STATE #2

Race Bib

So here we go, bringing in 2014 with the second state of the 50 state challenge.  Arkansas.  And if you were following along recently, you’ll remember that winter has been exceptionally unkind to the deep south this year.  As I write this, Baton Rouge alone has experienced its fourth ice event this winter.  Typically we don’t see four ice events in four years.  Will this winter ever end???

That doesn’t matter though.  I signed up for the Little Rock Half Marathon after missing the Mississippi and Louisiana events due to family illnesses.  So with everything going just about as well as it could be going, I was determined to do this race.  The preparation leading up to it was painless.  I still didn’t run quite as much as I was wanting to run, but I felt good enough to do another 13 miles and cross off another state.  And for the week before leading up to it, the weather looked as if it was going to hold out.  Speaking of, one particular Arkansas meteorologist really messed it up.  It wasn’t until I got up there the night before and watched another weathergirl on an actual tv station that I got a real forecast that I felt confident in, and it turned out that she nailed it.  Kudos to her.  The funny thing is that she works for the same station as the guy who I had been following who couldn’t make up his mind what it was going to do.

Greenville Bridge

Needless-to-say, leading up to the event, it appeared that the weather could be anything from sunny and warm to cold and icy (assuming that the event wasn’t canceled altogether).  So in preparation, I ended up taking just about everything that I could think of just in case.  This is much easier to do when you’re driving and not flying.  The entire week leading up to the event, it had been in the 70s at home, well above normal (FINALLY!!!).  It had been well into the 60s and low 70s in all of Mississippi and parts of Arkansas as well.  It was even in the 80s and close to 90 in Texas.  Here I am thinking that winter might actually be over early which would be great for everyone across the eastern US.  But I was wrong.

LR Streetcar

I drove up to Little Rock via Vicksburg (where some family is) and then drove north and across the new bridge in Greenville.  The bridge looks similar to the John James Audubon Bridge in New Roads.  The temperature held into the 70s all the way up into Arkansas; although it was still in the low 60s in Little Rock.  The weather couldn’t have been more perfect.  The 5K runners had it made running on Saturday.  Driving in downtown Little Rock on a Saturday afternoon proved to be a little more difficult than anticipated.  The streets seemed narrow; too many two way streets.  But I eventually made it to the expo event and was able to get my gear.  The expo was set up well although slightly more crowded than in Philly, but the booths were well placed and stocked.  The timing tag had to be activated (this is one that goes on your shoes, only my second time to use one of these) and worked flawlessly.  After looking around the expo and downtown a bit, I headed on to the hotel mainly to just update on the weather and to rest for the night knowing what Sunday could bring.

Little Rock

Sure enough, Sunday morning, it had already started raining a bit.  The temperature still felt comfortable but you could tell that the front had passed and that the winds were coming from the north.  There was a 6am start for people who estimated that it would take them longer than 6 hours to finish the marathon or half marathon.  From the looks of things, there were many runners in that 6am start.  And that really made a difference I believe.  Many people later complained about not just letting everybody start at 6am, but I know the logistics of doing that at the last minute just aren’t very feasible.  I looked at the weather one last time and then decided to head on to downtown Little Rock before 6am that way I could get a parking spot in a garage (knowing that it would be raining seriously by noon).  It turned out that at 5:45am, there was practically no traffic.  The 6am people were already parked and lined up and the 8am people weren’t coming in yet, so I had the roads to myself and I had my choice of nearly any parking garage spot.  So i picked my spot, watched the 6am runners take off from a vantage on top of the garage, and then debated nearly an hour on what exactly to wear or not to wear for this race.  I kept debating on whether or not I would get too hot in certain gear, but finally i told myself that the forecast predicted near freezing conditions so I had to stop talking myself out of changing gear.  Finally I decided on something and went on to the start.

I ended up weather two pairs of shorts with a climaproof wind and rain resistant pants on the exterior, then the compression shirt, dri-fit shirt and a nylon weather resistant jacket on the exterior with a baseball cap.  I didn’t take the winter ski cap because I couldn’t imagine wearing both easily (without the cap falling off), and I decided that the baseball cap was more important due to the rain which would make the cotton ski cap worthless.  The jacket also had a water resistant hood to go over the hat.  I also didn’t have any water resistant gloves which nearly proved to be deadly (so-to-speak).  I had basic socks also, but that ended up not being a huge deal.

Start

I met a young Shreveport lady who had spent a semester at LSU before finishing up at LaTech.  We talked for a bit about what we were wearing and what we expected with regards to race conditions.  We both pretty much had it in our minds that the temp would be dropping by a good 20 degrees during the race.  We also talked about the Crescent City Classic since she had never done it before and was debating on trying it out, so I encouraged her telling her how much fun it really is.

The corrals were set up a little wierd for this race which had about a third of the participants that Philadelphia had.  They seemed rather small.  And then instead of letting everyone go in unison behind the front corrals, they stopped each group and waited a good three minutes before counting down to let them go.  This didn’t seem necessary given the limited number of people in each corral, and some people got a little worried as it was taking over 30 minutes for our corral to start.  This could have made a huge difference as well with regards to race conditions.  Some people could have perhaps finished prior to the heavy rains.  But as pointed out later on by other participants, this actually prevented the typical bottlenecks that was seen in previous year’s events, so I guess they did know what they were doing afterall.

After a short loop, we spent most of the next three miles in North Little Rock.  Upon crossing the Arkansas River, it was obvious that the wind was picking up.  I didn’t run bad times for the first half of the half.  I started off in a jog and worked my way into a steady pace of around 10 minutes per mile.  There was a decent crowd along the front few miles going into North Little Rock.  There were supporters with offerings of sorts for racers whether it be more water, bananas, donuts or what you will.  A guy (I wonder if it was the mayor of NLR) was standing along the bridge congratulating everyone as they went by and telling them that he couldn’t wait to see them back in his city again.  I passed by all the water stops until after Mile 6.  Then I started taking water.  This was also the part where the weather really started becoming miserable.

Capitol

The next several miles, it became more and more miserable, like feeling knife stings across the skin as the winds continued to pick up and the temperature continued to drop.  By this point, it may have already been in the 30s but I didn’t know it.  I didn’t think it was, but someone else said they passed by a bank in NLR and saw the sign say 39.  I didn’t see a sign until Mile 12 and it said 37.  But I felt it well before then.  By Mile 8, I was beginning to slow up considerably.  Each time I stopped, I found it harder and harder to start back running.  I could walk, and actually found it more enjoyable because I was able to keep my hands in my pockets then.  By now, around 2 hours in, my hands were freezing.  I seriously lost feeling in parts of my fingers.  This became very miserable.  I followed along with a pack I had grown accustomed to staying with who were beginning to walk much more as well.  Right around Mile 12, where the marathoners would turn off to complete their course towards 26, we noticed that the police and coordinators had shut the course down, not letting marathons continue along the marathon course.  They had to finish with the half marathoners.  They kept saying “severe weather”, but I had no idea whether they meant lightning or ice.  Turns out they meant lightning, but I never saw any lightning until well after I left town.  But the rain did begin to come down even harder in that last mile.

Mile 12 Temp

In the last mile, I ran across a younger girl who was shivering from head to toe and looked like she could fall over at any moment.  We talked for a little bit to offer words of encouragement.  I told her that we had come this far, time to finish strong and then we could get back to a hotel, take hot showers and get under some warm covers.  That seemed to spark her for a moment, but I eventually ended up ahead of her and hoped someone else would be there to talk her on in to the finish.   I ran two more short times where I actually started feeling cramps towards the very end.  I had never felt them before, so I attributed it to the weather and how cold it was actually beginning to feel but it could have just as easily been due to lack of water since I obviously didn’t drink enough and it was windy.  By this point, I knew it was in the 30s and I knew that the wind chill had to be in the low 20s at best.  I worked my way to the finishers chute where I muscled up nerve to run in to the finish where I overheard a runner propose to another (his finance I’m sure) over the sound system as I was crossing the finish line and that made me feel warmer.  She did say YES, and I was able to clap and cross the finish line, happy that I had completed it in under 3 hours, and then hurriedly made my way through to get my medal, snacks, and water and eventually make my way back to my car so that I could get the hell out of dodge before the ice set in because the temperature was dropping a lot faster than I had thought it would.

This took some work as well.  By now, the rain was really setting in and was falling more heavily.  I didn’t care as much as I was already soaked, so the goal was to simply stay warm (by moving my hands inside my jacket) and walked gingerly all the way to the car which was about three blocks and then into the parking garage.  Once there, I took nearly 30 minutes just to change most of my clothes, into something dry, and to somewhat warm my body up.  I was shivering so much and felt so numb, I don’t think I could have driven if I wanted to.  In the meantime, I was worried that it would begin to ice and that I wouldn’t even be able to get out of town.

Alas, I was able to eventually get out of town and as far south as I could as quick as I could.  As cold as it was in Little Rock, I didn’t have much hope of getting into warmer climates.  I was sure that the front had long passed towards the south, but I was wrong yet again.  Sure, it stayed in the 30s all the way south through Arkansas until I got to Lake Village right across the river from Greenville.  I stopped at a rest area.  The temperature had risen to 50, but it didn’t feel that much warmer to me.  It still felt pretty frigid.  A short drive later across the MS River and the temperature jumped up to 66.  I figured I was near the front but surely it wouldn’t get warmer and that the north winds were already blowing, but I was still wrong.

81F after a frigid race

Only a few miles later after I turned onto MS Highway 1 south, the temperature skyrocketed to 77, eventually topping out at 81.  Well I be damned!  At this, I had no choice but to cut off the heater, open the windows and let Mother Earth’s natural warmth keep me company for the final hour or so drive back to Vicksburg to spend the night.  It stayed warm well into the night at Vicksburg.  As a matter of fact, I changed back into shorts and tshirt.  It was hard to believe that I had driven through a 47 degree temperature increase in barely three hours.

But then by the next morning, the front did eventually pass and the temperature dropped back down to 28, so in just a few more hours I had experienced a 53 degree temperature drop.  So over the course of 24 hours, I had gone through a total temperature variation of exactly 100 degrees.  Wow!  Well no wonder I’m sick now!

Medal

So where to next?  I have my hopes up for a few destinations, but I’d be lying if I said that this frigid run didn’t spook me just a bit.  But then I expect my next half marathon to be much warmer since it’ll more likely be in late April or early May.  In the meantime, I guess I need to go shopping for some warm weather gear, mainly for next winter.  But then watch us have an abnormally warm winter next year.

Oh, the finisher medal for this race is famously huge, one of the biggest around.  So it was cool to get one.  Perhaps a little bit too big and heavy, but I’m proud of it none-the-less.  I’m just glad that I was able to finish this race.  I never felt like stopping completely, but a few extra cramps or an even stiff wind or heavy rain earlier in the race or some lightning and I may have been more than willing to quit.  I’m glad I didn’t have to.

It would be easy to say that this race was an Epic failure in that many marathoners didn’t get to complete the entire course or finish with a marathon time, but I feel that the race directors did the best that they could given the circumstances.  Should the race have been run in the first place?  Hard to say.  It wasn’t the worst conditions known to man, but it was the worst conditions known to many southerners, plus there was that threat of ice and even thunderstorms beforehand.  So I guess in terms of safety, perhaps it could have been canceled.  But then I wouldn’t have this amazing story to tell you.  I think one thing is just about certain; the weather can’t be any worse for next years Little Rock Marathon.  🙂

Race: Little Rock EPIC Half Marathon

Date: March 2, 2014, 8AM

Place: Downtown – Little Rock, AR

Time: 2:50:44