Little Rock Half Marathon
Little Rock, Arkansas
Sunday, March 7, 2010

Sunday, March 7, 2010 was a great day to race walk the Little Rock Half Marathon as the temperature varied from 48 to 60 degrees, the wind was calm, and the sky was mostly cloudy. There were plenty of enthusiastic volunteers and police to man the water/Gatorade stations and control the traffic. The course, which was closed to traffic, remained the same as in the past and had many hills; however, none were very challenging. The course takes the field past the Arkansas Governor’s Mansion near mile 10 and Governor Michael Beebe, who I had met at a previous Little Rock Marathon, was standing at the entrance to the mansion, cheering the participants. I learned at the post race party that Governor Beebe was there cheering for 2.5 hours while the entire field of regular starters went past his residence. There were a good number of other cheering spectators throughout the course. Unlike the other years, there were no awards for the overall three walker finishers, which meant my third place finish did not earn me an award as it would have in previous years. The post race party which is included in the entry fee was the best so far as it was held in one of the Arkansas State Convention Center Ballrooms, had delicious food and drinks, and featured two outstanding bands. One band was called the Greasy Greens, which performed songs from the 1940’s through the 1980’s, played big band, rock, jazz, and rhythm & blues music continuously for 1.5 hours. The other, which played for 1.25 hours, was called Big Smith and feature down home, mountain music.

Once again I was able to spent time with my friend, Bart Yasso, from Runner’s World Magazine, a little at the pre-race exposition and more are the post race party. The last time that I saw Bart, the Lyme Disease that was caused by a tick bite, had reoccurred and was restricting him to be able to only run 4 or 5 miles, two or three times a week. It was nice to learn that he is feeling somewhat better and has done 6 marathons in the last 12 weeks with no other running in between (I would not recommend doing marathons on no training, but who am I to second guess Bart Yasso). In fact he finished the Little Rock Marathon in 4:07.

I discovered that I was part of the one minute video clip that was highlighting the Route 66 Marathon at its booth at the Exposition. Race Director, Chris Lieberman, who I had met at other race expositions, said that he would send me a copy of the video clip.

Another highlight of the exposition was that the 50 State Marathon Club of which I am a member had a reunion meeting. This gave me a chance to talk once again with many of the members that I see all over the country. In fact I learned that our 2051 members have done a total of more than 125000 marathons and that about 200 members were participating in the Little Rock Marathon and Half Marathon this year.

I had a wonderful time talking to friends, meeting new people, and doing the half marathon. It was a great weekend trip.