the 2012 Little Rock Half Marathon

official time: 1:53:49

on the iPod:  "jackson" -- johnny cash and june carter cash

So in a lot of ways my racing season begins each year in Little Rock.  Not only because the Little Rock Half marathon is typically the first race that I run on a calendar year, but also because it was the very first distance race that I ever ran. Period.  So sentimentally, it's a great place for me to begin. And I love the city of Little Rock.  When I was a kid growing up in Southeast Arkansas, Little Rock was the place to go on the weekends.  My mother would load up the station wagon with me and my sister and our friends.  Eating fried cheese at Benningan's was always the highlight.  I loved those trips and still remember them distinctly.

Close to 30 years later, Bennigan's has long been closed, McCain Mall is a relic of it's old self, and my mother's station wagon only exists in my mind's eye.  But the Little Rock of my adulthood is a swell city, too, and I love spending time there whether for conferences, seeing friends, or running races.

This weekend was no different.  In fact, it was really amazing.

Mrs. Murie and I headed out Saturday morning in time enough for a leisurely drive south from the hills of Northwest Arkansas to our state's capital.  Bless her heart, she's a really good sport, because every time I sit down in the passenger's seat of her car and immediately start making comments about the cleanliness, or lack thereof, she puts up with it.  I'll just say that it could use a good scrubbin' and move on from there.  

We hit the expo to grab our bibs and swag bags as soon as we got in town, seeing many running friends doing the same thing.  I used to be surprised when I would run into people I knew at the expos, but now I realize that i've been doing this distance running thing long enough that I fit in to the community.  It's a really good feeling to share that experience with friends and fellow runners.  It's also a great place to buy gear.  I got a new pair of Experia running socks.  They're my favorite brand because they let air in through the padding.  It's the simple things in life that matter, right?

We lamented the fact, however, that our good friend Mrs. Pugh wasn't with us.  As i've written before, she's the reason that I got into distance running in the first place.  The 2010 LR Half Marathon was where it all started, and there's been tons of finish lines and good times in between.  As a last ditch effort to find our friend, we stopped by the lobby of the Peabody Hotel, hoping and pining that she may have decided to surprise us with a last-minute entry.  If so, we simply knew that the Peabody is where we'd find her, most likely around the really large planters where last year she stopped for respite after the race and, how to say this delicately....  well, there's not really a good way to say that she puked in the planter.  In front of God and the ducks and everybody else.  There's no shame in her game.  I'm sad to report that we didn't find our friend, but happy to say that the plant has officially survived.  Or at least they've put in another one...

     

Saturday afternoon found us relaxing on the back porch of Mrs. Murie's friends, Eric and Robin Schollmeier.  They were gracious enough to let us stay in their gorgeous home surrounded by pine trees and overlooking Pinnacle Mountain.  We drank a few beers and enjoyed the beautiful weather with our feet up and our thoughts on running.  I didn't tell Mrs. Murie at the time, but it was so incredibly nice to simply sit and talk.  And the mature pine trees in front of us reminding me of growing up.  There's not much that I miss about living in Southeast Arkansas, but pine trees are one of them.  The wind rustled the brush on the ground and gently swayed the canopy.  The motion and accompanying sound was mesmerizing.  As much as I wanted to race the next morning, I didn't want that afternoon to end.

Sunday morning rolled around and, just as Ned Perme (anyone who grew up around Little Rock knows who he is) predicted, the weather was perfect for running.  It was perfectly perfect.  There wasn't a cloud in the sky and the temperature was a warm 48 degrees.  I made a quick trip to Starbucks at 5:45 a.m. to help speed along the digestion process and it worked like a charm.  Thank you, Pike Place Roast.  You are my friend.  


Soon thereafter we were out the door and heading to the River Market.  We hadn't been down there more than 10 minutes before we began seeing runners we knew, and it made us both so happy to run into Deanna DuPlanti, particularly.  She's one of the funnest and happiest people I know and she always greets me with same huge hug and signature phrase: "time to play!"  And she's exactly right, because that's what distance running is.  Playing.  Deanna will be running the Oklahoma City Marathon the same weekend that we run Nashville, and I'll be wishing her nothing but the best time possible.  But more importantly, just the chance to play.

We also ran into a ton of other friends:  Uncle Steph and Jennifer Johnson, Erica Asfahl, Mike Meroney, Pauline Allen, Mark Vetter, Jeff and Sarah Hood, a couple of guys from the Starbucks crew, and Mrs. Murie's neighbor.  Everybody was in the best of spirits.  For real.

The gun went off to the booming sound of disco music blasting, and we were moving forward.  It seemed like only a few minutes flew by before we were crossing the Arkansas River in mile two.  Having run the course before and knowing it well is a great feeling, but i'd lace up and run anywhere with my friend.  Anywhere.  We quickly found our pace and settled in for the long haul, enjoying the morning and being thankful for the gift of running.  We passed by Argenta, Verizon Arena, the Occupy Little Rock encampment, the Governor's mansion, Christ Church, a few local booze parties, and mutliple spots in downtown.  The crowds were alive and rowdy; mixed with rock bands, country singers, DJ's, a gospel choir, quartets, and one lone saxaphoner.  Dude was wailing on it.

And as much fun as it was, it all seemed to happen really fast.  It was as if we blinked and it was over.  I had a lot more running in me and found myself jealous of the runners doing the full marathon.  But alas, we finished with 13.1 miles under our belt and were handsomely rewarded with not only a really large medal, but a new PR, too.  I wasn't necessarily disappointed at the end, but I can't say that I was ecstatic, either.  I had definitely felt higher after finishing other races.  As much as I loved the morning, it felt somewhat rote.

But that would all change about 30 minutes later, when, amongst the finishers and revelers and people, I saw my friend Alisha Baker.  I've known her and her husband, Russell, for four or five years now through my tailgating crowd and was excited to hear that she had taken up running.  We've seen each other since football season and have kept up with training and progress via email.  I got her attention in the crowd and could immediately tell that she had had a great race.  The emotion in her face spoke volumes and it reminded me of everything that I love about distance running.  We hugged and laughed, talking about her first half marathon.  She fought back tears as she said that she was really proud of herself.  She's a finisher now, and I know she's not done racing.  She's just begun.  

The 2012 season has just begun as well, and it couldn't have started better.  The Bentonville Running Festival is just around the corner and the Nashville Marathon will be here before I know it.  There's also the Hogeye, Cow Paddy, Race For The Cure, the Cancer Challenge, and Gold Rush all this spring.  But as much as races and medals and bibs and expos are all really great fun, at the end of the day it's simply about lacing up and finding a trail.  That's what matters, that's what makes me feel alive.  We'll be running 18 miles this weekend and i'm already thinking about it.  I'm thinking about it more than anything else.

Run.