Thousands of participants made their way from Capitol Square to Camp Randall Stadium Saturday for the 27th annual Crazylegs Classic, an eight-kilometer run and two-mile walk to benefit Badger Athletics.
A record 17,296 people braved blustery winds and cool temperatures to participate in the event, led by former Badger football star and Heisman Trophy winner Ron Dayne as 2008 grand marshal. Madison resident Codie See won the race with a time of 24 minutes and 37 seconds, and Linsey Smith, also a city resident, was the first woman to finish, with a time of 28 minutes and 51 seconds.
Among the participants was a group of friends and co-workers of Adam Nickel, a UW-Madison pharmacy school student who died last month from an undetected heart condition after crossing the finish line of the Little Rock Marathon in Arkansas.
Over 80 people joined to form the Remembering Adam Nickel Team, according to Sarah Ann Balzar, Nickel’s co-worker at Group Health Cooperative.
Balzar said the race gave Nickel’s friends the opportunity to come together and remember the avid runner.
“We all had on yellow T-shirts that Group Health had made for us,” Balzar said. “On the back they had [Nickel’s] picture and it said ‘Game Time,’ which was the phrase Adam always used to pump himself up before a race.”
Many UW-Madison students also participated in the Crazylegs Classic. Junior Kristina Hemstead ran the race for the first time with a group of friends. A member of the marching band, Hemstead said she prepared for the race by following her normal exercise regimen of running two to three miles.
Evan Wettengal, a UW-Madison junior, also ran his first Crazylegs Classic Saturday dressed in a banana costume to garner laughs from other participants.
“It’s not about the race, it’s about just having a good time and getting people out there,” he said.
Wettengal said he plans to participate in future Crazylegs Classics with a different twist to his outfit.
“I will definitely do it again next year,” Wettengal said. “I was thinking I have a Pez dispenser costume and that might be on the table for next year.”
