Crazylegs 2013

I saw this on a website and I found it amusing. 

Yeah, today was that kind of a day.

I said last year that I didn't know if I'd run Crazylegs again, but nearly every runner I know runs Crazylegs.  It's hard to not join in on the fun.  Plus, there aren't any other races in Madison when Crazylegs is happening.  It is a nearly 20,000 runner race and it draws some of the fastest runners in Wisconsin.  I felt like I had an easier time navigating the course this year than last year.  I thought at first that maybe there were less runners on the course, but Barry pointed out that I was a more seasoned racer and navigating is perhaps easier with experience.  I was still annoyed with those running more than two abreast though. 

Wave Y this year.  Last year I was wave X.

It was warm at the start, about 54 degrees when I left the house and since I was in wave Y, it quickly warmed to the high 60s by the time I started running down Wisconsin Avenue.  I started feeling energized and I was among the first of my wave to get on Wisconsin Avenue.  I ran the first mile in 8 minutes according to the clock.  I even made it up Bascom Hill, but I started to have the familiar feelings that told me this race would quickly go downhill.  Cramps set in after I made it down past Charter St, and I started walking.  I knew that if I pushed it, I'd regret it.  I'd end up on the side of the road, trying to not faint.  I was ready to just walk the whole damn thing. The pain subsided by the time I hit the mile 2 marker, so I started running again slowly.  Mile 2 split was 12 minutes.  I'm averaging 10 minute miles, which I figured isn't horrible, but was a far, far cry from last week's 8:41/mile pace.  I thought I'd just try and maintain this pace, get under 50 minutes and call it a day.

I dislike mile 3-4 of the course the most.  In general, I find this part of the Crazylegs course boring and incredibly unscenic.  We're essentially running around a parking lot and it feels like we're doing this just to add some mileage.  This year, with the sun and lack of cloud cover, the parking lot mile also felt much warmer with the concrete.  I skipped the water break because I was already so far behind what I thought I'd run and I'm ready to get to the end.  But around mile 4 marker, I had an inkling of regret as I thought that maybe some water would've helped me stay cool.  Well, whatever.

The reversal of attitude in a race always surprises me.  Mile 5 felt much more interesting to run and thus also lifted my mood.  I split almost exactly 10 minutes for mile 3, and I manage to split 9:30 for mile 4.  When I pass the mile 4 marker and say 1:06:39 on the clock (I had crossed the start line at 27 minutes), I told myself that I was going to kill the remaining .97 of a mile, and that I was at least going to come in under 49 minutes.  I took that hill up to Camp Randall with gusto.  I went for my sprint kick probably a bit earlier than I should've given how I was feeling today, but I still felt fairly solid going into the stadium.

I split 8:06 for the last .97 mile.

My final time was 47:36 for an average pace of 9:35.  I know I keep saying this, but I'm still surprised at how much of a difference my menstrual cycle has on my pace.  Just a week ago, I ran a longer distance at a pace that was nearly a whole minute faster.  And today, I struggled to keep a 9:30 pace.  Sure, weather probably has something to do with it too.  It was more than 30 degrees cooler last week, but still.  Looking at my past race results, my race times are at its worst during the week before my menstruation.

Crazylegs shirt that I'll never wear,
and hat for signing up as a team.

I used to wonder if this was just an excuse of mine, a reason to not push myself as hard on certain weeks because "I just wasn't feeling it."  I think this kind of mentality stemmed from some of the men that I've known.  They treat it as an excuse and they tell me that whatever pain I feel is just something that I need to push past.  I've tried to run past it, and it never went well for me.  And I find it insulting that they seem to think that women just shy away from pushing themselves at the smallest pain.  I know fatigue; I know side stitch; I even know when it's a soreness in the muscles that just needs time to loosen up a bit.  I'm by no means an experienced runner, but I do know my body.

On the positive side, two things form the silver lining for this race.  The first is that I know that even with menstrual cramps, I can finish with a decent pace it if I'm smart and cautious and take the time to walk it off.  The second is that the timing of these pains probably won't overlap with my marathon next week.           

Would I run Crazylegs again next year if I'm in Wisconsin?  I really don't know.  It's a fairly expensive race for a complete lack of food at the finish and a pretty boring cotton t-shirt that I'll NEVER wear.  They say there's free fruit at the end, but it's not at the finish chute and they hurry you out of the stadium pretty quickly.  Yeah, the event helps fund the UW Athletic department, but they already get a pretty nice chunk out of my seg fees as it is.  Still, everybody does Crazylegs and it's difficult to resist joining the bandwagon.