Bob Mann: 2011 Little Rock Marathon

Sun Mar 6, 2011

On March 6, 2011, I ran my 18th marathon in Little Rock, Arkansas. I had originally signed up for this same race in 2010, but had to bail on it because of my health issues early that year. It became the 5th marathon that I had to skip because of injury or illness or something else. All five times, I had written to the race directors asking for a refund or at least a deferral to the following year. Little Rock became the first (and only) one of those to actually allow me to defer. Just because of that simple fact, I was already a fan of the race before I even got out there.

I had decided to fly into Memphis instead of Little Rock, for a few reasons. First of all, I could get a nonstop flight to Memphis, but not to Little Rock, so the time it took me to drive the extra distance was almost the same as if I took a connection somewhere. Second, the flight was cheaper to Memphis, which offset the cost of the car rental. Third, I've enjoyed spending time in Memphis in the past, so I liked the idea of being able to spend a little more time there again. And last, I like random road trips, and a couple hours on I40 in eastern Arkansas is about as random as it gets.

My flight arrived in Memphis at a fairly early hour on Saturday, the day before the race. I wanted to get in a short easy run to warm up for the race, so I found a small park along the Mississippi River and put on my running clothes. Okay, it was raining lightly, so it wasn't the prettiest run along the river. But it got the job done. Then I hopped back in the car and headed west to Little Rock.

I arrived in the early afternoon. The only other person from the 30s group that I knew running this race was Cindi. We met up at the expo, picked up our race packets, and later on had a typical pre-race pasta dinner. Then we each went back to our hotels to call it an early night. And we planned to meet up at the finisher's tent after the race.

The race began Sunday at 8:00am. I had set my alarm for 6:00am, but I got a wake-up call at 5:30am, even though I hadn't requested one. Well, I had gone to bed early enough, so that was fine. I just hope there wasn't some other runner in my hotel who overslept because they didn't get their wake-up call...

I really didn't set a time goal for myself for this race. 7 weeks later, I will be attempting my first 50k, so I was basically just using this race as a training run. I decided to pace myself for something around 4 hours. Actually, I was figuring that I'd get something slightly over 4 hours, just like I did in my last marathon in Charlotte 3 months earlier. This was also a cloudy and very chilly morning (upper 30s), just like that day in Charlotte. And like Charlotte, this race would not be flat. So I guess these two latest races for me were very similar.

I started off at just about the right clip. My first mile was 9:08, which was fine for moving thru traffic. In Mile 2, some space opened up and I picked the pace all the way to 8:37. That was quite a bit faster than I needed to be to come in at 4 hours, and it ended up being my fastest mile of the day. After that, I settled into a good groove, pretty consistently around 8:50. That was just about what I wanted.

For miles 2 thru 5, we crossed the Arkansas River into North Little Rock. The town wasn't terribly interesting, but the mayor came out and stood on a pickup truck cheering very loudly for the runners. That was a nice touch. After Mile 5, we crossed back into Little Rock and ran a bit in downtown. It really wasn't a terribly attractive portion of the run. In other words, downtown Little Rock is nothing to write home about. All this time we had been running alongside the Half Marathoners. In my experiences, marathons that share the first half of the course with the half marathon are usually prettier in the first half, so that all the runners can enjoy the scenery. That was certainly the case in Charlotte. So since the first half was rather unattractive, I was scared of what the second half would look like.

At one point near the end of the first half, however, we ran past the governor's mansion, and Arkansas governor Mike Beebe was outside cheering the runners on. That made two local politicians cheering for the runners. I do think that was a nice touch.

The halfway point of the marathon was in front of the state capitol building. I crossed the halfway point in 1:56:08. This was well ahead of a 4 hour pace. I would love to get that elusive negative split some day (other than the one I got in Wyoming, which only happened because of the elevation profile). But I was pretty sure I wouldn't be able to duplicate a 1:56. Some day I may have to completely sandbag the first half of a race. But today wasn't that day. I would just be happy to sneak in under 4 hours.

Up to this point I had felt pretty good. For a brief time early in the race, my stomach didn't feel quite right and I was afraid that I would be in for an unpleasant morning. But I quickly got over that and settled into a groove. The first half was mostly flat and I was pleased with my consistency. But as soon as we rounded the capitol, we turned uphill. I knew this hill was coming, and I knew this would be why I couldn't repeat the 1:56. The hill was a slow steady climb for almost the next 3 miles. It wasn't terrible, but it did slow me down a bit. My paces for these miles dropped below 9:00, which I expected. What I didn't expect, however, was that the scenery got much nicer. In fact, the second half was much prettier than the first half.

After the steady uphill climb for almost 3 miles, we leveled off briefly, then hit a steep descent. In the next mile, we took off all the elevation that we had gained over those 3 miles. A runner could probably make up lots of time down this hill, but I managed to keep myself in check. Yes, I was faster here than I was on the uphill, but only by about half a minute per mile. By the time I reached the river at the bottom of the hill at Mile 18, I was feeling pretty good. I knew my pace had slipped enough to make a negative split impossible, but even with 8 miles to go, I felt very confident that I could finish in under 4 hours.

Now began a 3 mile (each way) out-and-back thru a park along the river. The temperature had warmed up a little, and the sun was starting to peek out for the first time. I had dressed warmly from the beginning, and for the first time I was feeling the heat. But it wasn't bad, and I just made sure to hydrate well at the water stops.

Around Mile 22.5, I caught up to Cindi. She was trying for a time much faster than me, so I knew that this couldn't be good for her. The hills had gotten to her, especially the steep downhill. Cindi's goal of beating her BQ time by 10 minutes was shot, but I thought 4 hours was still doable, so I tried to get her to keep running with me. But she was running out of gas and had to slow down before long.

I was still feeling pretty strong, so I pulled ahead. Mile 24 was my slowest mile of the day (9:54), but I sped back up nicely for the last two miles. This last stretch was a straight shot back into downtown Little Rock, and to the finish line by the River Market. I covered these last two miles in 9:14 and 9:04 without even feeling like I was working too hard. This brought me over the finish line in 3:57:09. So the second half was 2:01 and I missed the negative split by a few minutes again. But I felt strong at the end and I am very happy with the finish. This run gives me confidence that I can cover 50k (approx. 31 miles) in 7 weeks. I might not be this speedy there, but I'll just be looking to finish my first attempt at that distance.

I waited a few minutes for Cindi to finish. We hung around refueling at the finisher's tent for a little while, then went back to our hotels to clean up and relax a bit. We met up again in the evening for the post-race party. This is only the second marathon I've done that had a post-race party in the evening following the race. The first was Chicago. That was my first marathon, and as such, I was feeling pretty terrible a few hours after the race, so I couldn't really enjoy myself at the party. This time, I was still quite capable of moving around, and thus was able to enjoy the party. It was held at the Clinton Presidential Library, not too far from the start/finish. And I must say, I was quite impressed with it! For free (included with the race registration), we could partake in all we could eat BBQ from a local joint (The Whole Hog), plus all you can eat from Olive Garden, plus all the beer and wine -- and Jello shots! -- that you could have. Cindi and I even spent some time chatting with legendary runner Bart Yasso. If you give free alcohol to tired and dehydrated people, you're bound to get a lot of people drunk. And it sure did seem as though plenty of people were getting quite tipsy, including Mr Yasso himself. Personally, I thought the party was a blast, and it was probably the best feature of the whole race weekend. I give the Little Rock Marathon a lot of credit for putting on a great event. It ran from 4:00 to 8:00pm, which meant it was still rather early when it ended. But that's okay because everybody was quite tired. Cindi and I went for one more drink at a pub along the way back to our hotels. After saying goodnight, I went back to my room and fell asleep quickly. Between the running and the free beer, I was indeed tired!

Monday morning I woke up, checked out of my hotel, and began the drive back to Memphis. I spent some time on Beale St and had a BBQ sandwich at a place I remember eating at the last time I was in Memphis, about 8.5 years ago. I headed back to the airport for my early evening flight. The only real bad part of the weekend was that my flight was delayed about 5 hours and I ended up sitting around the Memphis airport for a heck of a long time before finally arriving home in the middle of the night. This last part was annoying, but I won't let it ruin an otherwise enjoyable weekend.

I am happy to have finished under 4 hours, and I am happy to have checked another state off my marathon map. The next state is Connecticut, which as I said earlier, will be my first attempt at 50k. But based on how I finished in Little Rock, I am rather confident that I can cover those extra 5 miles. I will make no promises on how quickly I can do it, but I'm sure I can eventually get there...

And now the photos. Click any image to enlarge.


The crowd before the start


Crossing the start line

Snow? Nope, it's confetti

I always love seeing American flags prominently displayed

The mayor of North Little Rock cheering on the runners

Crossing the Arkansas River for the second time

USA! USA!

Back thru downtown Little Rock

Are you sick of my face yet? Here I go past a balloon arch for some reason

Arkansas governor Mike Beebe. One runner stops to shake his hand

The T-shirt quotes the Bible, the sign quotes Forrest Gump

The Arkansas state capitol is in the background

Near the halfway point, in front of the capitol

Around the capitol, watched by a young race fan

We begin our way up the long hill

Okay, this sign says "High 5 for Invinsibility". I now assume that's supposed to say "Invincibility", with a 'C'. Running past it, I thought it said "Invisibility", which seemed like an odd thing to wish for while running. It wasn't until I finished the race and looked at the picture before I figured out what it really said. Congratulations, Arkansas state school system!