I got them happy feet

I ran my first event run today, the UW-Madison Crazylegs Classic. It’s an 8 km (5 mile) run from downtown Madison to Camp Randall stadium.

They had a wave start system, by which runners’ starting times are staggered according to how fast they think they can finish. I must have underestimated my speed, because I was passing people the entire time. When registering, I guessed I would take about 50 minutes, but I ended up with a respectable 40:36 (that’s a sustained rate of 7.5 mph).

Highlights of the run included:

• three frat houses in a row blasting “Eye of the Tiger,”
• some guy in a police uniform running with his two young sons dressed in black-and-white pinstripe prisoner outfits,
• Uncle Sam on stilts,
• and the slow, piercing sensation of forming a new blister at the site of a large callus. This was just after the 3/5 point.

All in all, it was a lot of fun. All along the path there were nice people cheering us on, despite the cool weather. I may have to look into other event runs in Minneapolis and Japan in the future.