Little Rock Marathon Wrap-Up

NEWS AND NOTES

My official chip time turned out to be 5:03:02. (My watch time was 5:03:05.)

Governor Huckabee's official chip time turned to be 4:26:05. (Houston's Dr. Jeffrey Ross finished in 4:29:53. It appeared as if Governor Huckabee was also running with American Running Association Board member and Springfield Township, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania township commissioner Jeff Harbison.) Steve and Paula Boone of Humble finished in 4:24:40 and 5:31:51, respectively. (Paula ran the entire way with Minnesota native Frank Bartocci, who I had the pleasure of meeting on Saturday morning.) 69-year-old Lou Wilson of The Woodlands, who added Cowtown last Saturday to the four (4) that I did, came in at 5:34:46.

Laura Yasso finished in 4:40:52 while Hewitt's Cliff Burgess, 67, took it easy with a 4:38:29 effort. The oldest finisher on the course, Renton, Washington's Bob Dolphin, 76, finished three places behind me with a chip time of 5:03:39. It was Bob's 377th career marathon.

Course records were set with this year's winners - 23-year-old Charles Kamindo (2:19:47) and 30-year-old Claudia Camargo (2:56:47).

MY SPLITS

Mile 1 – 9:57.92
Mile 2 – 10:21.43 (20:19.35)
Mile 3 – 10:24.45 (30:43.80)
Mile 4 – 10:25.44 (41:09.24)
Mile 5 – 10:26.10 (51:35.34)
Mile 6 – 10:27.46 (1:02:02.80)

Mile 7 – 10:29.70 (1:12:32.50)
Mile 8 – 10:26.99 (1:22:59.49)
Mile 9/10 – 21:05.19 (1:44:04.68)
Mile 11 – 10:53.56 (1:54:58.24)
Mile 12 – 11:06.48 (2:06:04.72)
Mile 13 – 11:02.67 (2:17:07.39)
Halfway – 2:17:59.05

Mile 14 – 12:10.19 (2:29:17.58)
Mile 15 – 12:14.03 (2:41:31.61)
Mile 16 – 11:26.69 (2:52:58.30)
Mile 17 – 11:22.44 (3:04:20.74)
Mile 18 – 11:43.81 (3:16:04.55)
Mile 19 – 11:50.22 (3:27:54.77)
Mile 20 – 12:24.84 (3:40:19.59)

Mile 21 – 13:36.31 (3:53:55.90)
Mile 22 – 13:12.82 (4:07:08.72)
Mile 23 – 13:44.20 (4:20:52.92)
Mile 24 – 13:27.20 (4:34:20.12)
Mile 25 – 13:29.56 (4:47:49.68)
Mile 26 – 12:51.88 (5:00:41.56)
Last .2 – 2:23.78 (5:03:05.34)

SATURDAY WRAP-UP

I’m just incredibly impressed and can’t say enough about how personable Governor Mike Huckabee was with our family, especially Waverly. I’m sure there are times that he would rather be anonymous (and I’m afraid that we started a steady stream of folks visiting him that morning) but he has brought a lot of attention to the cause of childhood obesity in the state of Arkansas.

After the Expo, we toured the State Capitol and was able to look into the waiting room to his office. There we saw pictures of him with the late President Reagan and his wife, Nancy, as well as with Barbara Bush. (Both of those pictures showed him as a much heavier man.) There was also a picture of him in the Marine Corps Marathon this past October.

As I had mentioned in a previous report, we sat in on Bart Yasso’s presentation. And it wasn’t anything formal, but just about 15-20 runners. Of course, I saw him speak at HARRA’s Summer Celebration this past June at the Spaghetti Warehouse and I talked to him at the New York City Expo. He just continues to be incredibly informative, funny and has the ability to dispense advice to a wide range of abilities. One of the things that he indicated that stuck with me during Sunday’s race, as far as running hills, was the idea of “nose before the toes” and that if you didn’t that your legs would actually act as a braking mechanism. The one thing that his wife, Laura, added (speaking to a gentleman that was wanted to BQ at 3:30 over his 3:39 at the Las Vegas Marathon in December) was about, of course, equal effort through the hills (not worrying about equal pace).

The funniest exchange came when Bart was just about ready to wrap things up and he mentioned that he would take one more question and an older woman had just walked into the room towards the front where he was. She said, “Oh, and I just got here.”

All of a sudden, Bart recognized her and said, “I remember you.” And she said, “Who are you?” Needless to say, there were quite a few chuckles. He responded, very politely, “I’m Bart Yasso with Runner’s World.”

Bart explained that he remembered that she was on a trip to run the Millenium Marathon in New Zealand at the start of Y2K!

After the presentation, I waited for Laura to finish talking with a quartet of runners about some 50-mile and 100-mile trail events around the country so I could get a picture of her and Waverly. I asked her, “Are you coming to Houston on Saturday (for the RRCA Convention) with Bart?”

I don’t remember the reason why she said she wasn’t able to, but she did indicate that she and Bart were engaged there in Houston. She said that she ran either the 1999 or 2000 Houston Marathon and remembered running in Memorial Park the morning after (in the heat and humidity). She said that they had met in Portland, Oregon, which is where Bart indicated that that is where Amby Burfoot labeled his pre-marathon speed workout/marathon time predictor “the Yasso 800’s” as they were training together for the Portland Marathon.

I had shared with her that Waverly was 10 and had run her first half-marathon and like many other people had remarked that she wished that she had started running that soon. She said that she didn’t think that any female that young had run the Runner’s World Half Marathon in Allentown, Pennsylvania and that if Waverly ran it she would see about getting her up on the stage there.

Laura really, really wished that the RRCA Convention would go well. I believe that she intimated that it was getting tougher to get as many people involved and interested; however, she said that she is a huge believer in the RRCA. She said that she and Bart were still members of the Buffalo Chips Running Club in Sacramento, California aside from the Lehigh Valley Road Runners. She commented (and not being a braggard) that she was one of a few – if not the only individual – to win a national award in three different categories.

SUNDAY WRAP-UP

I remember running across the bridge that goes over the Arkansas River into North Little Rock and clocking the first mile at 9:57.92 and thinking to myself “Whoa!” I was proud though that my next seven (7) miles were between 10:21 and 10:26.

There were lots of turns and slight uphills throughout the first 12-13 miles. I’m thinking in hindsight, in conjunction with the 300-foot elevation gain in the next three miles, that is what got my feet and ankles.

I averaged 10:33 through miles 9-10 and did mile 11 in 10:54 and mile 12 in 11:06. It was the beginning of mile 12 that I literally stopped at the water stop to make sure that I got my first Gu down with some water.

I was determined not to walk mile 14 at all. Two years ago in the half, that stretch was part of mile 9 in front of the Arkansas School for the Deaf and the Blind and I walked more than half of it. Not on Sunday though. Mile 15 was slow and steady and mile 16 wasn’t as bad as the previous two – given the 11:27 mile.

Real close to mile 16, there were some guys dressed up. One was a Santa sitting in a chair along the side of the street and I said to them, “I would have stopped and sat in Santa’s lap, but I’m running in the Clydesdale division!” It was worth a good laugh and you have to stay amused at times on the course!

Just past the mile 16 marker and through about 17.5 was a fairly steep downhill and as I came out of it, made a left-hand turn and went back up over an overpass, I started to feel the pain in my feet and ankles that I had experienced in New York City and out at Kingwood.

I saw Gena approaching the mile 18 marker and I told her that I was starting to hurt. She said that Waverly was over near mile 23 waiting to see the Governor and Dr. Ross.

I got to mile 19 in 3:27:55 and knew that I was just a bit ahead of a 4:48 finish (3:29 at that point), but I could feel that hope slowly slipping away. Before I reached mile 20, I saw Steve Boone from Humble and shortly behind him was the Governor.

When I passed the turnaround just before mile 21, I knew I had slipped past the magical 4:48 barrier for me but I got a Gu in me and just tried to keep moving. I tried to go off the paved trail on this return portion of the out-and-back and into the grass but the unevenness was just about as bad on my ankles.

On the return trip of the out-and-back, Lou Wilson of The Woodlands saw me (as he had in Austin), said “Hello!” as we crossed in opposite directions.

As I got to the mile 23 marker, there was no Waverly even though I saw the truck parked across the street to the right and then I figured that if she wasn’t going to be there that she knows that I like to run to the mile marker or the water stop.

I met up with them at the mile 23 (and change) water stop and she was able to keep the nice easy pace. I could have very easily walked it in from there was my pace was not too much faster than a brisk walk; however, I realized that that wouldn’t have taught her one thing about sticking with it. I think other than walking out of the water stop between mile markers 24 and 25, we only walked for about 30 seconds one other time.

We saw Steve Boone again after we made the final right hand turn onto Capitol (which runs straight down to the finish line in front of the Capitol Building.) I really don’t even remember what he said. I looked behind to see if anyone was close in case we slowed to get lined up for a good photograph (since I wasn’t going to be able to break 5 hours). We hit the identification mat (which sent my name to a laptop screen so that the public address announcer, which happened to be Bart Yasso, could read my name off) and then crossed the finish line.

I hugged Waverly, she grabbed the medal and put it around my neck and then I was off to find some food and we all made a very slow beeline for the truck.

Gena saw Laura Yasso come in about 4:42 and helped her get Bart’s attention in the announcer’s booth. Gena said that Laura had commented that it was probably her second worst marathon ever, but she had told us the day before that she wasn’t going to be taking it very fast at all on Sunday.

All in all, it was a great trip! We had a great time as a family! And I even had a nice juicy Whataburger double meat with cheese (ketchup and onions only, thank you) in Marshall on the drive home! (Sam and David, I like them too but I try to stay away from them!)

I will probably try to figure out how to get to Albuquerque on Saturday, April 22nd to get state number 6 in as I may have to bypass Vancouver International two weeks later so that I can position my schedule at work to be able to attend Waverly’s fifth grade graduation ceremony.