#24 Arkansas

State #24Arkansas

Little Rock Marathon, Little Rock Arkansas, March 3-4

Runner's World " Best List: 10 Great Marathons for First-Timers"

6661 people participated 5882 people finished

Bib #3549 ; Time 2:02:51 ; Pace 9: 22

Overall Rank for half : 673

Females 40-44 : 31

Gender: 226

I wanted this to be my 25th race in the 25th state of the union but the Florida cancellation, changed that.

I ran my #24th race in the 25th state of the union.

Highlights

1.      First new state of the year. The only thing I know about Arkansas is the home of Walmart and for Little Rock it's the Clinton's home.

2. Small town. Little Rock city alone has a population of under 200,000 people ( https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/table/PST045216/0541000).

3      Found out that one of my California running buddies was running in the same race. I was able to have a roomie and we had a “run-cation”.

3.      I found a good catfish truck.

4.      The theme of this race was a candyland- willy-wonka pastel candy explosion theme.

5.      There were a lot of black runners from Texas, Tennessee, Georgia, running. Not only was there a strong Black Girls Run presence but Black Men Running was there in full force too. I heard people call this the “ghetto race” ugh.

6.      It rained on the day of the race. Hard core pouring. Thank god they didn’t cancel the race and by the time we started the rain went to a light drizzle. It was cold as a mother….

7.     To date, this is the biggest medal I've ever gotten and it's interactive.

8.      I wasn’t properly dressed. It was supposed to be hot. Clothing wise I was uncomfortable and soaked.

9.      Then there were hills. Those dang hills. I was trying to get under 2 hours but that didn't happen.

10.      Urban race- we passed by the Clinton Museum, Central High School, Passed the Arkansas River. It was a mixed of history, small urban city, and nature.

11.  There was a strong military presence that ran the race

12.  Passed by many women and men with AMAZING calve muscles.

13.  We passed by the Purse Museum….who knew.

14.   I was a spectator for the 5k. Second time in all the states of being the spectator