Race Review: Little Rock Marathon 2019 🛸

At the beginning of March, I flew down to Little Rock, Arkansas to run the Little Rock Marathon! The Little Rock Marathon is one of, if not THE most popular races in the state of Arkansas, due to it's over the top themes and INSANELY huge medals. I knew I had to check it out for myself!

I flew in to Little Rock the day before the race and was totally exhausted from working a major event the night before. (Whattup 3 hours of sleep on race weekend?!) It's always so fun to fly to races, though, because you can always tell who's traveling for the race and can easily make friends if you're traveling alone! I had a layover in St. Louis before getting to Little Rock and our plane was fairly empty and I'm fairly certain the only folks on the flight were runners. 😂 I love when that happens!

Got the row to myself from St. Louis to Little Rock! 🙌

I flew in a couple hours before Cassie arrived, so I waited for her flight to get in before we headed over to the expo. This year's theme was "A Race Odyssey" and they really played into the space theme at the expo! I didn't get many photos as we were trying to navigate the busy expo while also carrying our luggage, but I got some great footage of the set up in my vlog (which will go up after my marathon next month) so you'll definitely get to see all the aliens and flying saucers soon! 🛸👽

After picking up our race packets we wandered around the expo a bit. The expo was HUGE and we both wanted to do a bit of shopping. I picked up a headband from One More Mile that I had my eye on during my trip to the Richmond Marathon and was psyched to finally get my hands on it! We also found this really disgusting flavor of Gu - Hoppy Trails - and I am SO curious if anyone has actually fueled with it before. I'm all for hoppy beers (IPAs are my fave) but hoppy GU?! I can't imagine that would taste good. 😂

My new headband! #embracethesuck

🤢

We had a bit of time to kill before checking in to our Air BnB, so we decided to grab lunch at the appropriately named Flying Saucer Tap House. It was great to have a place to sit and chill for a bit, eat some warm food (it was so cold!), and do some people watching. There was this put put pub crawl happening so we got to see some awesome tipsy people in golf attire come in and out of the bar for a bit. I was also personally won over by my favorite Scrubs joke ever being featured on the Flying Saucer menu!

PART-AAAA!

Cassie and I were both equally exhausted so we were pretty excited to finally get back to our Air BnB to relax. We stayed in North Little Rock which was a bit removed from the downtown area of the city, but it was only a $6 - $8 Uber ride back and forth every time so it really wasn't that bad. Choosing to stay a bit further removed from the start line to save money definitely won't inconvenience you if you decide to go that route for this race! Our Air BnB was really cute. It was a guest house that had one bedroom. One of us stayed on the couch, but there was a double bed so you can easily share the bed or have 3 people in the space! It was so perfect for what we needed it for - a quiet place to crash and relax. There wasn't a lot around for us to walk to, but again - the Ubers into the city were very cheap so it was easy to get back and forth.

After a bit of resting, we of course had to do our pre-race ritual - THE FLAT RUNNER. When I set mine up, Cassie asked if I was going to include any of my gels or blocks in my photo. Being deliriously tired, I decided to drop ALL of my gels and blocks on top of my flat runner which made both of us CRACK UP for a solid 5 minutes. It sounds so dumb but it was so funny to us for some reason (probably the exhaustion) so I had to take a picture for ~the mems~. 😂

All the locals we talked to for dinner recommendations had suggested Bruno's to us, so we opted to go there for some carbo-loading. It turned out the entire field of runners got the same recommendations and the wait time was 90 MINUTES. So instead, we found this little hole in the wall Mexican restaurant for dinner and it was soooo delicious! I had a veggie chimichanga which honestly hit the spot. With full tummies we ventured back to our digs for some much needed sleep.

We had originally tried to factor in some time in the morning to go grab some pre-race breakfast, but forgot to factor in that pretty much every Uber in Little Rock would be occupied by runners at the same time. After a bit of panicking at the fact that there were no Ubers available (make sure you plan ahead if this is your main mode of transportation during your visit to Little Rock!), we finally got picked up by a driver. We feasted on a breakfast of energy blocks (not great) and made our way to the starting line. There was a donut place called Hurts Donuts (I died when I found out Hurts Donuts actually existed) right across from where runners were gathered at the convention center, so we thought we'd go see if there were any pre-marathon friendly breakfast options. (Ya know, something plain without a TON of sugar on them.) There weren't, but I was still obsessed with everything that was in there and LIVING for the name.

Still on the prowl for something more substantial than energy blocks, we somehow stumbled into a Starbucks with virtually no line (???). We got our hands on a couple croissants (phew) and our minds were more at ease with having something a little bit better to burn off during the race. 😅 After stuffing our faces we somehow found a bathroom with virtually no line (?????????? WITCHCRAFT) and was able to get in an out with plenty of time to spare before the start. The morning went from sooooo stressful, thinking we'd have to walk a mile from our Air BnB to the starting line, to being pretty freaking magical. It's the little things on race day. 😂

Before we knew it we were making our way to the start line. The weather was cold and rainy (because apparently that's the kind of weather we attract on race day 😂) but the literal THOUSANDS of runners were in great spirits and getting us pumped up. With the amount of people in the starting corrals I really thought that it was going to take us a long time to finally make our way across the starting line, but it only took us a little under 10 minutes to get going. So awesome!

Ready to run!

I was running a GPS tracker on my phone for this race, so in order to save on battery I did a really bad job of taking photos throughout the race, but I had a blast! There were so many people in costume, may favorite being someone who dressed up as Eliot and E.T. and ran the entire marathon IN JEANS. That takes a lot of dedication. 😂 Luckily I was able to find him on Instagram so you can see how truly awesome this costume was!

You can follow him on Instagram! It looks like he's trying to do all 50 states IN COSTUME!

The marathon and the half marathon ran the same course through the first 12 miles of the race. Cassie and I had intended to run most of these first 12 miles together, but because the race was so crowded, we lost each other within the first mile. I gave her a call to make sure she was okay (she was) and to wish her luck in her half, then turned my focus on my run. Even though it was really rainy and chilly, the community was out in full force making the experience so enjoyable. Within the first 10K we ran by people in Star Wars costumes, a spin class, and so many people doling out high fives and good cheer. One of my favorite spectators was at mile 1 & 3, cheering about how beautiful a day it was as it continually down poured. 😂 Luckily the rain let up around mile 4 or so (although it was still quite cold and windy, and at one point it was sleeting 🙃), and I got to see Cassie as she passed the 10K mark!

I think the one thing I'll remember the most about this race is that the community came out in DROVES. Every mile had a local sponsor, it seems like every church I passed was out there cheering and handing out snacks (and holy water blessings - not kidding), and everyone had a smile on their faces. I had grilled pineapple around mile 10, cookies and energy bars at mile 15, and got to sign "The Wall" at mile 21. There was also SO MANY opportunities to pull over for a beer or a mimosa during the race. If I didn't get horrible headaches from drinking and running then I would totally partake, and I'm sure the folks who are able to mix their running and drinking were loving the hell out of it. There were very few miles where it was only runners out there which is always so comforting. It's hard to go a long time without seeing a single other person and that's not how I felt about this race at all. It was fantastic!

Oh, and I also got to meet Baymax around mile 9. ♥️

The course itself was actually quite fun. There were some hills (especially miles 13.5-17) but we were winding here, there, and everywhere all over the city so it definitely didn't get boring. I think my least favorite part of the course was miles 19-23. This was a long stretch out-and-back on a park road so it was VERY quiet with little to no spectators. There were two aid stations that were blasting music, one musician along the way, and as I mentioned above you got to sign your name to "The Wall" at mile 21, but other than that it was pretty quiet. If I could change one thing about this race it would be to get more hype on those miles because runners are DYING for it at that point. I don't have a complaint other than that!

I felt pretty good throughout the entirety of the day, though I will say that I was bonking pretty hard in the middle of the race. It could have been the lack of sleep a couple nights before, or the fact that my breakfast that morning was trash, but there were definitely times where I thought to myself, "I could totally go lay on the grass and fall asleep right now". Definitely not a thought I've had during marathons before! Around mile 14 I started to feel VERY hungry - also not a feeling I get often during long-distance races. Luckily mile 15 had PLENTY of food along the way! I guess I got hungry at the right moment.  😂

And the only other thing that was bothering me was my right ankle. I noticed it really nagging at me around mile 8/9. I thought it might have been because of the curve of the road making my right ankle hurt because you had to run with your ankles kind of crooked in order to stay balanced, if that makes sense. (The roads on the course are noticeably curved in a dome-like fashion - I definitely recommend running as close to the middle of the road as you can!) But I also think the impact my feet had been taking between this race and the Florida Marathon (only a mere 3 weeks apart) played a major role in how I felt. Unfortunately I had to run with my ankle nagging for most of the race, but I monitored the pain level and luckily it never got anywhere close to unbearable, so no need to stop running! (It was hella swollen when I got home the next day, though. 😂 Runner probs!)

The last few miles were awesome! Of course I was ready to be done running (I mean, who isn't at the end of a marathon?), but the course support was really top-notch miles 23 to the finish. Lots of water stops, lots of community members, and again, just good spirits all around. It felt like these miles went by the fastest in a lot of ways, which of course I loved! Cassie had finished her race a couple hours before me, so I saw her as I was coming down the straightaway to the finish. It's always so good to see a familiar face at the finish line of a marathon! She also snapped some fun pics of me celebrating as I crossed the finish.  😂

Clearly SO PUMPED to be done!  😂

I crossed the finish and got high fives all around from the volunteers and was directed into the finisher's area where they give you one of their world famous OBSCENELY huge medals (in the words of Cassie - "That's irresponsible."  😂) along with snacks, bananas, space blankets, chocolate milk, and one of the best post-race treats I've gotten to date - a cup of pasta. GENIUS. Cassie and I took a few final photos with our medals before heading back to our Air BnB for some much needed showers and SITTING.

THRILLED.

Literally bigger than my head.

Step 1 of post-marathon: TAKE YOUR SHOES TF OFF 😂

P.S. THEY GLOW IN THE DARK!!!!1!

Unfortunately Cassie had to fly out that same night to get back for some work things (PROPS TO HER FOR MAKING THIS TRIP DURING HER INSANE SCHEDULE), so we headed out for a late lunch/early dinner at Damgoode Pies which is a pizza place in the downtown area. They had the best sign of all the restaurants I saw so how could we NOT? Our waitress was so funny and sweet and congratulated us on our run, and the pizza was pretty Damgoode 😂 so I think we made the right call!

We wanted to take some photos of our medals in the city that we earned them in, so we did a little ~photo shoot~ after we ate. There was a big "Little Rock" sign by the river which we thought was the perfect place to do it! Also, major shout out to Cassie's phone having portrait mode - mine is old and can't take the same caliber of photos. 😂

Then, sadly, it was time for Cassie to head to the airport to catch her flight home. We had such a blast (pun maybe intended 🚀) on this whirlwind adventure to Arkansas (#iamconfusion) and because now Cassie is in pursuit of 50 Half Marathons in 50 States, I'm sure we'll have many more of these to come. We always have such a good time together and it's great to have someone with the same attitude towards these crazy adventures to travel with. ♥️

And with Arkansas - state #10 - completed, I'm officially 20% done with my goal to run a marathon in every state and we are in the double-digits! Looking forward to seeing what the next 40 states bring.
Onto Delaware in April! 🏃‍♀️🏃‍♀️🏃‍♀️