So this year I have decided to get my butt in gear and get serious about working out. In order to achieve that end and maybe have a little fun, I have signed up for the Arkansas Chapter of Road Runners Club of America Grand Prix. In order to be considered for Grand Prix, you have to be a member of an official Running Club and you agree to run six of the races listed on the Calendar over the course of the year. I signed up to be a member of Hot Legs Run for Fun Oh and you get points and the points count towards a personal total and a club total. There are prizes.

Rebecca convinced me to do this.

Oh and on top of this I have signed up for the Little Rock Half marathon.

The first race in the series was the One Hour Track Run which was held at Danville High School. It is exactly what it sounds like, one hour on a track. You get a chip on your shoe. You are told “Go” and you run/walk/move for an hour. The electronic mat is located at the finish time and measures each fourth of a mile (or 400 meters) for you. You stop and a person comes out with a whally walker to measure the distance past the finish line in order to tally your total distance for the race.

Finish Line

The weather was cloudy with the temperature hovering around 50 degrees. The threat of rain loomed on the horizon but it never rained. In fact, the sun came out near the end of the day. Danville High School has a nice track. The race people were nice enough to provide music so if you forgot your earbuds (I did) you didn’t have to shlep around in silence for an hour. It was “screamo” music.

I did my 10 mile long run for half marathon training the day before and one of my hamstrings was cranky. Cranky is a nice word for soreness with the threat of injury. I expected to walk most of this “race” and that is exactly what I did. I started off running the one hundred meter straight ways and walking the curves but that gave way pretty quickly. I walked it and my 3.33 mile per hour pace on the results confirms this.

Total stats:
3.33mph 3.224 58:01.92

And boring lap by lap stats.
Lap 1 4:13.26 3.53mph 0.248 4:13.26
Lap 2 4:25.95 3.37mph 0.496 8:39.21
Lap 3 4:34.06 3.26mph 0.744 13:13.27
Lap 4 4:07.24 3.61mph 0.992 17:20.51
Lap 5 4:18.97 3.46mph 1.240 21:39.48
Lap 6 4:39.56 3.20mph 1.488 26:19.04
Lap 7 4:40.11 3.19mph 1.736 30:59.15
Lap 8 4:23.64 3.39mph 1.984 35:22.79
Lap 9 4:53.84 3.05mph 2.232 40:16.63
Lap 10 4:47.06 3.11mph 2.480 45:03.69
Lap 11 4:41.95 3.18mph 2.728 49:45.64
Lap 12 4:15.08 3.50mph 2.976 54:00.72
Lap 13 4:01.20 3.70mph 3.224 58:01.92

See I told you I walked most of it. It felt good and Im glad I did it. Hopefully, next race I will actually attempt to run.

Elvis at the Old South

Elvis at the Old South

Afterwards, Rebecca, Debbie, and I went to Old South Restaurant in Russellville.. This place is a diner filled with Elvis paraphernalia. It has been around. It serves breakfast all day and has a menu full of cheap goodies. I had a grilled ham and cheese.