Fox Cities Marathon

This was marathon 101 for me and 99 for my friend. We made the easy 4 hour drive from the Twin Cities. Packet pick up was a breeze. We stayed at the Doubletree in downtown Neenah - Bus to the Start was right in front of the hotel and just a few blocks walk from the Finish line. They even gave runners a 2pm check out. The race is very well organized! Tons of biffy's at the start and along the course. Volunteers and police at every intersection and turn. The spectators were amazing on this HOT day offering us water, bags of ice, misting us with their hoses and cheering like crazy. Great community support! Nice shirt and medal. Nice race App to download with all the information. Good email communications. Beautiful finish area with lots of snacks and goodies. My only complaint is the amount of concrete - ouch! Highly recommend!

Thanks to the Race Director, the medical staff, the volunteers, and all the spectators for a fantastic marathon in hot running conditions. Loved the amount of aid stations, the extra water on the course, the popsicles, the GU's, and the fruit. Amazing is how many residents had put out sprinklers and had provided extra water along the course. My 10th time completing this year. Fantastic marathon if you need Wisconsin for your 50 state goal, or to marathon and I will be back again next run your first marathon.

The Fox Cities Marathon is a nice, smaller marathon that truly showcases the communitys support for the event. The race was very well- organized, packet pickup at the college was easy, and parking downtown for the shuttle busses to the start line was no problem at all. (I also really appreciated that we were able to wait for the race to start indoors.) Unfortunately, I found the course to be pretty boring. The majority of the marathon is run through subdivisions and it got monotonous very quickly. 2016 was also a warm year, and there is very little shade available. Overall, this was not a super- hilly course, but I wouldnt call it flat or fast either. For a small- town marathon, I did feel that there was a good amount of crowd support which was very much appreciated. The aid stations were plentiful and well- manned, and there were lots of organized cheering sections. The highlight of my race was our fantastic 3:35 pace leader, John, and the super- nice people in our pace group. I ended up talking to them for the first 20 miles or so, which really helped keep things interesting. The finish at Riverside Park was great: lots of food and drink and a lovely setting to relax after the run. I really appreciate the work that went into this event, I just didnt enjoy the course as much as other races I have run.