Health & Fitness with Bill Hauda

Pointless state law against ultra events persists

Seventy-three years ago, a Wisconsin legislator decided it was time to crack down on criminals who were engaging in endurance events. Twenty years ago, in these same pages, I first reported on the silly statute that resulted from that misguided effort.

Apparently there has never been a complaint made, a permit issued or a charge filed during the seven decades state law has prohibited 24-hour or longer endurance events.

That's about par for a lot of the junk our elected representatives write into the law- which in Wisconsin fills five volumes, despite being confined to really small print.

Endurance events date back to the first running marathons held in ancient Greece, but really got rolling in the 1880s in England. The Brits formed athletic clubs called "pedestrians" Also known as "wobblies" not because of their politics, but probably because that's what participants were reduced to after long hours circling a track-the pedestrians became the first ultrarunners.

By the turn of the century, "wobbling" fever struck the United States, too. Some run-walkers competed in continuous six-day events on indoor tracks. The events ran only six days because Sunday was more strictly considered a day of rest.

Eventually there were transcontinental road racers taking 70 days to cover 3,500 miles. The ultra bug also spread to bicycling, which saw both six-day track events and outdoor ultraraces. Dance and roller skating marathons also took hold.

All this apparently irritated Rep. John Mulder, a La Crosse Republican and store owner, in his fourth term in the state Legislature. He decided to put a stop to all this exercising nonsense.

Mulder first sought to ban all dance, walking and roller skating contests, but was rebuffed by his colleagues. He was, however, able to impose limits on ultra events, resulting in Section 175.15 of the Wisconsin Statutes.

Mulder's law bans "any physical endurance contest, exhibition, performance, or show in the nature of a marathon, walkathon, skatathon or any other physical endurance contest, exhibition, performance or show of a like or similar nature, whether or not an admission is charged or a prize is awarded to any person for participation in such physical endurance contest, wherein any person participates in such contest for a period of more than 16 hours in any 24 hours over a period of more than six days in one month."

Promoters or participants who violate the law can be fined $500 and given a year in jail for each day of violation. Under the law, even watching such contests is illegal. Spectators can be fined $25 and jailed for 10 days. Premises on which the contests are held or buildings containing them are deemed public nuisances and the law directs the attorney general or district attorney to abate them. Abatement can mean closure and sale. That puts illegal ultra-event athletic facilities in the same category as buildings where drugs are manufactured and sold and prostitutes ...do what prostitutes do.

So what did Mulder's law accomplish? Despite many ultras being held in Wisconsin over the years, my extensive research has failed to produce any evidence that any organizer, participant or spectator has ever been prosecuted. The law apparently accomplished nothing, as many laws seem to do.

I asked Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen if the Department of Justice, one of the agencies that are directed to prosecute violations, had ever acted. A spokesman, Roy R. Korte, director of the Criminal Litigation, Antitrust and Consumer Protection Unit, said DOJ "does not maintain records of statistics regarding the enforcement of this statutory provision" Probably because there are no cases.

Korte went on to say it was unclear how Mulder's law might affect current ultraendurance events.

Some municipalities and counties routinely adopt state law as their own ordinances. That allows them, and not the state, to collect fines if an enforcement action results in a conviction. Kenosha County is one example.

"To my knowledge, I do not recall this office having prosecuted a case for a violation of Section 175.15," said Kenosha County District Attorney Robert D. Zapf, who, by the way, has participated in the Relay for Life Cancer Survivor Walk-a-Thon sponsored by the American Cancer Society.

The city of Kenosha's ordinances allow permits to be issued for ultraevents. But according to Kenosha City Attorney Patrick J. Sheehan, "There is no record of any such permit ever having been issued, requested or denied."

So we can thank Mulder and our Legislature for making a statement against endurance exercise with no discernible result other than making the statute books thicker. To perpetuate the pointless law over the past 73 years, a lot of trees had to be sacrificed.

"Whether this, or any other law, should be repealed is a question for the state Legislature," Korte said. "If you believe such action would be appropriate, I would suggest you contact your state representative or senator"

I will. I hope others do, too. Let's hope our elected representatives aren"t troglodytes like Mulder.
Bill Hauda is a bicyclist, finisher of 50 some marathons, including 13 in Boston, a former competitive triathlete, founder and first president of the Bicycle Federation of Wisconsin, currently a BFW board member, and former director of Wisconsin's two major cross-state bicycle tours, GRABAAWR and SAGBRAW. As a journalist, Hauda has been writing about running, health and fitness since 1978.