Blog

Press Release: Wisconsin Gran Fondo Series Chooses Focal Flame Photography

Cyclists in the Wisconsin Gran Fondo Series, an epic rural cycling series in an area described by Bicycling Magazine as “cycling nirvana,” will receive free FocalShare™ digital photos this year due to a partnership between race organizer SkylusSport and professional photography and video production firm Focal Flame Photography.  

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Run Madtown: What’s In a Name?

Run Madtown 2017 is an inaugural race with a 43-year history. Confused? Here’s how it came to be: the first runner-organized marathon in Madison happened in 1974, when 59 runners looped twice around Lake Monona. Except for a few gaps, annual Madison marathon races continued for decades. From the mid-1990s onward, a traditional half-marathon and marathon were held in Madison on the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend—the least weekend in May. And then things started to heat up.

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Running in costume: what's that all about?

Multi-talented Focal Flame Photography staff member Suellen Adams is a renaissance woman: she's a runner and triathlete, adjunct professor, photo editor, and writer. One of her great joys as a scholar is - quite literally - studying joy. Here, she shares some insights from her recent studies about the phenomenon of athletes choosing to compete in endurance events while dressed in costume.

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Kettle Moraine 100 Endurance Run: Photo Essay

2015 offered a creative challenge for our photographers: the Kettle Moraine 100-mile ultramarathon. Race directors Tim “Timo” Yanacheck and Jason Dorgan hired Focal Flame Photography to document the 20th year of the race, which was started in 1995 by husband and wife ultramarathoning legends Kevin Setnes and Kristine Clark-Setnes. Focal Flame photographer Austin Cope (who now lives in Colorado) created this photo essay of the 20th running of the race. He found himself drawn into the rawness of an endeavor that was primal in its intensity, while being imbued with a sense of tranquility from the woodland setting. 

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Madison Marathon Profile: Paul Gill and Abby Evans - Love on the Run

Paul Gill and Abby Evans met and got to know each other through running, so it is only fitting that when they run the Madison Half Marathon on May 29, 2016, it will be a week before their June 4 wedding. We caught up with them briefly to learn more about how running has influenced their lives together, and what the Madison Marathon events mean to them.

 

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Madison Marathon Profile: Lisa Helmuth

The Madison Marathon is the perfect event for Lisa Diane Helmuth (50) of Middleton, WI—it combines running and Madison, two things that have been part of some of the happiest and some of the saddest times of Lisa’s life, including the loss of her son James at the age of 10 due to adrenal cancer. Lisa's family honors James' memory by raising funds for children in need to participate in academic and athletic opportunities. She finds solace in running. For Lisa, “there is nothing quite like the feeling of running in Madison”. 

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