One member of our running group is working on a membership in the 50-States Marathon Club & picked this race for the state of Kansas. So 4 other members of our running group decided to accompany him.

Another member of our running group wanted to run her first full marathon this fall and she was thinking that the Quad Cities Marathon in Iowa on Sept. 24 would be a good candidate -- But as her coach, I suggested that she put in 2 more weeks of training & accompany us on this trip to Wichita.

With the flat course (& the extra training), this ended up being a very good decision -- She wanted to break 5-hours, which she beat by over 10 minutes!

One thing I really liked about this marathon was the discounted room rate from the host hotel, the Hyatt Regency -- It was SO nice to be able to walk to the Expo & to the Start/Finish Line!