Sports - May 17, 2013
Couple expands love of terror: Wisconsin Zombie Mud Run
The husband-wife operators of the ghoulishly acclaimed Wisconsin FearGrounds have created a new haunt that makes "run for your life" a realistic exercise.

Sports - May 4, 2013
Welcome to the Rock Sports Complex
Franklin Mayor Tom Taylor threw out the first pitch to open the Rock Sports Complex last weekend, and in a couple months someone will take the opening plunge on the mountain bike park being sculpted on the former landfill previously known as Crystal Ridge.

Sports - April 26, 2013
Stripped down to self-discovery over 135 miles - MS Run the US
Chellie deGelleke ran a marathon every day for five consecutive days and finished the first leg of the MS Run the US Relay full of admiration. Not for herself, but the people who live with multiple sclerosis and "are running a marathon every day of their lives just to function or find some sort of comfort within their discomfort." It's the kind of revelation one can find in distance running, or in this case, ultra-distance running.

Sports - April 19, 2013
The 2013 Oak Leaf Discovery Tour
Bunkie Miller woke one day this week with her mind spinning bike routes off the Milwaukee County Oak Leaf Trail to McGovern and Doctors Parks. Both locations have been added as stops on the 2013 Oak Leaf Discovery Tour, compelling Miller to navigate and pedal more miles to replicate last year's successful adventure - a group ride to collect all of the tour passport stamps in one day.

Sports - April 12, 2013
TeamLifestriders, 103 strong, surpasses Guinness Book of World Records
Sarah Knowles claimed a Guinness Book record running her very first half marathon. And that accomplishment was secondary, almost an afterthought, easily surpassed by her son's smile. She walked to support the horse-riding therapy program at LifeStriders in Delafield, which has greatly benefited her son, Matthew.

Sports - April 5, 2013
Bicycle Federation of Wisconsin lobbies for vulnerable user law
Last October the Waukesha County District Attorney wrote a letter to Roger Gunderson's widow, explaining why he had declined to issue criminal charges against the man who dozed off while driving to work, crossed the centerline and killed her husband. He expressed his condolences, but said he could not prove the driver, Andrew Yang, had driven in a criminally negligent or reckless manner. He paid a $126 fine.

Sports - March 30, 2013
An OnMilwaukee introduction to the city's bicycle and pedestrian coordinator
Three weeks into her new job as the head planner of Milwaukee's bicycle and pedestrian pathways, Kristin Bennett has decided on her first major supply requisition: dry erase markers.

Sports - March 23, 2013
Glory days return for runners in Wisconsin Trail Assail Series
Sean Osborne is giving old cross-country runners like me a chance to relive those varsity experiences with a new race series, the Wisconsin Trail Assail, starting in May. The six-race series includes 5K and 10K cross-country races in Waukesha County Parks: Menomonee Falls, Nashotah, Minooka, Fox River and Muskego.

Sports - March 16, 2013
Valenti art chases the extremes of bicycling for Midwest BikeShare
Michael Valenti's poster art has an eccentric element that fits the absurd reaches of his subject matter: bicycling and the riders and venues of the great European races. Those drawings caught the attention of Ken Hanson, a principal in Hanson Dodge Creative. The firm hired Valenti to create a poster to promote Midwest BikeShare, the effort to bring a short-term bicycle rental system to Milwaukee.

Milwaukee Buzz - March 9, 2013
Menomonee Valley challenge: name that park
The developers of the park, including the Menomonee Valley Partners and Urban Ecology Center, have been stymied, for roughly a decade. They raised $22.5 million for a project, designed a park landscape and moved tons of dirt, but still don't have a name. Wisely, they turned to the community for help.

Sports - March 7, 2013
Signing on for six marathons in six days - MS Run the US
In six weeks, Chellie deGelleke will run her first marathon, then five more over consecutive days. Her push into the MS Run the US relay and a daunting challenge even for experienced runners will sound familiar to other marathon rookies: "She peer-pressured me into it."

Sports - Feb. 23, 2013
East Tosa follows Downer Avenue bike race blueprint
Even on a gray day in February, with sub-zero wind chills, Ed Haydin envisions rows of people cheering along North Ave. in Wauwatosa, professional cyclists speeding down the street and a building block for a neighborhood. An architect and one of the principals in creating the East Tosa Gran Prix, Haydin has a blueprint to follow in Milwaukee's Downer Ave., both as an exciting venue for a successful bike race and a walkable, bike-able, thriving business district. Haydin and the East Tosa Alliance have a start.

Sports - Feb. 15, 2013
Cullen Run carries on family's mission to prevent heart disease
The Cullen Run carries on a family's sacred mission to prevent heart disease.

Sports - Feb. 9, 2013
Brookfield ultra runner takes competition to the next level
More than a runner, Parker Rios is a survivalist. A husband, father and human resources executive, he has no time or inclination to race the typical 10K or marathon. His pursuits are epic: early-morning training runs of eight hours, pulling a car tire with a rope, and races spanning 135 miles across the snow-covered wilderness of northern Minnesota. Late last month, the 46-year-old from Brookfield won the run division of the Arrowhead 135, the annual race from International Falls to the Fortune Bay Casino in Tower.

Sports - Jan. 31, 2013
Bike Fed mixes business and fun in first Winter Carnival
The Bicycle Federation of Wisconsin's first winter carnival will offer all the fun the name would imply, riding the trails in Ray's Indoor Mountain Bike Park, games, food and drinks. Organizers have a business agenda, as well, and will lay out the Bike Fed's plans to lobby legislators for money to support cycling and for a vulnerable user law in the ongoing 2013-'14 legislative session.

Sports - Jan. 25, 2013
Dodd finds sobriety and a marathon to be a perfect pair
As a runner and an alcoholic, Richard Dodd knows from excruciating experience what it's like to hit the wall, and to hit bottom. Sober for five years, he has an evangelical zeal for both running and sobriety, a perfect match for his new job as the race director of the Adrenaline Marathon on the Eisenbahn Trail, a race in West Bend organized by the Council on Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse of Washington County.

Sports - Jan. 18, 2013
Ragnar runners lose weight, find new lives
For years, their bodies swelled with fat. After 200 miles, their hearts swelled with gratitude. The team of 12 runners, led by Rik Akey, joyfully finished the Ragnar Relays Florida Keys earlier this month, and celebrated a huge accomplishment built upon hundreds of small ones, overcoming obesity and maintaining fitness.

Sports - Jan. 11, 2013
Buck-Kickin' Boot Camp brings sweat and energy to the Bradley Center
Standing at center court in the BMO Harris Bradley Center, Fitness trainer B.J. Gaddour implored: "make your glutes glorious." Gaddour, an online fitness phenom from Milwaukee, pumped up the first ever Buck-Kickin' Boot Camp, an event organized by the Lululemon Shop in the Third Ward. It was an oversized version of the fitness Boot Camps that have transformed workouts from drudgery to party over the last decade.

Sports - Jan. 4, 2013
Mechanic turns talents to bicycles, new shop in Mequon
After winning scholarships in national high school auto repair contests, Nicholas Moroder was speeding toward a career in the car business. He took a detour, after he found he hated working on other people's cars. Moroder found a happier application of his mechanical skills - for him and his customers - by fixing bicycles. And the discovery led to the start of the BelgianWerkx bicycle studio and gallery in Mequon, set to open on Jan. 14.

Sports - Dec. 28, 2012
Breaking the ice: BladeRunner Challenge combines running and speedskating
Chris Ponteri deserves credit, or curses, for inventing another new way to challenge endurance athletes. The organizer of the Icebreaker Indoor Marathon - 95.5 laps of running around the track inside the Pettit International Ice Center - teamed with the USA Speedskating to create the BladeRunner Challenge. Probably the only duathlon of its kind in the U.S., the race combines a 25-kilometer speedskating marathon with a half-marathon run.