The Good Life Halfsy

This sounds like a ridiculous name, but the Good Life Halfsy half marathon race in Lincoln, NE holds up.  When I discussed my experience with Kyle Schmidt this week, I wondered aloud how much of my positive experience related to the fact that I am from Lincoln.  I ran the Sioux Falls half marathon on September 7th (1:16:26), and although I thoroughly enjoyed the course, the fans and the overall experience, I didn't have the connection that many of our 605 Racing team members had in being from the area.  Even in running the Omaha half marathon two weeks later (1:14:35) in the city that I currently live, I found myself in the same situation where I enjoyed everything about the race, but still did not have a strong connection to the race.  I'm not sure how to explain this better than to just say I'm not sure whether I would or would not recommend this race to someone.

Then on October 20th, I ran the Des Moines half marathon (1:12:55), and of course this race has historically been my favorite.  The course is fast, the crowd support is strong the entire way, and to top it all off, I usually find a way to get in some type of racing shape by the third week in October.  Of course, it doesn't hurt that I've ran this race in Des Moines for the past three years, and in doing so, I've developed some familiarity with the course and the race event itself.

All that to say that the Good Life Halfsy half marathon takes the cake. Everything from the familiar location to the point-to-point course to the elite athlete treatment to all the other amenities that I never would have thought about (i.e., post-race Runza sandwich).  The course was set-up to be fast, and I was shocked, to say the least, when I ran down the Pinnacle Bank Arena ramp to a time of 1:11:39.  Two months, four half marathons, two PR's (each by over a minute) and almost five minutes of improvement from September to November.  The Good Life Halfsy is scheduled for Sunday, November 1st, and I would strongly encourage anyone looking for a fall 2015 half marathon to sign up.

With four half marathons under my belt this fall (and five on the year), it's time for me to take a little break from racing that long distance. Just in time for Thanksgiving!

Happy Running!

Logan Watley

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