David Langer's Staging Area

The organizational efforts of the Little Rock team were clearly seen in everything from the bib pick up, to the vendor support, to the indoor pre-race waiting area, to the race itself. The way in which they weave the theme throughout materials, emails, decorations is so awesome! This year the Race Director adjusted the start time to 6:00 a.m. due to anticipated weather issues later in the day. I really appreciated this early start!

Overall, a great race for me. Running through city neighborhoods on a mostly flat course was easy on the knees. Though crowd support was sparse, neighbors along the way were out and cheering on runners. One group on the route provided cups of micro-brewed beer. Another provided mimosas. A Church group was out providing communion on the run – bread and grape juice, another church was providing refreshments and a gentleman even had a Kleenex box handy for runners to grab a Kleenex! One final group was a neighborhood that decorated the street with dinosaur foot prints and provided refreshments and encouragement.

I thoroughly enjoyed this one-of-a-kind destination race — and this year’s saucer sized Triceratops half marathon medal received my 2-year-old grandson’s seal of approval!!

I was surprised by the start of the race. When the second heat arrived, we were told we could start at anytime, since the race was chip timed. So, no national anthem or group send off — this felt a bit clunky. The course was far more difficult in the first 2+ miles than anticipated. The inclines more than offset the few gentle descents at this point. First timers we’re no prepared for this. Aid stations and support along the course was excellent. The only other hiccup was the chaos at dropped-off bag pickup. Bags arrived after runners were finishing. . . This meant bags were only broadly organized into piles delineated by the thousand number signifier. Making finding a bag quite difficult. I suggest that the trucks immediately come down to the finish area after all runners are started so that the gear can be properly organized and sorted. Overall an excellent event that could be improved upon with a few tweaks.