Conway Running Club

School is almost out and you are wondering, what are my kids going to do this summer? How am I going to keep them motivated? What can we do as a family to spend time together and enjoy a healthy lifestyle.

One option is to train for the 2012 Conway Kids Triathlon to be held at UCA on August 4, 2012.  A triathlon?  My daughter?  My son?  You’ve got to be kidding.  No, I’m not.  This is a great event that is doable for any child ages 6-15 with some help and time investment from their parent.  And best of all you’ll spend time together as a family and enjoy a healthy lifestyle.

• ConwayKidsTri.com has all of the information you need.
• There is a FREE TRAINING DAY on June 9th where you son or daughter will get some training on all three sports (swim, bike, run) and parents will get to meet with a Tri-team coach to learn how they can help their kids (and their kids friends) enjoy the accomplishment of finishing their first triathlon.  CLICK HERE for an informational flyer.

Take a minute and review the information on the Kids Tri website to see if this is something you’d like to do.  If you think it might be, attend the training day or contact someone from the website.  Finishing a triathlon is a milestone event for a child.  Send them back to school in the Fall with more confidence and in better shape than they were at the beginning of summer.

Running Opportunities

Two great events happen in Conway every May. The first weekend is Toad Suck Daze where someone inevitably gets “Stuck on a Truck”.

The second weekend is when women from all over Arkansas who have been training diligently come to Conway and celebrate life through walking or running 3.1 miles. Putting on this event takes a lot of volunteers and it’s a great opportunity for those of us who are already avid runners to get involved and help out. Chances are when you do you’ll be reminded of what made you start running and possibly re-experience the joy you felt when you finished your first race or achieved a major health related accomplishment.

Click on the image above to go directly to the volunteer form and let them know how you’d like to help. They are very organized so if all you can do is help stuff runner packets for a couple hours on Tuesday, help give them out to runners on Thursday, be a server at the Pasta Dinner on Friday or help with the event on Saturday, they have a place for you.

Don’t assume someone else will do it. Jump in and volunteer and you’ll be glad you did.

For complete information on the race, including registering to run, go to the Women Run Arkansas website. Double your fun, volunteer and run!!

Running Opportunities

Here’s another chance to get out and run a 5k race for a great cause.  Support the March of Dimes who is hard at work here in Arkansas, championing the needs of families and babies.  Here are the details:

When:  Sat April 28 – Registration 6-7; 5k at 7:30
Where:  Clinton Library in Little Rock
Cost:  $20 in advance and $25 race day
More info:  Jacob Wells – 501-951-3773

And here are some helpful links – click on them to view additional information.

Brochure

Registration

Course Description

We hope to have a fun little race for any of you that can make it.

There will also be a course preview run at 7:00 a.m. on Sunday, April 22.  If you can make the run, please bring your Garmins and we will give the course another check.

Thanks and see you at the races!

Jacob Wells

Training / Racing

The Conway Running Club will host Kim Stevenson as the guest speaker for our April meeting.  The meeting will be held from 6-7pm on Tuesday April 17th at the Pizza Inn on Hogan Road.

Stevenson (Hendrix College Class of 1977) of Rotorua, New Zealand, was an outstanding distance runner and four-year letterman in cross country and track for the Warriors and a member of the Hendrix team that finished third at the AIC Championship in 1973. He was named All-AIC in cross country in 1973 and 1977, served as team captain in 1975-76 and qualified for two NAIA National Cross Country Championships. After graduation, he had a highly successful coaching career in track and cross country in New Zealand.  Kim (“Kiwi”) will be here in Conway to be inducted into the Hendrix Sports Hall of Honor. We are grateful that he is willing to take some time with the Conway Running Club to share some of his running experiences and techniques he has used in his running and coaching career.

But there is more.  We are having the meeting at Pizza Inn so everyone will buy the buffet in support of Paul Turner’s (aka. PT) daughter’s French Class fundraiser so they can head to Quebec City in June.

Let’s Review

Tuesday April 17.  6-7pm.  Pizza Inn on Hogan.  Ageless running advice.  PT support.  CRC!! See you there.

Links:

Kim Stevenson Resume

Hendrix Sports Hall of Honor – Log Cabin Democrat

New Zealand Daily Post Article

Membership Meetings

Athlinks.com is an amazing website that has all of your race results organized for you.  You really have to see it to believe it.  Click on the image to the right to go to their site.  Enter your name and you will see all of your unclaimed races.  If you like, set yourself up a login (it’s FREE) and claim your races so they are all together under your name.  You might find some races that someone else with your same name ran.

From here you can look at a race and see how far off your PR you were, see where you finished in your age group, etc.  You can even connect with friends to compare your race results.  Regardless, it’s worth checking out.  When I put my name in and it had every race I had run back to the 2001 Berlin marathon when I started running I just looked at the screen in awe.  It even groups them by …  well you just have to see for yourself.

Race Results, Running Tips

Have you ever run a marathon that took you through two states?  Me either.  But I am this weekend.  In fact many of your Conway running friends will be heading down  to Texarkana to “run the line” this weekend.  And it’s not too late to register.  The weather is going to be beautiful and the course is flat and fun.  Click on the image above to register right now.

Some of us are going to be running as a part of the Conway Running Club Grand Prix team.  It’s the fourth race of the year and our first place women and second place men are heading down to improve their position.  If you are interested in racing with the CRC Grand Prix team, click here for complete information and to sign up.  It’s too late for this race but there are 16 races left.  Or come to our February meeting at 7pm on Monday 2/20 at the Conway Regional Fitness Center to find out more.

Are you running the Little Rock marathon this year?  If so there is no better way to do your final 10+ mile run before the marathon.  You are 2 weeks out from the LR marathon and half marathon race is a great final long training run.  You may hold back a bit and not necessarily try to PR the half marathon, just go out and enjoy yourself and enjoy being able to stop after 13.1.  That won’t be the case on March 4th!!

The main reason I decided to write this post was to recognize the race director for the Run The Line Half Marathon, Julie-Ray Harrison.  One of my biggest complaints of race committees is their decision not to allow a runner to transfer their registration to another runner.  If you get sick, have a family emergency, are injured or whatever, you are out of luck.  I have tried to change this on race committees I’ve been on and heard all the usual – their money is going to a good cause, we can’t do this or people will scalp the entry forms, etc.  Well, this is not the case in the Marine Corp Marathon (first race I ever saw that allows you to transfer your number online) and it is not the case at the Run the Line half marathon.  We had two runners who paid to run this weekend and one is sick and the other has a hamstring injury.  Instead of telling them “tough luck, we’ll just keep your money”, they worked with them to transfer their race entry to someone else.  Even did it the week before the race.  Running a 20 race Grand Prix circuit is not cheap and we need more races like this.  I was so impressed and appreciative I decided to take the time to write this post.

If you like this, click the image above, sign up and join me in Texarkana this Sunday!!!!

Running Opportunities

Mark your calendar, the second Monday of February, April, June, August, October and December.  These are the dates for the Conway Running Club meetings.
The February meeting was postponed one week due to weather – new date is Monday 20.

The purpose of these meetings are to get as many Conway Area runners together in one place and provide some valuable information to each of them to help their running and advance the sport. Meetings will be held at the Conway Regional Fitness Center at 7pm.  Child care is available in the fitness center.

We are pleased to announce that David Meroney will be our guest speaker for the February meeting.  David is a native of Pine Bluff and recently become the sixth Arkansas RRCA State Representative. The main purpose of this position is to advance interest in the running community by supporting the various local running clubs around the state. Also, the State Rep essentially is in charge of and responsible for the Arkansas Grand Prix series.

Grand Prix racing is key to the Conway Running Club.  Often people view the CRC as that group of people who meet in the dark Conway Fitness Center parking lot at 5am to run together.  This is our core but not who we are in total.  The Grand Prix racing team brings us all together and helps us get faster and become better runners.  It creates a fellowship among our running community and connects us with the other running clubs around the state.  The CRC men and women’s teams are off to a great start, each winning one of the first two races.  To put this in perspective, the Little Rock men’s team won every race last year.  Grand Prix is much more than winning, come run with us and see what we mean.

David earned the Iron Man of the Grand Prix for 2011 by finishing all 20 races in the series in his second year of competing in the Grand Prix. Even though he is just a mid-packer runner, David enjoys the competition of the Grand Prix and the opportunity to travel the state and meet runners from all over.

I attended college at Hendrix and so the three GP races in Conway are a special treat for me. Coming back to Conway is fun for me as I’m always amazed at how much Conway has grown and changed in the 18 years since I graduated.  I’m especially excited about the running community in Conway and look forward to spending the evening with you.”

In addition to the road races of the GP, David likes trail runs and marathons and even earned Marathon Maniac status at the end of 2010 (#3231).

I hope you will join us on Monday February 20th at 7pm at the Conway Regional Fitness Center to hang out with your running friends for an hour, to be encouraged and to learn something about the sport we all love.

Grand Prix, Membership Meetings

The February CRC meeting will be postponed for one week until Feb 20 at 7pm.

Although we will have to verify that the Conway Regional Fitness Center is available, we will definitely have the meeting next week on Monday at 7pm with the place to be determined.

Enjoy your evening and drive carefully.

Membership Meetings

The CRC had both a women’s and men’s team in the Valentine 5k race today in Russellville.  It was a nice brisk 22 degrees with a little wind at the start.  We didn’t have our strongest team but we fielded both teams which means we had at least 3 women and 4 men entered.  We’ll find out later how we fared against the other clubs.

Tim had a great race but as we walked to the car Tim mentioned he said although he felt he had a good race, it wasn’t faster than a couple of other guys he would like to finish ahead of.  We were reminded how racing makes you faster.  Even though we meet our own goals, we see someone finish ahead of us and it inspires us to work harder.  Training takes on a whole new meaning.  We enjoy running more and with more purpose and are somehow surprised when the next time we race those two guys that beat us finish behind us.  That’s one of the reasons we run Grand Prix.

On Facebook I read that Shannon set a new PR with a 20:52 finish.  Way to go Shannon.  This is someone who has struggled with injuries and was nervous about the race last night.  She said she couldn’t feel her feet during the race because it was so cold  and she thought wouldn’t have a good finish.  Then – 20:52 and a PR!  And another runner set a PR by 5 minutes.  Most of us did not set PR’s but we got out there and started and finished the race.  Results are posted.

I looked at my time for the same race 3 years ago (the last time I ran it) and the bad news is I ran it slower today.  The good news is it was only 16 seconds slower.  I am thankful that I am still running and enjoying all of the friendships that result from it.  Racing definitely makes a difference.

Are you a fast, slow, young, old, new or experienced runner?  If so, join the CRC and race with us.  We have one of the top Grand Prix teams in the state and at this point we have more runners on our team than any other team.  Click on the image to the right and find out more and how to join.

Grand Prix

This is a great race for a great cause.  The Conway Running Club proudly supports this race and encourages all runners, walkers, people who used to be runners and want to run again and anyone who wants to have some fun at dusk and support K-life to click on the image above to sign up for the 2012 1985k dusk run.

Running Opportunities