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