if you can't be an athlete, be an athletic supporter

My friend had this crazy idea of signing up to run an 8K race and asked her friends if we wanted to join her.  Being slightly insane and up for a challenge, I said yes.  This was back in November or December of last year.  

The race was the Crazylegs Classic in Madison.  It's been around for 30 years now, people who have participated in it seem to love it, and all proceeds go to support the University of Wisconsin Athletic program.  I like the Badgers.  I don't mind giving them $30 of my money.  Maybe it will give a volleyball player a kneepad or a wrestler half a headgear or a football player a towel.  I can get behind that.

My friend, unfortunately, couldn't get out of work and therefore couldn't participate. I was left to do this alone.

Okay, no problem.  I'm an only child.  I'm used to doing things by myself.  But this was pretty far out of my comfort zone.  First of all, I'm still somewhat of a newbie when it comes to running.  I've only been doing it for about a year and a half...that's not very long compared to those people who started running in school.  Second of all, I'd never run in any kind of official race before.  Not even one of those little community charity 5K's, so I had no idea how things worked.  I'm not good when it comes to unfamiliar territory.  Once registration opened in January, I signed up as soon as I could so that there was no way I could back out of it.  I was going to do it, dammit!

Race day arrived yesterday.  This is what I woke up to:

It's too bad you can't hear the sleet hitting the window.

It was wet.  It was windy.  It was freaking cold!  Suckage was about to commence.

I got my running gear on, making sure to wear a Badgers shirt...even though nobody would be able to see it underneath the windbreaker that was going to protect me from the wetness.  I knew it was there though.

Bathroom pictures...so cliche
but what else was I supposed to do?

My loving husband and son got in the car with me and we made the hour-long trek to Mad City.  (I need to pause here and say what a great family I have.  These guys got up early on a Saturday morning to go somewhere they had no desire to be, with a huge crowd of people, crappy weather and all, just so they could support me and congratulate me at the end.  They rock!)

Once there we went our separate ways - them to the finish and me to the start.  Well, I really had no clue where I was going, so I just followed people who seemed to know.  Luckily they led me right to the shuttle to the starting point.  Faster and much less wet.

The wheels on the bus go round and round..

We're dropped off and I follow the crowd to line up.  What a cast of characters!  You have the serious uber-runners wearing as little clothing as possible, the people dressed in costumes, the teams, the families (kids included), the people who run for fitness and fun but don't make it their lives (like me), and everyone in between.  We lined up and we waited...and waited, and got wetter and wetter and colder and colder.  We knew that once we got running we'd warm up, but we didn't think we'd ever get there.  I was way back in wave "tt" so by the time we got to the start, it was 51 minutes after the first group started and they were already done.

We look like a happy energized bunch, don't we?

Crazylegs is a big to-do in Madison.  They have the athletes come out and cheer the runners on, the band is playing, the cheerleaders...cheering.  As you get up to the start, the teams are there to pump you up, thank you for running, and high-five you on your way there.  You're supporting the athletes by running and they're supporting you.  Nifty.

Badger Hockey players

Basketball players are really tall

And then we finally started!  Yay!  Warmth!  The first few minutes was chaos.  So many people going so many different speeds, trying to find their pace and a little leg room.  But eventually people fell into a groove and we were able to enjoy the run.  

Ooh - Action shot!

Well, I doubt many people enjoyed the hill.  Luckily I run hills every time I go out, but this one just seemed to go on forever!  Here - this video is from 2009, but from what I heard, the weather was exactly the same as this year's run.  Looks lovely, doesn't it?

There were so many supporters along the way cheering everybody on.  And some very odd people performing in front of their houses...this is a college town.  The best part was around mile 4.5 when they were blasting the theme from Rocky to keep everyone motivated.  Gonna fly now..... Awesomeness.

Then we rounded the corner to Camp Randall Stadium and there were my son and husband waiting for me cheering me on.  I love those guys.  And then we ran into the stadium and crossed the finish line and the 50 yard line.  I had done it!  

Looking back at the finish line.

I wasted no time getting to my reward...the free beer.  You see, this is Wisconsin.  Free beer is also a good reason to run 5 miles in the rain.

If they offer two free beers, you take two free beers.

Oh!  I almost forgot about the once in a lifetime moment of watching Princess Leia, Luke Skywalker and Chewbacca finish the race and hug Bucky Badger.  Sounds like some sort of bad mushroom trip, but I have the pictures to prove it.

The Star Wars crew gives Bucky some love.

Proving that the force was, indeed, with them.

So, that was my day.  The results were posted last night and my time was a minute and a half under what I had set as my goal.  Woot!  I guess the rain didn't slow me down after all.  I had a good pace, kept running, ended up passing quite a few people at the end, and came in 11,040th place in a race of 20,000 people.  Not too shabby for a first-timer.  Sure, it took me 4 hours to finally stop shivering at home, but who cares about hypothermia when I've achieved a huge personal goal?

I guess I was an athlete and an athletic supporter!