Arkansas RRCA State Rep Blog

One Hour Track Run

And so the 2010 season has begun! Oh the weather.  The weather conditions were great when I left Sherwood.  I was looking forward to what I knew would be my longest run since April 2009 - the first race of my hopefully not too drawn out comeback after becoming a mom. When I got out of the car and felt that strong, cold wind, I knew that we were all in for a real challenge. 167 of us braved the wind which was 21 more runners than last year!  It was great to see so many familiar faces and so many new GP runners too.  We had runners representing the Mercy Roadrunners of Fort Smith and the Melonvine Striders of Hope for the first time in years.

The big story of the day was the men’s race. It can be tough to keep track of the leaders in a race like this but those of you that were able to do it got a real treat. With only a minute to go the race could have gone to anyone in the lead pack of James Bresette, Caleb Mays, GP rookie Jeremy Maxwell, Carter Witt, Todd Hink and Brian Sieczkowski.  In the end, Brian was able to come from behind and take the win.  It was quite the exciting finish and I’m not just saying that because he’s my husband!

The women’s race was won by Leah Thorvilson, 2008 & 2009 Grand Prix Champion, with ease.  The team competitions were won by the RVR men and the AURA women.  Congrats to AURA, RVR and race director, Tom Aspel,  for a successful race.  The chip timing was a great improvement over the lap counting of the past.

Next race up is the Rivertrail 15K hosted by the AR RRCA (AKA-me and Brian).  Funds raised by this race go right back into the Grand Prix,  keeping it the best series in the nation.  Please consider supporting the race by either participating or volunteering.  Also, the 2009 Grand Prix awards will be held after the 15K awards in the Burns Park Hospitality House.  Pizza will be served!  See the homepage for full details.

2010 Grand Prix

The 2010 GP Series is upon us. The first race of the season, The Hour Track Run in Russellville, is one week away! Remember, in order to score points at a GP race, you have to sign up for the series 5 days before that race. This means that your GP entry must be received by Tuesday, January 19th if you want to score points at The Hour Track Run.  If you are reading and still haven’t signed up, don’t worry because with Online Registration we will get your entry instantly and you’ll be good to go.  Click for Online Registration.

It should be an exciting season! In addition to many of your favorite races, we have two races that are making their GP debut, the Run The Line Half Marathon and the Hogeye Marathon.  We’ve also got the Rock Run returning for the first time since 2002!

A couple of new rules this year that need to be covered.  The Long Distance Running Committee met after the 2009 Spa 10K and decided to allow 10 championship races.  Previously, the number had been limited to 9 so that no two runners could end up tied at the end of the year with no tiebreaker to separate them.  The chances of that happening are very slim, but if the scenario ever happens we’ve added a final tie breaker: placement at the Spotlight Championship Race.  The Spotlight Championship Race is something started by the national RRCA for each state in which they will provide additional awards.  For 2010, this race will be the Rock Run 8K.

The other rule that was decided on by the LDRC was to ensure every club gets their RRCA dues paid on time.  In 2009, one Arkansas RRCA club did not pay their dues until late in the season and thus had no insurance coverage at their race.  Fortunately, no one was hurt, but the consequences could have been disastrous for the club.  So, for 2010 if a club does not have their dues paid by the start of the season, they are not eligible to score team points at a race.  We will not penalize the runners, so individual points will still be granted.  But don’t worry, I will be checking with the National RRCA office to ensure everyone is paid up before the One Hour Track Run and I am confident that every team will be eligible.

Coming up in February is the Awards Ceremony for the 2009 Grand Prix season.  If you won an overall or age group award in 2009, please attend as we’ve got a personalized plaque and gift certificate to the Sporty Runners for you!  Once again, the GP awards will be held in conjunction with the River Trail 15K.  Check out our home page for a schedule of events for the 15K and awards on February 6th.  This is also a great chance to remind everyone that any proceeds from the 15k go to fund the Grand Prix Series so definitely plan on running it!  If you aren’t up for 9.3 miles yet, then consider volunteering on race day.  You’ll get a nice race souvineer and free pizza afterwards.  Email me at staterep@arkrrca.com if you are interested in volunteering and click here for Online Registration if you are interested in running the 15K.

Good luck to all in 2010!

End of Season Wrap Up

With the Spa 10K, Arkansas RRCA Awards and the Great Duck Race 10K behind us, the 2009 series has come to a close. I know I have slacked a little on the blog so let me say a quick “sorry” and blame that on the death of my laptop. It was much easier to stay on top of these things when I could sit on the couch with my newborn and type a blog at the same time. Not so easy now that I have to actually sit at a desk.  Anywho, on to the races!

Nearly 400 runners got to enjoy the great weather for the Spa 10K.  Overall winners were Leah Thorvilson and Caleb Mays.  Both the male and female team victories went to LRRC.  The Spa Pacers did a great job hosting this much loved event which began in 1982 and has been a part of the GP since 1983.

After the Spa 10K it was time for the 2009 Arkansas RRCA Awards at the Arlington Hotel.  With money made from the River Trail 15K, we were able to provide lunch this year prior to the awards.  Like so many of the Grand Prix races this year, the turnout at the Awards was outstanding!  I had originally planned on doing a slide show presentation for the awards but, as I mentioned earlier, my laptop died (the night before the awards and after we were already in Hot Springs) so that was not a possibility.  To tell you the truth, I think it was better without it.  The presenters all did a fabulous job and I was very inspired by many of the stories that were shared about the winners.  Congratulations to everyone that was nominated and, of course, congrats to all the winners.  Plans for the 2010 RRCA Awards are already in the works.

On to Stuttgart, the rice and duck capitol of the world, for the final race of the series.  It was another beautiful day and even the wind, which can be brutal on this course, was behaving.  Overall winners were James Bresette and Leah Thorvilson.  The team competition went to the men and women of LRRC.  The final scoreboards for all GP categories are up and can be accessed through the home page.  Awards for the 2009 GP series will be presented after the River Trail 15K on Feburary 6th in the Burns Park Hospitality House.  Expect more information on our website in the coming weeks on the River Trail 15K and the Grand Prix Awards ceremony.  We’re hoping for an even bigger year for the 15K in 2010, so check out our new race website at http://www.rivertrail15k.com/ - registration is already open!  If you don’t think you’ll be up to racing 9.3 miles by February 6th, please consider volunteering at the race.  All race volunteers will receive a race souvenir and free pizza after the race.  Anyone interested in volunteering can email us at info@rivertrail15K.com.

But let’s not forget 2009 and all the Iron People!  This year’s Ironmen and Ironwomen shared so much comraderie and really supported each other.  It was great to watch all of you gather at the finish of the Duck Race and run each other in.  There really is such a strong sense of community with runners across this state and all of you are an awesome example of this.

Jesse Garrett, Jeff Maher, Mike Bonnette (2 years in a row), Eugene Atha, Joe Milligan (5 years in a row), Brice Hammerstein, John Harrison, Jennifer Lilies-Dorris, Jackie Clinton, Gabrielle Peoples, Patti Hammerstein, and Karen Hayes ran through windy Wynne, hilly Hot Springs, and the wet Toad (among other challenges) to achieve Iron Status and their determination is commendable.  Look for an article on these folks in next Monday’s Active Style section of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette - and please don’t scan it and post it on the forum!

To everyone who participated in the 2009 series, I say “Thank You”.  It was wonderful to see so many runners involved this year.  Especially those of you who were new to the GP.  I have enjoyed being your state rep and I can’t wait to do it all again next year.  Enjoy your holidays and gear up for 2010!

2009 Arkansas RRCA Awards

Another Arkansas RRCA Awards Ceremony is in the books.  I want to thank everyone who attended, it is you who make such a great statewide running community.  Thanks also to everyone who presented, you all did such a great job!

Congratulations to the winners listed below and to anyone who was nominated for an award.

• Female Runner of the Year: Leah Thorvilson
• Male Runner of the Year: Josh Holt
• Female Masters Runner of the Year: Gabrielle Peoples
• Male Masters Runner of the Year: James Bresette
• Female UltraRunner of the Year: Chrissy Ferguson
• Male UltraRunner of the Year: Stan Ferguson
• Female Masters UltraRunner of the Year: Dianne Seager
• Male Masters UltraRunner of the Year: PoDog Vogler
• Male Most Improved Runner: Frank Massingill
• Female Most Improved Runner: Karen Hayes
• Youth Male Runner of the Year: Gideon Drake
• Youth Female Runner of the Year: Kaitlin Bounds
• Race Director of the Year: Bill Torrey - Capital City Classic 10K
• Outstanding Club President: Melinda Hendrix - Spa Pacers
• Volunteer of the Year: Joe D. Pool
• Spirit Award: Ben Davis

Thanks to Steven Preston for taking the following photos.  You can view Presto’s entire gallery with shots of all award winners here.

MidSouth Marathon

Well, the MidSouth Marathon is in the books and from all accounts it was another windy day in Wynne.    I’ve done this marathon twice and it seems that at least every other year there is a strong headwind on the second half of the course.  But, hey, it made finishing that much more of an accomplishment.  Leah Thorvilson was the first finisher - male or female - to continue her impressive season.  After Leah among GP women was Jenny Weatter and Tammy Walther, clinching the Marathon championship for LRRC with a top 3 sweep.

On the men’s side, Scott Eason was the first finisher and lead the Conway Running Club men to the marathon team title.  Ross Bolding finished the full 26.2 miles to officially clinch the 2009 Seniors title.  Steve Yanoviak fought the wind to a PR and BQ time, and several of you finished your first ever marathon.  Congrats all around!

Jesse Garrett, Jeff Maher, Mike Bonnette, Eugene Atha, Joe Milligan, Brice Hammerstein, John Harrison, Jennifer Lilies-Dorris, Jackie Clinton, Gabrielle Peoples, Patti Hammerstein, and Karen Hayes finished the marathon to keep their Iron Seasons alive.

Next up is the Spa 10K.  After the race, make your way down Central Ave to the Arlington Hotel.  The Arkansas RRCA Awards Ceremony will begin at 11:30 AM in the Spruce Room with a free lunch.  All members of any Arkansas RRCA Running Club are welcome to attend.  Click here for more information on a festive weekend in Hot Springs! Let me just say that you don’t have to be nominated for one of the awards to be a winner, there is a treasure trove of door prizes to be given out.  We will also be voting for best race shirt of the year, so wear your favorite shirt from the 2009 Grand Prix season.

Presenting the 2010 Grand Prix Series…

There are less than 40 miles left in the 2009 Grand Prix season and what a year it has been!  I want to thank each and every GP runner for making up the best statewide running community in the nation.  I also want to thank the individuals on the Long Distance Running Committee who have shared their wisdom and experience with me in my first year as Arkansas RRCA State Rep.  The LDRC’s latest task was to set the schedule for the 2010 Grand Prix Series.

Every October there is open bidding for the following year’s Series and for 2010 we received 24 total bids.  In order to maintain a manageable and non-diluted Series, the GP is limited to a 20 race maximum.  In Arkansas we are fortunate in that the number of quality races continues to grow each year.  The Soaring Wings Half Marathon didn’t exist in 2007 and now it is a superbly run race with over 1000 registered participants - and that’s just one example!  The only drawback is that is can be difficult to choose 20 races with distances spanning from 2 to 26.2 miles for the Grand Prix Series each year while trying to please individuals from from all areas of the state.

The solution the LDRC came up with is to start a rotation process for some of the Grand Prix races.  For 2010, the Sara Low 5K is rotating back into the GP Series and the Tyler Curtis 5K will be rotating out.  The MidSouth Marathon will be rotating out, Hogeye will step in as the Marathon State Championship.  This allows us to welcome the Run the Line Half Marathon into the Series.  Run the Line is a unique race hosted by Team Texarkana with a course that travels through both Arkansas and Texas.  There is a nice group of runners from Texarkana who drive an untold number of miles to participate in the GP Series and 2010 will offer the rest of us the opportunity to pay them back.

I know a lot of you will miss the Tyler Curtis 5K and MidSouth Marathon, but don’t worry they will still be around and will return to the Grand Prix Series in 2011.  The rotation system allows different clubs to host races in the Series and also for runners to get different experiences each year.  For those of you that have never run the full Hogeye Marathon, 2010 is a great opportunity to complete a race that’s been around for 34 years and earn yourselves some Grand Prix points too!

One more exciting addition for the 2010 Series is the return of the Rock Run 8K!  The RR 8K was one of the 4 core races in the first decade of the Grand Prix Series.  The other 3 were the ARK 5K on Labor Day weekend, the Spa 10K, and the Arkansas 20K.  It is exciting to have all 4 of these races back together for 2010!  The rest of the lineup should look pretty familiar:

• One Hour Track Run  - Jan 24th
• River Trail 15K - Feb 6th
• Valentine’s Day 5K - Feb 13th
• Run the Line Half Marathon - Feb 21st
• Chase Race 2M - March 13th
• Capital City Classic - April 3rd
• Hogeye Marathon - April 11th
• Spring Fling 5K - April 24th
• Toad Suck 10K - May 1st
• Rock Run 8K - May 29th
• Brickfest 5K - June 26th
• Dam Night Run 5K - July 31st
• White River 4M Classic - August 7th
• Watermelon 5K - August 14th
• Riverfront (Clear Mtn) 5K - Sept 4th
• Sara Low 5K - Sept 11th
• Arkansas 20K - Sept 18th
• Chile Pepper 10K XC - October 16th
• Soaring Wings Half Marathon - October 23rd
• Spa 10K - November 20th

We will have a ballot up on the website soon for selection of the Championship status for the 5K and 10K distances.

Soaring Wings Half Marathon

October 24 saw the Grand Prix debut of the Soaring Wings Half Marathon. The weather was perfect and the trees were beautiful. Of course I only know this from the pictures as I was not able to attend due to the birth of my son. Glad to be back blogging once again. Let me say a big thank you to my husband for taking this responsibility over for me last week and a big thank you to my son for allowing me to get lots of sleep so I can get right back to my state rep duties.

In the men’s race, top GP honors went to Josh Holt which officially clinched the Overall Male GP title for him. Congrats to Josh! In the team competition the home town CRC men took the victory and jumped into second place in the 2009 standings.

Sunnie Butcher-Keller PRed and was the top female among GP women. The women of LRRC were the top team of the day which also clinched them the 2009 team title. Congrats ladies!

All of the Iron Runners are still in the mix after Soaring Wings but the biggest challenge of all comes on November 7th with the MidSouth Marathon.  Good luck to you Iron Crazies and everyone else going for the 26.2!

Chile Pepper XC 10K

Hello people - I’ll be guest-writing the State Rep Blog this week as my lovely wife is on maternity leave from all Blog-related activities.   If you haven’t heard already, Andrea gave birth to our son, Darwin Beck S-ski, on October 14th.  Both Andrea and the little guy are doing great!  I am a shamelessly proud father, so check out this pic:

From all reports, it was an epic year at the Chile Pepper XC Festival.  As the only cross country race in the Grand Prix Series, this is a great opportunity for road runners to expand their running horizons a bit.  For any XC noobs this year, you got the real experience: mud, cold, and hills.  That is what XC should be.  The Chile Pepper is also a great opportunity to hang out after the race with your fellow RRCA buddies and watch some very elite collegiate runners perform.  More than a few of these runners will be on 2012 and 2016 Olympic teams.  After the college boys and girls run,  there are the always-interesting high school races.  Chile Pepper is truly one of the premier XC meets  in the country.  And that doesn’t even take into consideration the impressive food spread they have for post-race refueling.

In the Grand Prix competition, Leah Thorvilson once again took the top female place while Glen Mays narrowly edged out Josh Holt on the men’s side.  The Little Rock Roadrunners continued the absolute tear they’ve been on since the Watermelon by sweeping the team competitions once again.   The LRRC Men secured just enough Grand Prix points to officially clinch the 2009 title.  Places 2-5 on the men’s side are still very much up for grabs however.  CRC and CCC continue to gain ground on CARK for second place while RVR is lurking in 5th, like a sidewinder in the scrub just waiting for someone to get close enough for the fatal strike!

The women’s 2009 team title is now a tight two team battle between LRRC and CCC.  Little Rock has a slight advantage, but with four races to go, this thing is far from decided.  Then it really gets exciting as there are 9 female teams that are still mathematically alive for either 3rd, 4th, or 5th place.  The Spa Pacers continued their steady, year-long climb up the standings in a big way at Chile Pepper, shooting from 5th to 3rd in the season’s standings.

Next up is the Soaring Wings Half Marathon in Conway.  SW is generating a huge buzz as the race is set to make its Grand Prix debut.  Good luck to all next week in Conway, especially to the potential ironmen and women as they enter the toughest stretch of the season over the next 3 weeks.   Jesse Garrett, Jeff Maher, Mike Bonnette, Eugene Atha, Brice Hammerstein, Joe Milligan, Dan Belanger, John Harrison, Jennifer Liles-Dorris, Jackie Clinton, Gabrielle Peoples, Patti Hammerstein, and Karen Hayes are still in the running to finish every Grand Prix race this year!

Nominations needed for 2009 Arkansas RRCA Awards

It’s time again to start the planning for the annual Arkansas RRCA State Meeting and Award Ceremony.  For those of you who are new, the Arkansas RRCA State Meeting takes place at the Arlington Hotel in Hot Springs every year after the Spa 10K.  Any member of an Arkansas RRCA running club is welcome to attend.  In both 2007 and 2008 everyone at the meeting got a free technical running shirt, so definitely mark it on your calendar for this November 21st.   At the State Meeting you’ll hear about what is going on in running in Arkansas and what is planned for 2010.  We’ll also have plenty of awards to hand out.  The Arkansas RRCA Awards recognize worthy individuals in the following categories:

• Volunteer of the Year
• Club President of the Year
• Race Director of the Year
• Spirit Award
• Male/Female Runners of the Year
• Male/Female Masters Runners of the Year
• Male/Female Ultra Runners of the Year
• Male/Female Youth Runners of the Year
• Male/Female Most Improved Runners of the Year

Best of all, the winners in these categories are chosen by YOU - members of the Arkansas RRCA Running Clubs!  A ballot with 3-5 nominees in each division will be up on our website soon, but first we need your input to pick the nominees.  Please send me an email at staterep@arkrrca.com with nomination suggestions for any or all of the above categories.

You can check out a list of past Arkansas RRCA Award winners, dating back to the first ceremony in 1989, here:
http://www.arkrrca.com/archives.php?main=annualawards

And in other news, it’s also time to start thinking about the 29th Running of the Arkansas Grand Prix Series!  Race Directors can now apply for their race to be part of the Series, here:
http://www.arkrrca.com/index.php?main=bid_form

Tyler Curtis 5K

Fall is officially here in Arkansas and you could definitely feel it in the air at the start of the Tyler Curtis 5K. The Otter Creek neighborhood hosted over 200 finishers and post race festivities included pizza! Overall male and female winners Imari Dellimore and Leah Thorvilson were both able to defend their 2008 victories. Team victories went to the men and women of LRRC.

Next up, the Grand Prix travels to Fayetteville and goes cross country for the Chile Pepper 10K. Stick around after the race and watch some collegiate and high school running while enjoying great post race food. Be sure to cheer on Joe Milligan as he attempts to complete his 100th consecutive Grand Prix race! Talk about an Ironman! I will be absent from the next 3 Grand Prix races due to the impending arrival of Baby Sieczkowski. I will be there in spirit however and eagerly awaiting race results and updates from home.