Arkansas RRCA State Rep Blog

One Hour Track Run

One Hour Track Run, January 22, 2012

I have a couple housekeeping items to note before getting to the OHTR.  First of all, today is the deadline to be registered in the Grand Prix and to receive points for the River Trail 15k on Saturday, February 4 at 9:00 am.  If you register online today, it will count.  Anyone have problems with registration, please email me immediately so we can work out the problems.  Register for the Grand Prix at http://register.macsrts.com/Search/event.aspx?event=d619a2d6-07b9-4661-a523-03c4642e143b.aspx.  Register for the River Track 15k at http://register.macsrts.com/Search/event.aspx?event=110fee36-b95f-40d9-9983-c938c871b447.aspx

Secondly, following the River Trail 15k will be the Grand Prix awards ceremony for the 2011 series and chili cook off!  We have the Burns Park Hospitality House (http://www.northlittlerock.org/entries.aspx?id=307) reserved which will be open at 7:30 am before the River Trail 15k.  Bring your crock pots before the race and we’ll have outlets in the kitchen for power.  Come have some chili and cheer on all the winners of the 2011 series!  BYOB is perfectly acceptable; we’ll have a few soft drinks as well.

Now, onto the One Hour Track Run which somehow always makes the weather turn cold, rainy, and downright chilly.  The foggy, misty, and cold conditions did not appear to dampen the spirits or slow the runners for this January 22 race.  The OHTR seems to be almost entirely a GP event as nearly all participants were also in the Grand Prix.  The top finishers were Leah Thorvilson and Maxwell Sawyer; Maxwell and Alex Goff ran side-by-side all race but Maxwell kicked at the end and wound up with 222 more feet than Alex.  The Little Rock Roadrunner women won the team competition.  For the men, the Conway Running Club ended the LRRC’s consecutive winning streak for Men’s teams dating all the way to the Spa 10k in 2010.  With such a strong first race, Conway is showing that 2012 will be a competitive season.  I am looking forward to year full of great races!

Grand Prix season is about to start!

The first race of the 2012 Grand Prix Series is the One Hour Track Run in Russellville which is this Sunday, January 22.  There is still time to register for the Grand Prix and get points in this race; register online at http://register.macsrts.com/Search/event.aspx?event=d619a2d6-07b9-4661-a523-03c4642e143b.aspx or print out the form at http://www.arkrrca.com/html/forms/grandprix.html and bring it to me.  I’ll be at the Saline County Strider meeting Tuesday evening and can take your registrations there.  We have about 250 people signed up so far.

The second race of the season is the River Trail 15k which is shaping up to be a great race.  Be sure to stick around after the race for the 2011 Grand Prix awards ceremony and chili cookoff!  We’ll have that again in the Burns Park Hospitality House just like last year.  As a vegetarian, I think it’s time to have two categories of chili:  meat and non-meat.  There were two vegetarian submissions last year; maybe we can get a few more.

Good racing!  And don’t forget to thank a volunteer!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year from your new Arkansas RRCA State Rep!

With excitement and trepidation, I take over this role that has been so expertly performed the last three years by Andrea Sieczkowski.  I want to thank Andrea for her hard work and strong leadership during her three year term as State Rep.  I also want to thank her for having faith in me to be the new State Rep.  We all wish her and Brian well with the new baby (and Darwin too)!  Fortunately, I’ll be able to go to her for questions and help which is also true for all the previous Reps.  David Samuel, Don Still, Bill Torrey, and Kim Howard have all offered help and guidance; I feel they all have my back.  I think it’s great that they are not only still involved in the running community but also running competitively.

Speaking of backing me up, the Long Distance Running Committee for 2012 is almost finalized.  I have a couple seats remaining to be filled; when it is set I’ll make an announcement.  If you aren’t familiar, the LDRC is the voting body that helps decide the Grand Prix schedule and any rule changes.  They represent your home running clubs.  I would like to visit all the running clubs at one of your regular meetings; I already have plans to stop by the Saline County Striders and the Arkansas Running Klub in the next few weeks.  Please look at your club’s meeting schedule and let me know when would be a good time.

Some of you may ask what qualifies me to be your State Rep; I wonder that myself. :-)  This role will be lots of work, zero pay, probably some grievances, teeth gnashing, politics, walking on eggshells, and hand holding.  Looking at all this going forward, I welcome it and think it will be great.  I see this as my opportunity to give back to all those who have enabled this great running community that we have in Arkansas.  I hope to do a good job and when I’m done, the State RRCA, Grand Prix, and general running community will be in even better shape than when I started.  I think we’re doing pretty awesome right now.

As a little information about me, I’m 41 and running in one the most competitive age/gender divisions.  I grew up in Pine Bluff and attended Hendrix College.  In junior high, high school and even in college I ran both for fun and competitively.  A knee problem in high school knocked me off the track and football teams.  I wish I had been running all along since college but the truth is that I started an office job and got fat and lazy.  The knee problem is gone but now I have a disc slightly out of place in my lower back which was exacerbated by being overweight; just 5 years ago I was at least 40 lbs. heavier.  After dropping weight by just watching what I eat, I thought it was time to start running again.  From time to time I’ll step on something wrong and will mess up my back; if you see me gimpy, that’s probably what’s going on.  I always dreamed of running a marathon so in August 2007, I signed up for the Little Rock Marathon.  I went from barely being able to run for a quarter mile to running a marathon in about 8 months.  I now have 8 marathons to my credit and even scraped together qualification to be a Marathon Maniac (#3231).  Running marathons is quite a feeling of accomplishment but I am just as proud of running every race of the 2011 Grand Prix series including the Hogeye Team Relay and earned the Ironman of the Grand Prix distinction along with several other great runners.  It’s been a great year full of PRs and making new friends.

I’m married to the lovely Christine Meroney who is an occasional runner; she could really ramp up her speed and abilities if she had the time.  We don’t have kids but we stay busy with our own kitties and doggies as well as animal rescue.  We both volunteer with Last Chance Arkansas which is a rescue group that primarily takes dogs out of the Little Rock Animal Services shelter, fosters and cares for them, and then sends the dogs to where there is a shortage such as New York, Connecticut, and British Columbia.  We take good dogs that have issues such as an injury or have heartworms which means they would not be adopted locally; we are literally their last chance because dogs that are not adopted are euthanized.  We save as many as we can but we are a small group and the need is so very large.  Fortunately there are other rescue groups in the area that are doing all they can.  Help the local animal population problem by spaying or neutering your pets and adopting your pets from a rescue group or a shelter.

I am also involved in Big Brothers Big Sisters and have been matched with my second “Little” for 5 years now.  He and I just transitioned from meeting at his school to meeting outside of school.  We do all sorts of fun stuff together; I might even bring him to a race one of these days.  Mentoring with BBBS has been one of the easiest and most rewarding things I’ve ever done.  If you have any desire, there is a Little out there who would love to be matched with you.

Unfortunately, all the running, volunteering and other fun activities have to be financed in some way and I’m not independently wealthy.  I’ve got a great job with Complete Computing and have been a sales rep there since 1994.  I work regular business hours which means that I may not have time to respond to questions during the day but I’ll try to get back to you as soon as possible.  We are going to maintain the staterep@arkrrca.com address which has been forwarded to me along with Andrea for the last few months.  Andrea is no longer receiving those emails so if you need to reach her, please send to her directly.  State rep emails are forwarded to my personal email; if I reply from my computer the address is davidmeroney@mac.com but replies from my phone or iPad will be davidmeroney@me.com — it’s all the same account.  Brian Sieczkowski will continue to be the webmaster for the RRCA site as well as scoring the Grand Prix.  This is a tremendous amount of effort and I thank Brian for his willingness to keep doing these vital functions.

I’ll close with this thought that I plan to have as a theme for 2012.  When you are interacting with race volunteers whether they are helping you sign up, get your packet, give you water on the course, or being a course marshall, thank them.  Volunteers are freely giving their time and energy so that you may have a good run and hopefully a great race.  Volunteers are as important as race participants in making a race happen.  Thank them; make them feel appreciated; this will encourage volunteers to keep helping with more races.  Every runner has the power to ensure the success of future races by making the day fun for everyone.  Thank a volunteer today and in every race!

Best wishes to you for a successful 2012.  I hope you set your goals high and then exceed them all.  See you out racing!

End of Season Wrap Up

The XXX running of the AR RRCA GP has come and gone.  As usual, the end of the season was very busy.  On October 29th, GP runners headed to Conway for the Soaring Wings 1/2 Marathon.  Overall winners were Jonathan Cherono and Leah Thorvilson.  Top GP male was Imari Dellimore.  This finish officially cliniched the 2011 GP title for Imari.  Congrats!  Team competitions were won by the men and women of LRRC.  Next, runners heading to Wynne for the MidSouth Marathon.  Team competitions were once again taken by the men and women from LRRC.  The overall titles went to Leah Thorvilson and Justin Radke.  The final race of the season brought GP participants to Hot Springs for the 30th running of the Spa 10K.  The men of LRRC were able to bring home a perfect season with their win.  The ladies of AURA were the female team winners but LRRC was able to hang on for the overall 2011 team title.

17 runners completed an Iron season.  Congrats to Hope Drake, Josh Drake, Gideon Drake, James Erwin, Brian Yeager, Nicholas Norfolk, Joe Milligan, David Meroney, Jim Miller, John Hunnicut, John Miller, Don Preston, Jill Davis, Eugene Atha, Alise Atha, Moniqueca Christensen and Bradley Thomas for completing all 2011 GP races.

Finally, AR RRCA runners headed to the Arlington Hotel for the annual AR RRCA awards and state meeting.  Despite the Razorback game in Little Rock, turn out was great.  Every single slice of pizza was consumed which made for easy clean up!  Congrats to all award winners and nominees.  A complete list of GP and AR RRCA award winners can be found here:  http://www.arkrrca.com/archives.php?main=2011

And last, but not least, this is my final blog as your AR RRCA State Representative so let me say that it has been a joy serving the runners of AR for the last 3 years.  Thank you all for being such an amazing group of people.

2012 GP Schedule

• Hour Track Run-Jan 22
• River Trail 15K-Feb 04
• Valentine’s Day 5K-Feb 11
• Run the Line ½ Marathon-Feb 19
• Chase Race 2M-Mar 10
• Spring Fling 5K -Mar 24
• Capital City Classic 10K-Apr 7
• Hogeye Marathon Relay-Apr 14
• Toad Suck-May 5
• Rock Run 8K-May 26
• Go! Mile-Jun 16
• White River 4M-Aug 4
• Watermelon 5K-Aug 11
• ARK 5K Classic-Sept 1
• Sara Low Memorial 5K-Sept 8
• Arkansas 20K-Sept 15
• Chile Pepper XC 10K-Oct 13
• Survivors Challenge 10K-Oct 20
• Soaring Wings ½ Marathon-Oct 27
• Mid South Marathon-Nov 3
• Spa 10K-Nov 17

Championship races are bolded.

Chile Pepper XC 10K and Survivors’ Challenge 10K

We are in a very busy stretch of the GP even though there are only 3 races to go.  On October 15th, GP participants traveled to NWA for the only XC race in the series, the Chile Pepper 10K.  As usual, the weather and the course did not disappoint.

The team competitions were won by the men of LRRC and the women of AURA.  The overall Chile Pepper titles went to Leah Thorvilson and Aaron Batey.   Top male GP finisher was Imari Dellimore.

Next up was the Survivors’ Challenge 10K in Fort Smith.  The Western Arkansas Runner (WAR) are fairly new to the GP scene and though the Survivors’ Challenge race is not new, this year saw a change of venue and the 10K was added.  Runners were treated to lots of great food and plenty of family friendly activities.

Top GP finishers were Imari Dellimore and Tina Coutu.  The team competitions were won by the men of LRRC and the women of SPA.  The LRRC men have locked the 2012 team title but it will be interesting to see if they can remain undefeated for the rest of the season.  The women’s competition is much closer with only 12 points separating the first place team, LRRC, from the second place women of AURA.

Only 3 races remain and it will be a tough couple of weeks for the Iron candidates with the Soaring Wings 1/2 Marathon and the MidSouth Marathon on back to back weekends.

Tyler Curtis 5K

With the Tyler Curtis 5K in the books, only 5 races remain in the 30th running of the AR RRCA GP.  230 participants finished the race, a significant increase over the 2009 race which was the last time it was included in the GP series.  Winners were Tammy Walther and Aaron Batey.  Top GP male finisher was Imari Dellimore.  The team competition went to the men of LRRC and the women of AURA.  The LRRC men’s team remains undefeated for the year.  Will they be able to keep their streak alive for the rest of the season?  The women’s team race is close with LRRC ahead of AURA by one point however, this is without any races dropped.  It will be interesting to see how it all shakes out at the end of the year.

Next up is the Chile Pepper XC 10K.  This is easily my favorite race of the year.  The weather is always amazing and it is XC!  The organizers do an great job with this rather complicated festival of races.  Come out and run the open 10K and stick around to watch some elite runners just weeks before their national championship.  This race also has the best post race food offered in the GP series.  It is definitely worth the drive!

Arkansas 20K

After a brutal summer in AR, GP participants were treated to cool, fall like temps for the Arkansas 20K.  Not a moment too soon either as this course is tough even when the weather is good.  LRRC dominated the team competition with a rare male and female team sweep of the top positions.  Overall female winner was Leah Thorvilson.  Overall male, Mark Ferguson, enjoyed his first ever GP victory!

For the first time, the 20K offered an early start option for slower runners.  The Saline County Striders put extra work in to allow participants needing more than 2:30 or 2:45 to start the race 30 minutes early so that they could complete the route before the course shut down.  Unfortunately, a small number of faster runners decided to take the early start option so they could be done with the race a little earlier too.  This misuse of the early start option creates several problems.

First, volunteers along the course were expecting early start participants to be running no faster than 12 minute/mile pace.  A few of the early starters were closer to 8 minute pace, thus arriving several minutes before expected.  This could obviously have very serious consequences if traffic control volunteers were not staffed at an intersection in time.

Second, faster runners taking the early start prevents head-to-head competition among peers.  There was an example at the 20K of a runner finishing about 10 seconds behind another runner in his age group, but he did not know this at the time because the other runner had taken the early start.  The second runner might have been able to catch and pass the first if he had known.  This obviously goes against the spirit of the Grand Prix Series. There is also the possibility that early start runners get a small advantage due to slightly cooler temperatures when they ran.

Race director Pete Ireland decided not to DQ anyone who abused the early start option from this year’s race but has stated he likely will next year.

The Arkansas RRCA also feels strongly that early start options should ONLY be for those runners needing more than the allotted time to finish.  There was much discussion among the Long Distance Running Committee after the race and the majority decided that runners taking the early start should not be able to get more GP points than anyone who took the regular start time.   Note that this does not affect runners who legitimately needed the early start option.  The decision only affected a total of 3 runners, all who finished faster than 1:50.   This also only applies to individual points, so team scoring was not affected.

This rule will also apply at future Grand Prix races.  The MidSouth Marathon has had a early start option in the past but also had problems with faster runners taking advantage of it.  To combat this problem they have decided not to offer the early start option this year.

In the future, if a race has an early start option and you legitimately need it, don’t worry!  You’ll be scored appropriately.  However, faster runners should take the regular start time or they risk DQ from the race or other affect on their GP score for that race.

Next up is the Tyler Curtis 5K in LR.  Only 6 races remain in the series!

ARK 5K Classic

Runners returned to Burns Park in NLR for the ARK 5K Classic. This is one of the original GP races. It is great that it is still around and a really nice touch that it is now held on the original course. The men from LRRC continued their dominance with a 1, 2, 3 sweep. The female team winners were LRRC which put them back atop the team score board by 1 point over AURA. Overall winners were Imari Dellimore and Tracy Tungac.

Next up is the Arkansas 20K in Benton.  So far, the weather promises cooler temps than last year but participants might get a little wet before the day is over.

White River 4 Miler & Watermelon 5K

As usual, it was hot at the White River 4 Miler in Batesville. Even hotter than usual really. Despite that, the male course record was broken by Daniel Kirwa. Top male GP finisher was Imari Delimore. The top female finisher was Betsy Tucker. The team titles went to the men of LRRC and the AURA women.  The WRR put on a great race, as always!

The following week GP runners got a little break from the heat at the Watermelon 5K in Hope. It almost felt like Fall!  Unheard of in Hope in mid-August.  The team titles went to the LRRC men and the ladies of SPA.  For the 2nd week in a row, top GP finishers were Imari Delimore and Betsy Tucker.  This year, the theme was “The Amazing Race” and age group winners got to take home their very own Travelocity gnome and all participants were treated to a complementary watermelon.

Only 8 races remain in the 2011 GP.  Hopefully we are past the ultra hot temps.  It is usually significantly cooler by the time the ARK 5K rolls around, but with the summer we’ve had, you never know!