Live from Little Rock, Arkansas

(Saturday, 3:30 a.m.) -- Yes, the site of the Little Rock Marathon on Sunday, March 5th!

Time to knock out state #5 on the way to get 10 states in before the end of the year -- and eventually 50 sometime in the next 3 to 4 years.

I had one of three (3) options this weekend: the Lone Star Trail Run 25K/50K in Coldspring, a back-to-back half marathon in Auburn, Alabama and Seaside, Florida to get states #11 and #12 or where Gena, Waverly and I are right now.

There are going to be a good number of fellow Seven Hills Running Club members doing the Lone Star Trail Run later this morning. Best wishes to Hans Jaegar, Ken Johnson, John Cook, Melissa Broussard and anybody else that I might have missed.

We were unable to leave Houston Friday afternoon until about 6:50 p.m. so we made it into Little Rock a short while ago. Waverly and I are going to run in the morning for about 40-45 minutes together then we are heading to the Expo, which begins at 10 a.m. I may stay to hear Bart Yasso speak at 11 a.m. and then I plan on visiting the state Capitol and then possibly going to the Clinton Presidential Library.

Weather right now is approximately 40 degrees and the forecast for Sunday was to be 65/45 with a chance of isolated thunderstorms. As long as there is no lightning, I've run in the rain before. Therefore, no big deal there. Waverly is planning on joining me for the last 3.2 again so we'll be checking the course map tomorrow and getting logistics planned for Sunday.

Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee will be running his 3rd career marathon on Sunday and will be wearing bib #2008 - done in case he decides to run for the White House in 2008. This will be the third race that I've done where the governor of that respective state has run. The other two included the Drake Relays-on-the-Roads Half Marathon that I did last April 30th in Des Moines, Iowa where Tom Villsack ran and, of course, the Aramco Houston Half Marathon two months ago where Rick Perry completed it in just under 2 hours.

I've lost two so far and unless I catch lightning in a bottle tomorrow, it will be 0-for-3. Huckabee ran this course last year in 4:38:32 and then ran the Marine Corps Marathon in October in 4:37:29.

I've done the front half of this course, which veers off from the marathon course at about mile 9, in 2:29, but that was two (2) years ago. I run between a 2:12 and 2:16 half marathon now. That was a big deal because I had done the flat Houston Half Marathon course in 2:32 (my second half marathon ever) and then I came here two months later and dropped it three (3) minutes with hills.

(Saturday, 8:30 a.m.) -- Waverly and I got back in a few minutes ago from a run that turned out to be 47 minutes long on the watch. It was really just a nice easy run for me to stay loose but also one to get her back in the swing of things. It was in the mid-40s, which was wonderful compared to the 80 degrees weather that Dave Smart, Rick Cook, Cassie Cowan and I ran in Thursday afternoon in tackling the 6.7-mile "outer loop" at Huntsville State Park.

Waverly did pretty good except that she's lost some of her fitness, but just a little bit. She'll get it back. Waverly, Gena and a friend of ours from where we go to church and her daughter have been going out walking a few times of week for about 35-40 minutes at a pop. I suggested to Waverly that she needs to try to run steady during this time while they are all brisk walking.

But I was reminded while we were out running of a couple of things and those are:

1.) The reason why I know I don't run as much as I do through the week is that I'm lured into the fallacy that if I don't do at least 6 miles at a pop (i.e. an hour), I'm not going to get anything out of it. (The mental benefit today was just super and I need to do it more often.)
2.) I'm able to work on the little things, such as my technique for going up a hill, because I'm trying to help her out. Therefore, I'm trying to work smarter for my knowledge base because I know that she's watching and looking to me for direction. (And I'm actually looking forward to tackling the hills out on the North Shore of Vancouver here in the coming weeks in the evenings.)

If the temperature can hold at where it is at right now or stay breezy as it gets into the low 60's, I think I'm capable of having a decent day tomorrow. Decent meaning "around 5 hours". I don't see another 4:47:32 in the cards, but I think I'm capable of doing better than Mardi Gras (which was 5:13, I think). I felt good this morning out there. Nice and relaxed.

The course has a net elevation gain of 300 feet from mile 2 to mile 16. The last 200 feet of that comes between mile markers 13 and 16 then you lose that feet back in the next two miles! Should be a blast!!