Race Report: Crazylegs Classic

This past weekend, I eschewed my typical Saturday morning routine of drinking tea and watching soccer, for doing the Crazylegs Classic.  The 8 km, or basically 5 mi, course runs from Madison’s downtown state capital square, through the University of Wisconsin campus, and ending in Camp Randall the university’s football stadium.  I last did this race back in 2009 when I was training for the 2009 Madison Marathon.  My finishing time then (in a raining downpour) was just under 45 minutes – 44:49.  

This year I was focused on improving my time to be under 40 minutes.  I’ve been building a better base, one especially of shorter distances with more speed.  If everything went perfect, I was going for under 38:00.  Like in 2009 though, the conditions would be far from perfect.  The race time temperature was 42 degrees, with a misting rain, and winds that were at least 15 mph.  Before the race, I did a warm-up jog from the downtown Panera Bread where my wife and I parked the car (it would be our post-race meeting place).  My legs were really tight because of the damp cold and were still feeling stiff by the time I got to my wave in the start line staging.  Luckily I was in the front end of the waves in wave “I” versus say the last wave “ZZ,” so my legs didn’t have too much time to get really cold before starting. 

Once I crossed the finish line, my legs had a bit of an adrenaline surge but they were still really stiff.  It definitely made the running crowd dodging more difficult.  As you can imagine with the wave start – 52 waves in fact, that there are a lot of people that do the race.  This year’s entry total just came short of 20,000 runners.  With that said, the 5 mile course is still very tightly packed with runners.  I probably didn’t really stop doing full on running “dodge” mode until at least mile 3.  That’s not to say though that I didn’t bulldoze my way up the decently sized and switch-backed Observatory Hill just after mile 1.  (I really like going up hills fast and to feel that pain).  

Looking back, that hill climb probably was my highlight of the race.  Growing up in Iowa, I don’t really get caught up in the “I love the University of Wisconsin!” theme of the race.  With that said I ignored all the badger loving red and had very focused tunnel vision during the race.  With my legs not feeling the greatest though, that tunnel vision just kept me focused on keeping a steady decently quick pace.  I held onto an under 8 minute per mile pace and managed to sprint through the finish inside Camp Randall for an official time of 38:51.  

I should be excited with my time as it’s under the 40 minute mark, but I feel like I could’ve done better.  Because of the cold, but especially the amount of people, I don’t feel my legs were really able to test themselves out and go as fast as they could.  

What’s next then?  Well, I’m debating about doing the Madison Marathon 10K on May 26^th.  It would be kind of a neat race as it takes place at night, but it’s mostly the same course as Crazylegs.  My legs could take revenge on a familiar course, but is that worth the $45 entry fee?  I’m not so sure.  We’ll see how I feel about it after this next week of training.