Running Wild

It was a dark (as night is wont to be) and stormy-ish night. It was a slightly lighter, but much stormier morning. The morning of the Crazy Legs Classic dawned full of rain, lighting and thunder. The four of us running woke up and those who drink coffee had some; I had peanut butter toast and water. We dressed and we determined how to put on our single use timing chips on our shoes. We watched the rain pour like so many monsoons. "Are we really doing this?!" "yes."

We drove to downtown Madison and parked. Where we parked made it a 5 or 6 block (long blocks) 'walk' to the capital building. The race started at capital square. We hopped awning to awning to avoid the deluge. "Are we really doing this?!" "yes."

We hunkered in the State Capital building, doing our stretches and taking our potty breaks. The boys found the sweat truck. We were dripped on by many wet racers and spectators as we sat for 20 minutes debating if we were heading outside. "Are we really doing this?" "Yes."

Finally, it was time to go outside, drop the extra clothes bags at the 'sweat truck' and find our place in line to run. The line was long...19000 runners. One of us was running in wave 'S'. The rest of us started in 'll' (yes, they were going through the alphabet for waves, and yes it ended at 'nn', so what!?) It was only drizzling. Then it was only dripping, Then with a "CRASH" and a flash, it was a deluge again. Three of us (those starting later) were able to hide under an awning. our "S" companion was not so lucky. Wet him, lucky us. "Are we really doing this?" "YES!"

Finally, after 30 minutes of starting wave after wave (start of race to us) we are up to the front. No more hiding in the Capital, no more hiding under the awnings. Our shoes are tied, gosh we hoped our timing chips were working. The nice UW atheletes have given us high fives, and there was the start. "Are we really doing this??" "YES! Here we go!!!"

The race was on. Our rain jackets stayed on, because it rained the whole time. The lighting flashed over the lake, the thunder rolled, the pitter-patter of 19,000 pairs of feet running 5 miles teased the thunder, taunted it. It rained harder. Down little hills, up a big one, around the path, and amidst the croud we ran! A few brave souls stood in the rain to cheer us on, mostly race volunteers or Greeks. Those who had houses w/ porch covers were more brave. Some had music. I heard the Rocky Theme played a few times, as well as other songs. The most memorable Rocky Theme came right at the end, with my favorite quote of the race, "Let me see your Rocky Arms!!"

At last, the Stadium! Up a small hill, and down, and around and in. Look - there we are on the Jumbotron! "Ready? Let's finish this!" and across the finish line, hand in hand, we went. The two boys had finsihed long before. Did we care? NO!

The goals: Finish, not be last. We finished..in the hoped for 1 hour time. We were not last We finished int he 10,000s of 19,0000. We were wet. We were cold. We were....triumphant!