15 – the space between the notes

On March 3, 2024, I completed full Marathon #28 and U.S. State #15 at Little Rock Marathon. I encountered a couple Atlanta friends at the airport when I was headed over there. It was cool seeing them and it also worked out nicely since I had a ride to the hotel. (I didn’t rent a car since I was staying within walking distance of the start line.)

The Residence Inn was a reasonable rate for a full studio with kitchen and it was very near the start and finish.

I forgot to bring my SpiBelt race bib toggles with me, and I had a mild panic when I realized this, because I didn’t want to wear a shirt, just a sports bra, for the race, since it was going to be hot. I ended up solving the problem by using hair ties in the same manner. It worked! Now I know.

My pre-race meal was some grilled Red Snapper with veggies, black beans, and rice, and some fried pickles, at The Flying Fish. It was delicious.

They put on a great race in Little Rock; I’ve got to hand it to the race director. He made an excellent call in moving the start time to 6am from 8am this year, a decision that was made during race week when the weather predicted unseasonably hot and humid weather. There was great communication about this change, everyone is very friendly, they offered real post-race food and good drinks, and it was nice to be able to hang out inside before and after, real bathrooms, cool medal, fun theme. They do it right!

The theme was dinosaurs this year. That was a fun theme! I enjoyed it. Who doesn’t love dinosaurs?

We also got very lucky in that it was overcast. It was still humid and about 5-10 degrees hotter than I would have liked, but it ended up being fine. I’m glad I went with just the sports bra and hydration vest and didn’t also wear a tank top. That would’ve been too much. By the first mile I was already so thankful I opted for less clothing.

It’s a hilly marathon; that’s for sure! Lots of hills but there is one that goes up for 3 miles, between miles 14-17. That was tough! It also finishes with some hills that are pretty tough, but by then I was able to get the finish excitement to push me, and I was trying really hard to get sub 4, so that helped me with the hills at the end as well.

I made a friend who is also running a marathon in all 50 states. He was actually on my same flight over and then we kept running into each other so ended up talking after the race and decided to remain in contact, so that’s cool. I love that part of this journey, meeting fellow 50 states runners all over the country is fun! I also made another friend after the race, a fellow member of the 50 States Marathon Club and Marathon Maniacs who had done over 200 marathons. I need to look him up on the maniac website so we can also keep in touch!

Also, the medal is amazing! It weighs like 5 lbs or something. It’s huge and really cool!

After I finished the race, a reporter interviewed me and it ended up in the paper. Never mind that the reporter referred to Peachtree Road Race runners as “marathoners” (which I obviously didn’t say), but they interviewed me after the race and it’s in the paper. Here is the link (I’m not sure how long it will work but here it is): https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2024/mar/04/little-rock-marathon-finish-lines/ and here is the screenshot I took of the bit about me.