Super amazing! Gave me chills watching people prepare to run this. Can't wait to do my 1st 1/2 in march read more

Little Rock Marathon - Races & Competitions Near Me - Little Rock, Arkansas

I do love this race and it shocks me at how great it is knowing that it's not put on by professional race organizers. Nope, this is organized and hosted by the fitness event OG: the Little Rock Parks and Recreation Department. They do a terrific job, from a great course, plenty of food and even a L'Oréal sponsored lipstick giveaway near the finish so you have a picture perfect smile. Everyone puts on the lipstick btw and after 13 or 26 miles (depending on your race) the results can be interesting. Top it all off with the very largest finisher's medal you've ever seen and you'll have a great race day. read more

Little Rock Marathon - Races & Competitions Near Me - Little Rock, Arkansas

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Fun medium sized marathon. I had not spent a lot of time in Little Rock, so I had a great time exploring the city pre race. It is a town worth visiting. The race itself is well run but fairly no frills. A lot of community support on the course. Course itself is very challenging, lots of hills. I am not sure I would run the race again but not bad if you are up for a challenge in area. read more

Getting deeper and deeper into this 50 States marathon journey finds me in Little Rock, Arkansas in March 2011. This is one city that I would not see myself being in, if it wasnt for the marathon. This city touts itself for being former President Clinton's hometown. The experience of being in Little Rock was interesting and I was fortunate to grab a relatively cheap airline ticket for this venture. First time for me in Little Rock and I just cherished my time here. The Little Rock Marathon prides itself on featuring one of the largest finisher's medals in the industry. Many people flock to this particular race, just to get their hands on this monster bling after busting 26.2 miles of honest physical and mental fortitude. The expo was held at the civic center in downtown Little Rock and it was pretty good. Packet pick up was great and I got to see the other regional marathons that were advertising and marketing themselves @ the LR marathon expo. It was here that I bought myself a brand new pair of shoes that were cheap at a fantastic price. The trick was to somehow pack it in my luggage. They had an early start for this marathon, so I was out there with a friend of mine, who lived relatively nearby in Fayetteville. It was her first marathon and I agreed to pace her for the entire marathon if need be. (She finished ahead of me, when she had a second wind and bolted after mile 18). The early start was at 6am and the weather could not he more comfortable. It was a perfect day to run and that was just awesome. I got to see some of the sights and sounds of Little Rock, along with the residential sections of the city. The course weaves in and around downtown Little Rock before going northbound and this 6 mile out and back loop in a park in the later miles. The out and back was somewhat fun, since I got to see all my faster friends finishing up that part of the course and I was going into the out and back. They were coming out of mile 22 and 23, and the loop started at mile 17. The only gripe about this course was the gigantic hills at mile 24 and 25. I felt like I was going to die, but I never gave hope that the finish line was just around the corner. Crossing that finish line after all that drama was sweet and getting that 5.5 lb medallion draped on you was great too. I checked off Arkansas with this finish and looking forward to checking into the next one. I would recommend this one, since the large bling at the end is well worth the pain and suffering. B+ #Yelp Marathons read more

3/15/2009 Lots of Firsts for me at the 2009 Little Rock Marathon. First race in the South. First time in Arkensas. First time at a midsized marathon (7,000 participants). Naturally, there was some excitement gathering leading up to the race. I enjoyed the run. Had some mixed experience with people of Little Rock (mostly good to neutral) but in general a good experience. The experience of this run did not "wow" me but met my expectations in most respects. Let me highlight the exceptional aspects of the weekend. 1. The race medal. OMG, this is an overwhelmingly impressive piece of hardware. (picture to follow) In my wife's word, "I've never seen anything this BIG." 2. Start/Finish area. Well organized and efficient. Nicely located near restaurants. Plenty of porta potties. 3. Availability of hotels. Too many to mention. Would not recommend the Double tree where we stayed but everything is within blocks of the start line. The Marriott was not mentioned on the race website probably b/c they did not pay to sponsor. But it was the closest hotel to the start/finish line. 4. Fanfare. Surprisingly many. Nice people... very family oriented. Now let's talk about the lowlights of the Little Rock Marathon. 1. The hills. From the website: "When asked if there are hills in Little Rock, we love to affectionately say "What Hills?" There are some bumps in the road...but hey life is full of bumps in the road." The hill from 14-15 was a monster. The decline after 15 was difficult. Second half of the race also included several short but STEEP climbs. Not nice. 2. Sceneries. There were NO breath-taking areas during the run. Mostly residential and small business areas. Begin and finish near the downtown area. I've only run in 15 marathons but this one ranks fairly low on the list. Establishments to avoid: Big Whisky Restaurant (review to follow). Double Tree Hotel (review to follow) Recommended: Flying Fish Restaurant. Peabody Hotel. read more

Little Rock Marathon - Look at the size of this thing... - Races & Competitions Near Me - Little Rock, Arkansas

Half marathon #24 and state #14 for me with today's race. About 6000 1/2 marathoners, 3000 marathoners total and the race was sold out by the end of December. First time for me in the state of Arkansas so I spent Saturday looking around. The expo is in the LR convention center and not that big, which is fine. The race is very much a cowboy/cowgirl/hoedown theme which is nice. When I was at the expo, it was steady flow of people, but not crowded. Race starts at 8 AM, unless you're a marathon walker and you're planning to finish between 6-8 hrs, then you start at 6 AM which is a nice option for people wanting to walk the course. The issue is if you're driving in, you have to find parking so make sure to plan for that. Temperature seems to vary from year to year, today it was 28 degrees for the start and didn't really warm up until noon or so. The half marathon course is pretty flat with no real hills. There are some gentile inclines, but nothing to do hill training for (I can't speak for the full though) Impressive things to look out for: 1. the medal is a piece of work: good size for the half, even bigger for the full 2. Post race, I've never seen so much hostess and little debbie type foods at a race before today 3. fairly flat half course (can't speak for the full) 4. good amount of hotels Recommendations 1. stay downtown 2. beware of the vendor only area at the expo if you volunteer. I volunteered and went to grab a paper towel to blow my nose and got chewed out by one of the higher ups and it was only a paper towel! read more

Late post!! Review of 2014's Marathon.... What I really liked about this race was that they do a good job of hyping up the race and keeping everyone hyped up in the weeks leading up to the race though their social media posts and informational videos. Expo: The expo was okay, as far as I remember. Nothing extremely special. They did have old marathon merchandise for really cheap, though, so if sales are your thing....! One thing that stood out, though, were the FREE MASSAGES provided by students that drove in from hours away. An awesome touch. Race: Parking wasn't too bad. There were a surprising amount of spots. Bag check in was quick and easy. Actual race was....interesting. Weather was bad - rain on and off the whole way with cold temperatures. Eventually, we were told the race was called off due to a thunderstorm rolling in, they were packing up and taking down the road blocks and race support, and we needed to go to shuttles to take us to the finish line. Afterward, found out we could have finished, which kind of made me mad. Communication wasn't as good as it could have been. The actual race course was nice, especially for an out-of-towner like myself. You got to see a lot of LR notable sites in the city and you also got to run though really pretty wooded areas (hills sucked though. Really sucked.). Race support was really nice. There were tons of spectators who were cheering us on and giving out drinks and food (pizza during a marathon = heaven). You could also get holy water sprinkled on you...if that's your thing. Post Race: I was really excited for the post race party, since they hyped it up so much and made it sound like a feast. It was not. Food wasn't that great. I was disappointed. The live band and photo booth were fun though. Medal: Little Rock is known for their race medal - and for good reason. It always reflects the theme well and is beautifully made. I tried to wear mine for the post race party, but honestly, it made my neck hurt. They aren't joking when they say to work out your neck muscles. One day maybe I'll return to finish what I started.... read more

I ran this 2 Sundays ago in 3:38:xx as my 41st marathon distance race. The race for 2015 had a theme to it with that theme being pirates. While I did not really understand the reasoning behind it, they stuck with it and did it well. The expo for the race was pretty large and well done with a huge pirate ship in the middle of it. The race itself was decent with some rolling hills in it but nothing too major. The first couple of miles contain a number of turns and decent crowds while running through the downtown part of Little Rock. Then at around mile 6 or so you head off to see the Governor's Mansion, Little Rock Central High School and the Capitol and the spectators start to thin out a bit. As you leave the downtown area of the city at around mile 12 the spectators become few and far between and the race scenery starts to get a little boring. This was especially the case on the out and back section between miles 16-24?. Overall though it was a decent course. My main complaint for this marathon comes from the pacers who obviously volunteer and aren't under the control of anyone. The specific pacers I was using were the 3:40 marathon ones which should have been right around 8:23 pace for the race. After following them for a bit in the first mile I moved past them to complete the first mile in a slow 8:40. Then in the next mile they caught up and I followed them to have my pace for that mile be a too quick 7:50. Knowing that I was back on pace for my 3:40 goal I slowed up a bit while they proceeded to disappear in the distance. I eventually caught up with them at mile 8 and proceeded to run with them through mile 20. That's where I thought that their pace started to lag again and so I ran past them again ultimately finishing the race with a positive split. As most runners know, a slight negative split is the most effective way to run the race. So while I was happy with my finishing time, I was not so happy with the uneven pacing. The bottom line for me is that I might run this race again in the future if I lived in the area. The race directors did a good job overall and while I was confused by the theme and unhappy with the pacers that's not really their fault. read more

First marathon and ran it back in my home state. too bad the weather was TERRIBLE but the LR Marathon gang was really good about keeping people up to date and also making sure everyone was safe. Things were organized from beginning to end I thought. Only bummer was the people that started in the later corrals weren't able to finish the marathon since the thunderstorm came through. Also a down side was the catered Golden Corral meal - from the way they described it, it sounded like it was going to be a diesel fiest with tons of food but when we got there, literally it was chicken, rice, beans, and bread. There was a chocolate fondue but no fruit just marshmallows and grahman crackers and pretezals and then hot dog for the kids. they did have a live band and a photo booth which was a nice touch but the post run party "buffett" was wack... read more