The Middleton Good Neighbor Festival is held every year on the weekend before Labor Day. Starting in 2004 a run / walk has been offered as part of the festivities on Saturday morning. In 2004 it was more of a trail run: we started near the high school and ran on the trail along the Pheasant Branch Creek. It was a 3 mile out and back course.

The next year the run moved to a new route, starting and ending at Capital Brewery, which made the logistics much easier for the organizers. The new course length was 5 K. The course was mostly on city streets, though it follows parts of the trails around Tiedeman’s Pond and Stricker’s Pond. While it is fairly flat in the first two miles, the course does go up the big hill to Quarry park (and back down!) in the last mile.

The course has varied slightly over the years due to road construction, and one year, due to high water in Tiedeman Pond which submerged part of the trail. In 2014 the race started and ended in Firemen’s Park because of road construction on Terrace Avenue near the brewery. This new course was used again in 2015, though the start was moved because the course was somewhat short in 2014. The new course was used again in 2016, so it appears that the change is permanent. So we no longer “replenish fluids” at the brewery, but now we gather in the Youth Hockey / Capital Brewery beer tent after the race.

In 2018 the 5 K course had to be changed due to damage to the Pheasant Branch trail and pedestrian bridges from the Great Flood of August 2018. I actually like the new course better mainly because it goes through a neighborhood that I used to live in. The change has become permanent; the same course was used in 2019 and 2021, and a slightly modified version was used for the virtual race in 2020.

Middleton GNF Run Results

The Lodi Library Run is a 5 K race which is held in during with Susie the Duck days in Lodi which is typically the second weekend in August. The race begins and ends at the elementary school (the old high school) on the east side of town, just off Highway 60.

I ran the Library Run for the first time in 1996, but I don’t have a record of my time for either 1996 or 1997. The most memorable race was in 1998. I ran along with then Governor Tommy Thompson. He was running for re-election and a large number of young people in white “Team Tommy” shirts ran with him. In fact one of his campaign commercials features the governor running on the road through the cornfield just before the first water stop on the course.

This is one of my favorite races because it is a small town race for a good cause. It is very well organized and there is only one big hill on the course. It’s in the first mile, but then it’s downhill or pretty flat for the rest of the race.

The course is supposedly a 5 K, though I suspect that it might be slightly short. There were a few years when the course had to be slightly modified due to road construction; this would be back around 2001 or 2002 I think.

Lodi Library Run Results

The Crazylegs Classic is a benefit for the UW Athletic department – an organization which really doesn’t need the money these days. This is not one of my favorite races: the course can be very crowded and there is only one water stop, so it is hard to run a good race. And the T-shirt tends to be kind of ugly. But I try to run it every year because it was my first organized race and I kind of enjoy it as an event.

The 1993 Crazylegs Classic was the first race that I ever ran in – I made a lot of mistakes in training for the run, and made a few on race day as well. I still remember that first race because Wisconsin Governor Tommy Thompson also ran in the race and I saw him at several points along the course.

I’ve run in the Crazylegs almost every year since then. I’ve missed only two races over the years. In 2006 I missed the race because I had surgery the previous week, and in 2011 I didn’t run because I was recovering from a knee injury. And in 2020 the race was canceled because of Covid-19. The 2021 race was a virtual race, but things were back to normal in 2022.

The race has changed a bit over the years. The course has been tweaked several times, and there have been years where road construction has caused major detours form the established route. The course has been more or less fixed since 2003 when the race went from being 5 miles to 8 kilometers. Not sure why they made this change – the difference comes out to be about 50 yards, so it’s insignificant. The course was modified again in 2019 to start at the Library Mall instead of the Capitol Square.

The biggest change was in 2006 when the wave start was introduced. This has made the event much safer for all of the participants. The one unfortunate side effect is that by the time that my wave reaches the start line, the winner has already crossed the finish line. But in recent years they’ve kind of backed away from the wave start, which does lead to crowded conditions in the first mile or so.

Crazylegs Results