I recently participated in the race that got me started with running a few years ago. The Crazy Legs Classic is an 8k race in Madison, WI. I love this race for so many reasons; The finish at the 50 yard line of Camp Randall, the route through my Alma Mater, the cold beer waiting for me at the finish line, and the great friends from college that always reunite to run the race.
It was a cold and rainy day. I like cooler weather but the 40 degree weather had me in gloves. My SmartWool kept me warm during and after the race too. The cool temps probably helped me finish as strong as I did but the slick roads had me a bit worried on the large downhill portions.
I worked hard at coming out slow and building my speed towards the end. The Rocky theme song blares at the same spot on the last mile every year and it always reminds me that I can dig just a bit deeper. I also found myself calling on my old Running Back skills from my football days as I look for gaps in the runners and accelerate to squeeze through a wall of 3 friends running together (avoiding hitting any of them, of course)
As you turn the corner into the stadium you can start to hear the massive amounts of people. My legs were tired but the downhill ramp and entering one of the oldest stadiums in college football gave me a surge. I knew I would set a PR but it was a matter of by how much. I hit my Garmin at 45:54 and was very excited to share it with family and friends. Setting a PR is another reason I love this race.
It's also a great measure of how my running has been going over the years. I used to train for each race about month before the event. This was my first full year of training before running the event. Let's look at my past performances:
2008 54:30
2009 53:08
2010 1:01:49
2011 52:25
2012 45:54
I was very excited to dip under the 50 minute mark let alone shave 6 plus minutes off of my Personal Record. Very excited with my performance.
