How The Mini Route and Date Came To Be

The Early Stages

The beginning stages of the Mini had some interesting twists, turns and hiccups.  Prior to landing the race site at the Memorial Union, the Mini Team had the job of selling the event to the different entities in Madison who oversaw events, garnering support and achieving approval for the Inaugural event. 

When first exploring dates, it quickly became apparent there would be some limitations.  Late summer or early fall was targeted for the time of the year.  As everyone in Wisconsin knows, Badger football rules the roost, so we had to coordinate around the Badgers schedule.  We wanted a consistent date, one that wouldn’t fluctuate year to year based on their schedule, so we landed in August.  Well, anyone who lives in Madison or has gone to UW knows August also brings student move-in.  Being naïve and not fully understanding the impact of move-in, the inaugural event was dropped right on move-in weekend.  Those that participated the first year can probably remember the craziness getting to and from the Memorial Union for Packet Pick-Up.  After that first year, the date is now coordinated with UW and student move-in.  Lessons learned!!!

The priority with the Mini was to come up with a unique route that showed off the City of Madison, ran by the landmarks of Madison and provided something different from the other events in the city.  The initial meetings with the city and UW regarding the route were interesting.  We heard several things:

-        *The route shouldn’t cross Gorham

-        *The route shouldn’t cross Johnson

-        *You can’t run on the Capitol Square because of the Farmer’s Market

-        *You can’t run through the Arboretum from East to West

-        *You aren’t going to get the cooperation from UW

-        *You can’t close off the UW Vet Hospital

To the Mini team, challenge accepted.  After several meetings, lots of discussion, maps, timelines, explanation, and more meetings, we were thrilled to make all of these things happen.  We can’t thank the people enough who were willing to discuss these items and help us make them happen.  Without their support and willingness to listen, the Mini would not have such a great route!

There was one more challenge the Mini faced in year one.  After many of the discussions listed above, the inaugural Mini was set for Sunday, August 30, 2009.  Marketing materials were printed, T-shirts were printed for the marketing team, signage was created, registration was open and full-out marketing was happening.  After 2-3 weeks of being “out there” and accepting registrations, a striking statement was made during a meeting with Madison Police, “You know you have to change your date, don’t you?”  During the moment of disbelief, the initial thought was they were joking.  Unfortunately, this was not a joke.  2009 was also the first year of “Ride the Drive” and it was placed on August 30^th as well.  It was quickly discovered the two events could not coexist on the same date and since Ride the Drive was a city event, it took precedence.  After meeting with the city, the Mini was moved to Saturday, August 29th.  New marketing materials were created and off we went…again!  In the end, Saturday was the ideal date for the Mini and one we initially wanted.  Funny how things work out and now five years later, Saturday has been a hit. 

The ups and downs of the beginning stages were challenging, but all great things don’t come without a struggle. The Mini can’t thank all the individuals from the City of Madison, University of Wisconsin, and Dane County Farmer’s Market enough for their willingness to listen and work with us to make the Mini a reality.  It goes to show the great community spirit of Madison.

 

Post race party at the 14th mile - Memorial Union Terrace

How It All Began

Beginnings of the Mini-Marathon

UW Memorial Union

The Mini-Marathon had many goals when it was first introduced to the different entities in the City of Madison.  The Mini wanted to be different than the other long-distance running events in town and set a new standard.  It wanted to hit all the Madison landmarks, wanted to run a little different route than the other events, provide participants with a unique experience and most of all, provide a unique location for the start and finish areas.  When it came to the Post-Race Party Area, one location came up a couple of times, but was followed by “it would never happen”.  The UW Memorial Union Terrace was a Madison hot spot that could provide that unique venue, but was not viewed as a place that would be easy to achieve. To the Mini, the mission was clear, “we must make this happen!“

The Mini team started to think through any connections with individuals at the Union to help get a foot in the door.  Remember, this was a brand new event in the making in Madison at the time.  The link came through a Mini crew - member, Lisa Swiontek.  Lisa had a good friend that also happened to be a friend of the Union’s Director, Mark Guthier.  So, with a connection, although somewhat loose connection, the Mini reached out to Mark and scheduled a meeting.  Eventually that meeting led to Nancy Kujak-Ford, who at the time oversaw their large events.  After presenting the concept to Nancy, she had some thoughts, “My initial reaction was one of excitement for the event and the Wisconsin Union organization.  I thought it was a great way to introduce the union to more people.” 

This would be a new venture for the Union, but thanks to Nancy’s guidance, the race was headed in the right direction.  She became a champion of her cause for varying reasons “While new events can be a logistically complicated, I knew that the Wisconsin Union was in a place to take on the challenge.  My current (and former) job allows me to work with many facets of the organization.  With this base knowledge and relationships, I knew who needed to be involved and in what capacity.  Trying new events or working  on new projects allow organizations to grow and create new experiences.  We are only as good as the last event we helped to host or plan.  I was excited for this opportunity to expand our experience with events and to have people think outside the box of what we/they are capable of producing.” 

Nancy helped champion the Mini throughout the University.  When asked what the reactions were about the Mini, Nancy said “When I first presented this to the campus, most of the University staff was supportive of this event.  We have had large run/walks on campus grounds (IronMan, Crazylegs) and have resources/knowledge on how to handle logistics.  Both Chad and Jeff were extremely organized and prepared for questions which made it helpful to navigate such a large University and its’ policies/procedures.”  “The only major challenge (for the first year) was to navigate the communications of the race party/gathering part at the end of the event.  UW-Madison is conscious of any event that involves alcohol to campus patrons, especially students.  We had to develop a safe plan of alcohol service and security in order for this event to be approved.  Since its inception, alcohol has not been an issue with the success of this event.”

The Mini is entering its 5^th year, which is hard for all involved to believe.  From Nancy’s perspective, the Mini has changed “One way that I have seen the Mini grow is how the staff involves the city, community, and state.  Each year, they have come up with ways to enhance their event with new children filled races, new mascots, and new activities to increase the enjoyment of their participants.  Their expo has also grown in size and has given exposure to other parts of campus.”

The Mini would like to thank all the people and entities that have embraced the event along the way and especially championed it during its infancy.  Without people like Nancy with her drive and willingness to tackle a new venture, it would not have been possible. 

Please check back for more blog updates on the beginnings of the Mini-Marathon as we celebrate our 5^th Anniversary.  A special thank you to Nancy Kujak-Ford for taking time for the interview.