Pottstown Goes All Out For Half Way Idea

Editor’s note:  Nice positive coverage in the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Summer racing in the Philadelphia area is usually limited to two things: 5ks or races that take place near the beach, or both. The Pottstown Half Marathon is bucking that trend with its first year race to be held on July 11.

Chris Bayless, who is the head of the Sly Fox Track Club (which is not affiliated with the brewery of the same name in the same town but often co-hosts events with track club), started thinking about putting on a half marathon because people asked him to.

“July is about half way between the spring marathon season and the fall marathon season,” he said. “That’s half way in their training for fall.” Most runners test their fitness in half marathons mid-way through training, but when Bayless looked at local race calendars, he saw a half-marathon-sized gap.

So he went to Pottstown’s city council to talk about adding one to the local race calendar. Bayless, who started directing races after he retired as head coach of the men’s and women’s cross country and track and field teams at Ursinus College, already puts on 45 a year through the Sly Fox Track Club.

Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/on-the-run/Pottstown-goes-all-out-for-half-way-idea.html#pRQM5mqK92CYtqfq.99