Crazy Legs

15,000people...and one of them is me....

Once a year, for about 43 minutes, I become fanatically interested in the local university and its sports. That is when I run the annual Crazy Legs Race.

Normally, I could care less about the local sports scene. Living in a college town, that makes me a bit of an oddball. Madison is many other things than the university, but let's face it...to most people here, life revolves around the Badgers.

But, for Crazy Legs, I become one of them. The people who think seeing "Bucky Badger" akin to running into a celebrity. The people who make their doorbell play the Wisconsin Fight song. The people who live and die by how the Badgers did during the latest (football/hockey/basketball) game.

It's a race to support UW athletics. It's not a big race - it's only 5 miles. But they pull out all the stops: the band, the athletes, the cheerleaders, and yes - Bucky Badger himself - all make an appearance.

It's fun. I went to a small-ish liberal arts university outside of Boston. I *think* we had sports, but I never actually saw any of them. So, this is all new to me. Even after 10 years of living here, the fixation on college sports still seems a bit strange.

Stranger yet, is the fact that my 4 year old son can recognize/name many of the Badger football/basketball players. He is going to think I'm *so* uncool in about 10 years.