'Team Fritz' will be remembered at Capital City Marathon

Photographs cover the walls of the Tumwater home Bill and Tammy Herzog have lived in since 1999.

Many of them — in the living room, on the fridge in the kitchen and in a closet where the Herzogs collect mementos from the Capital City Marathon and other races they've run over the years — show the smiling faces of their close friends, Andy and Jody Fritz.

"They were in every area of our life," Bill Herzog said. "If you walk around our house, there's not very many picture frames that don't have a picture of them with us in it.

"They were just everywhere. There's no end to it. We could talk until next week about the friendship."

In December, just before Christmas, the Herzogs were given tragic news that their close friends were among the people killed in a bus crash in southeastern Mexico.

"It was a horrible day," Tammy Herzog said. "It's still horrible. It just changes your taste. It changes the way you walk around the earth. It makes you a lot more appreciative and thankful for the ones you have here."

Andy and Jody Fritz, both 51 years old, had gone on a cruise. They were traveling by bus to visit the Mayan ruins when the driver lost control on a narrow highway.

The bus flipped and struck a tree, killing the couple, nine other passengers and a Mexican tour guide.

The news of the crash devastated the Herzogs and the South Sound running community. A large group gathered together shortly after the Fritzes died to remember their legacy.

"It seems like the running community here, anytime anything tragic happens, we all get together and we do a run to remember down at Marathon Park, and run the 5-mile loop," Bill Herzog said.

Tammy Herzog said about 200 people showed up for the impromptu run.

Today, during the 37th running of the Capital City Marathon, the pace groups will wear yellow shirts that read "Team Fritz" to further honor the couple's involvement in the running community.

"When this happened in December, we as a running community really felt it hard for both of them," Bill Herzog said. "Andy, because of his (marathon) maniac status all over Western Washington, there were a number of races that did stuff for him.

"From the get-go, the running community was like, what are we going to do to honor Andy?"

Andy Fritz had completed the Capital City Marathon 14 times since 2000, including 13 consecutive full marathons since 2005. The Herzogs estimate he ran nearly 400 races and 150 marathons in his life.

He kept detailed notes and binders about his running career, and kept a summary of his career that dates back to 1995 at mummydust.blogspot.com.

"Andy has been a diehard staple of the pace team since 2011," Bill Herzog said.

"He took great pride in it," Tammy Herzog added. "If you read his blogs, he took a lot of pride in getting good people that could run properly and show up. He took it very seriously and he loved it."

Jody Fritz was there to support her husband, the Herzogs and the other runners every step of the way.

"My first (Capital City) half-marathon, she made it such a big deal and she didn't even run it," Tammy Herzog said. "She brought her boys down and made signs. She just always wanted to be supportive."

That hospitality extended far beyond racing, she said.

Jody Fritz gave the Herzogs the plum tree in their yard, and the forget-me-not flowers in front of their house. She painted walls inside of their home as a present to Tammy, and for years cut Bill's hair.

The Herzogs met the Fritzes, who lived in Lacey before moving to a home on Hood Canal last year, through church 18 years ago.

"We became really fast friends with them," Tammy Herzog said. "As a couple, we clicked. Sometimes it's hard when you're married for the husband to like the husband and the wife to like the wife — and vice versa."

The couples quickly found their personalities blended well. They celebrated birthdays and holidays together, played competitive card games — which the Fritzes usually won — and became fixtures in the South Sound running community.

They ran so many races together as a group since their first collective run in 2004 that the Herzogs couldn't pinpoint an exact number.

"It's too many to count," Bill Herzog said.

Andy Fritz was a prolific marathoner, and he and his wife encouraged the Herzogs to start running when they first moved from Monroe.

"He kind of transcended the running community here — which is a really established running community — but Andy knew every endurance runner from way north of Seattle down to Vancouver.

"They got married (in 1989), and lived for a time in Boston before moving out here. He got inspired by (the Boston Marathon) way back then. He was all about running way before we met him."

And that passion just made the bond between the two couples tighter.

Tammy Herzog, upon encouragement from Andy Fritz, keeps a small notebook detailing all of her races, and who she ran with.

The final race the two couples ran together was the 2017 Four on the Fourth, a 4-mile run hosted annually in Steilacoom on July 4.

While visiting the Fritzes at their new home in Hood Canal, the couples decided to participate in the race. The sky was blue, and the temperature perfect, Bill Herzog said.

"That was our last race with all of us together running a race," Tammy Herzog said. "It was a great day."

Five months after the loss of their their friends, the Herzogs say it is still doesn't feel real sometimes.

"We got 18 years," Tammy Herzog said. "We picked them, they picked us, and we were really blessed. There's just no one like them. It's a huge loss to the community in general."

She plans to run the 5-mile race Sunday, while her husband cheers her on, to honor their friends. The Fritzs son, Jared, also plans to run the half-marathon.

"You want to keep their memory alive for the friends around, and for their family," Tammy Herzog said.

This story was originally published May 19, 2018 at 7:00 AM with the headline "'Team Fritz' will be remembered at Capital City Marathon."