Next up, Arkansas and the Spa Running Festival which hosts a 5K, 10K and half marathon dubbed the Summit 2 Summit Challenge.  This was a great, small race in beautiful Hot Springs Arkansas.  It was a really quick trip for me (without the family).  Arrived Friday afternoon and flew back home on Saturday afternoon after the race.

Flew into Little Rock and first stop was Root Cafe for a delicious vegan lunch.  The lunch was so good, I stopped there again on my way back to the airport for the exact same meal.

Friday afternoon, I went out for an easy run and explored the town.  It has a rich history of being both a spa town and home to illegal gambling, speakeasies and gangsters. It’s also the boyhood home of President Bill Clinton.

Eight historic bathhouses have been preserved along bathhouse row.  One has been turned into a brewery, which I took advantage of in order to carb-load for the race.

Race morning was so easy since my hotel was just a block from the start.  About 300 of us were on the starting line for the Summit 2 Summit Challenge.  The course was beautiful – mostly through a national park and as the title implies, we ran to the top of the summit of West Mountain twice.  So, quite a challenging course, but the views were amazing, great volunteers and a really friendly vibe.

   (the picture is really small because I couldn’t justify $25 for a single photo download – some of these race photos are just crazy expensive!)

I think my marathon training (currently in the thick of training for the Louisiana marathon) has me in great shape.  I ended up finishing 2nd in my age group and 17th overall woman – not bad!

Well, 8 down, 42 to go…