Nick Nackery tucked in the key pocket of my running shorts. Bob used a similar approach.
On Saturday morning, we drove over to pick the guys up about 8:30 with coffee and breakfast in tow. They both looked ready to go. Brand new Nike minimalist running shoes, compression pants, spiffy shorts and shirts, Garmins, etc. (They are true gadget guys). Mary Lou whispered to me that I looked “kind of geeky” in my white cotton Y t-shirt. We drove on over to downtown Madison pumped with excitement and anticipation.
Saturday turned out to be a really nice day for running. It was coolish (low 50’s) and mostly cloudy, and the sun was peaking out pretty regularly. The only downside was a 20 mph sustained breeze, gusting to around 30. This race drew 20,000 entrants, approximately 13,000 of those runners, so they employ a wave start. We were in corral “I” (begins with “A” and goes all the way to at least “tt”). My guess is they were only staggering each wave by about a minute each.
It’s a really neat environment around the start. It actually is organized around the square surrounding the state capitol building and is adjacent to the University of Wisconsin campus. Parking is surprisingly pretty easy, given all the participants, students, and the farmers market going on at the same time on the capitol grounds. We only had to walk a few blocks to the starting area. We took a few photos in front of the capitol building and did a little warming up on the side streets before heading to our corral to await the start. At this point, I truly thought the 26 year olds were playing us, and that we might be in trouble once the running got started.
At 10:00 am, the first wave took off and the race was underway. While the anticipation was a bit nerve racking as each wave got started, the atmosphere was both festive and amusing. As you approach the start line, you are greeted by any number of UW athletes – football, baseball, basketball, etc. and they high five you as you prepare to get started. Even “Bucky Badger” was there, but as I approached him with the intention of high-fiving him, two young female runners came up on the other side of him and, well, he never even knew that I walked by. The PA announcer lamented that we shouldn’t get our hopes up, because given our starting position, we “probably weren’t going to win the race”. All the while, “On Wisconsin” was being played by a portion of the UW marching band. So, at last it’s our turn to the start line at about 10:10, and we’re off.
The course is pretty flat at first but quickly you begin descending the hill atop which the capitol sits. There were lots of partying UW students lining the streets cheering us on and offering beverages of all sorts. Keep in mind, we just got started. I knew that Jonathan was a fast starter based on last year’s race so I kept my eye on him and pledged to stay close. He pushed it right away so I had to kick it up. Bob and Jim were somewhere behind. I had made my mind up that I was going to try to get rid of my t-shirt about a ½ mile in, so I moved as far away across the street from Jonathan that I could, hoped that Jim wasn’t anywhere close behind, and left it for a group of partying co-eds on the curb (I’m sure they were thrilled). As we approached the 1-mile marker, I was able to gauge that I was roughly 20 seconds behind Jonathan, and I thought OK, but I didn’t know how long I could keep up the pace. At mile 1 my Garmin told me I was at 7:00 flat. I was worried because I knew there was no way that I could sustain that.
Not long past mile 1, we made a right turn and suddenly you’re on a steep climb called the “Observatory Hill”. It’s a killer for me. I’m talking about a 90-foot elevation change over 4/10ths of a mile. I was digging hard and still had Jonathan in my sights, but couldn’t tell if I was gaining ground. Finally, I crested the hill and I could tell that I had ever so slightly closed the gap. We went down a dip and back up before another decline to flat ground. We were at about 1.7 miles and I could tell that Jonathan was slowing down, and I was slowly but steadily gaining ground. I lost the t-shirt earlier, but I was worried about him seeing me, and I was feeling good enough to press harder, so I plopped on the sun glasses, donned the cap, and reached for the black mustache. Miraculously, I was able to peel the backing and place it over my lip without breaking stride too much. Seconds later, I moved way left (Jonathan was on the right), turned the other way and scooted past. I could sense him look over at me, but I didn’t dare look over or look back. I didn’t hear a whoop or call or anything so I thought I was golden. A little bit later I passed the Mile 2 marker – a 7:38 split, a serious drop from Mile 1, but with the hill and the fact that I had passed Jonathan, I wasn’t feeling too bad about that.
At about 2 ½ miles, running alongside a large lake (not sure which one), we made a hairpin turn and started heading directly into the 20 mph wind. Really had to dig deep at this point, and actually ran a 7:28 split for Mile 3. Miles 4 and 5 were somewhat uneventful, aside from the nagging hip pain I’ve been battling lately and the threat of Jonathan coming up on me out of nowhere. The spectators were great and I pushed about as hard as I could and ran 7:47 and 7:48 splits the last 2 miles. I can’t reconcile the Garmin splits to the 37:54 chip time I was officially recorded as running.
I can tell you that running into Camp Randall Stadium was a neat feeling. There are at least as many spectators on one side of the stadium as there are participants in the race. They’re all cheering and there’s a big stage with a live band playing music and various UW “dignitaries” like Barry Alvarez (former football coach and current AD) speaking to the crowd. They have ample water and fruit for racers, in addition to free flowing draft beer in the concourses. It’s a great, festive atmosphere.
I waited a few minutes and finally found Jonathan, who had crossed the line (indeed, the 50-yard line) in 40:08, followed by Bob at 40:36, and Jim at 41:35. Jonathan and Jim had been very verbal about how little they had trained and that we were just going to have fun, yada, yada, yada, but I can tell you that they were not happy with the result. It took them to awhile to find humor in our “costumes” as well, but they eventually came around, courtesy of a few cold, frosty beverages.
After the race, we all headed over to Dottie’s Dumpling Dowry for the “best burger in Madison” and a few more libations. If you ever make the trip to Madison, I highly recommend Dottie’s for a great pub-like atmosphere and great food. After Dottie’s, we headed back to their place for some more friendly competition. They must have been pretty mad, because they dispensed of Bob and me 6 games to 1 in Cornhole, or “Bags”, as they call it in Madison.
This is definitely a “fun run”, not too taxing and more about having good times with family and friends. Madison is a great town. I’m considering doing their Marathon one of these days, and I understand they’ve got some great trails too. I know this was a bit long winded for a “run report”, and had as much about the before and after as it did the race itself, but I hope you enjoyed it. I know we did!
I’ve included a few pics that may only make sense if you read the tale.
