By Mark Ambrogi
Bringing a half marathon to Zionsville seemed like the right thing for Mike Cole to do.
“I’m an avid runner,” Cole said. “I’ve raced since I probably was 14 years old, and I’m 41 now. I wanted to see a big community race starting and finishing in downtown Zionsville.
Naturally, the inaugural Zionsville Half Marathon will start and finish in front of Greek’s Pizzeria, which Cole owns. The half marathon, along with a 5K, will start at 7:30 a.m. June 12.
Cole said other communities such as Carmel, Noblesville, Geist and Indianapolis had half marathons, so he felt Zionsville should as well.
“It’s something I planned about doing the last two or three years and finally got around to doing it,” he said.
Cole has three sons who are all runners, including Logan, 13, who will be an eighth grader at Zionsville Middle School in the fall. Syler, 11, will join the ZMS team as a sixth grader, while Aidan, 9, will be in fourth grade in the fall.
Cole, who ran cross country and track at Ball State, will become the Zionsville Community High School assistant cross country coach in the fall. Cole had been Tri-State University’s (now Trine University) men’s and women’s cross country and track and field coach for seven years. Prior to that, he was a Calumet High School cross-country coach. The past five years, Cole has been a private coach.
Cole started a Zionsville youth cross-country club for kids age 7 to 14, which includes his three sons.
The money raised from the races, including three, 4K summer races, will go to the high school and middle school cross-country programs.
“I’m trying to build a stronger youth running program here so we hopefully compete with the state powerhouse Carmel and some of the other strong cross-country programs like Fishers and Hamilton Southeastern,” Cole said. “This area is super strong as far as cross country and track. I’m hoping to get Zionsville as close as it can to competing. That’s my goal. As my kids get older and older, I’d love to see them have a chance to win a state championship medal in cross country.”
Logan has already run the mile in 4:58, a record for ZMS for seventh graders, Cole said.
“I’ve been running since I was five years old, and I’ve been enjoying it through the years,” Logan said. “Distance running is my favorite sport.”
Along with summer races, Cole will hold 10K and 5K races Nov. 13.
Cole won the 5K event in the Carmel Marathon in April and Sam Costa quarter marathon in Carmel in March. He won’t be able to run his Zionsville race because he’ll be directing it.
Logan will be on the bicycle leading the half marathon. Cole will lead the 5K by bike.
Cole and wife Julie Johns-Cole opened the Greek’s Pizzeria in Zionsville in August 2011. Cole is opening a Greek’s in Lebanon at the end of the month. Johns-Cole, who competes in triathlons, serves as executive director of the Zionsville Chamber of Commerce.
Cole started at Ball State in 1994 and finished in 1999. His career was extended because of redshirting because of an injury.
“When I was injured as a freshman, I got bored sitting around, so I went and got a job delivering pizza (at Greek’s),” Cole said.
After he got healthy, he stayed on part-time in pizza delivery, cooking and then managing.
“In the summer, I helped the founder open a couple of stores,” Cole said. “After teaching for a couple of years, I thought, ‘I better try the restaurant business, or I’ll always regret it.’ We would build a (Greek’s) restaurant and then sell it. We built five different Greek’s Pizzeria in northern Indiana. I came down here and helped the owner built the Noblesville store while I was scouting locations. I scouted Carmel and Zionsville and fell in love with Zionsville.”
For more, visit run2race.com.
Meet Mike Cole
Age: Turned 41 on May 7. Met his wife while injured as a freshman and joined the Ball State club cycling team, where Julie was a member.
What do you to relax: “Our favorite place as a family is taking a walk along Starkey Nature Park. We enjoying going out to the restaurants in Zionsville.”
What do you like about downtown: “Downtown Zionsville is the nicest downtown area in Indiana I’ve seen. The amount of people and tourism and foot traffic. There is no storefront sitting empty. All the businesses seem to be thriving.”
Favorite places to run: Starkey Park and Turkey Foot Park.
