The Waunafest Run is part of the annual Waunafest celebration in Waunakee. The race is typically run on the last Saturday of July. I’ve been running in the race since 1999 and there have been some changes over the years. Originally the shorter run was just a loop around the downtown and high school area, starting and ending in Village Park. The loop was approximately 3.5 miles long, hence the odd distance for the race. The race course and distance could vary from year to year because of road construction, so it is hard to compare one year’s result with another year’s.

In 2008 the organizers decided to run a standard 5 K race. The course is pretty much the same from one year to another; the start may shift a bit if there is road construction on the course, but that’s about it. At some point they also decided to have a longer race. I’m not sure when the 10 mile race was first run, but I’ve only done it once. It’s a difficult course because it is fairly boring – it winds through the many cookie-cutter subdivisions that have popped up as Waunakee has grown. And the course does change from year to year as well.

One of the things that I love about this race is that the T-shirt remains pretty much the same form year to year, only the colors change. So it’s kind of a cool tradition. The other thing that I love about the 5 K course is that the course is not marked in miles, it’s marked at the kilometer points. This is the only 5 K that I’ve ever run where the kilometers are marked! It’s kind of cool because I have to redo all of my mental calculations for my pace because the miles are not marked.