Fox Cities Half Marathon

So people ask, "what's up next after Ironman?"....well how about a half marathon a week later?!?!  Crazy??  Yes!  But I have a very persuasive running partner, Mark, and it sounded like a good idea while eating custard at Zesty's! And as it turned out, it was a good idea.  We signed up for the Fox Cities Half Marathon before Ironman so I was optimistic that I would have a good race and come out of it unscathed and recover well.  The week after Ironman was good.  I took it easy.  Did some swimming, biking and ran 1 day.  And tons of walking with Asher.  I had no soreness and was ready to roll Sunday morning.  Mark's friend Walter was also running, doing his first half.  He is signed up to do Big Sur with us next May as his first marathon. 

The morning of Tammy, Cleo, Jeff and I all drove down and got a car at the finish and start (the start and finish aren't in the same spot) and met up with Mark and Walt.  Sue came to the start and took our coats and then brought them to us at the finish.  That was a total life saver.  It was cool, low 40's at the start and it got cool after we finish and were sweaty.  We gave Sue our coats and literally ran across the start line.  We were moving along nicely, and all of a sudden we run into a friend of ours, Brian Cassidy.....well actually he ran into me.  Funny.  Ran with him for a bit and chatted then another friend of ours, Julie Petersen came up to us and ran with us.  Awesome, lots of cool people.  So we kept on.  I was feeling good and having fun catching up with everyone.  I ran the rest of the race with Walt, Mark and Julie.  The 4 amigo's.  This course is nice and flat with lots of turns and stuff to keep you entertained.  The last couple miles had some good tunes blasting which really pumped us up.  We went past mile 12 and started the loop for the finish.  Feeling good we ran strong into the finish for a 1:57:24 finish time.  And Mark and I finally got it worked out and had the same exact time.  It was our last race together for a while so it was nice to share the experience with him and so glad he slowed down to run with me. 

The rest of the crew had a good day too.  Tammy and Cleo smoked it....like normal and Jeff rolled in with a 4 minute PR.  Everyone had a great day.  Beautiful weather, fun race and great company.  What more could you ask for.  Happy running everyone!