One ‘yucky,’ ducky day for Marathon

TRISTAN HOLLEY, 32 Washington D.C. 2:57.22 Holley viewed the Little Rock Marathon as a chance to get escape the bad weather that has plagued the East Coast all winner. Then, he is greeted by cold, rain and lightning, which forced some late runners off the course before finishing. “I had never seen so many hills and it felt very good to be out there.”GARDNER YOST, 23 Chicago, 2:59.24 Yost, a Cornell graduate, was a member of the gold-medal winning team in the Men’s Eight at the 2012 U-23 World Championships in rowing and achieved his goal barely of breaking 3 hours in his second try. “Rowing and running have several things in common,” Yost said. “You still have to train really hard and use so many different kinds of muscles, plus both really are a great test for your cardio.”RANDELL HANSEN, 35 Gold River, Calif.

3:03.07Hansen has done 17 marathons in 15 states, but this was his first trip to Little Rock. “I had heard a lot of good things about this marathon and how well it was sup- and how big the medal was,” Hansen said.

“It was a very nice course.” Hansen, already qualified for Boston, said he is excited about going to Boston one year after the bombings. “I feel like the whole world is going to be watching."

LINDSEY MEYER, 29 Omaha, Neb., 3:11.49 Meyer wasn’t going to complain about the cold, chilly weather Sunday when the temperature was “negative-4 degrees” in her hometown of Omaha. “I was shooting for3:07, but my shoes have been soggy since the eight-mile mark,” Meyer said. “Around the 17-mile mark you have a lot of hills, but you have a lot of great volunteers and this race is well organized.”MARLON ONCO, 50 Norman, Okla., 3:33.54Onco completed his 45th marathon Sunday. Earlier this year, he did marathons in Mississippi and Alabama on consecutive days in January.

He did a 50K race in Tulsaon Jan. 26 and a week later did a 100-mile race in Huntsville, Texas.

He plans on running the Boston Marathon and the Oklahoma City Marathon in April. When asked about how special running it is to be running in Boston one year after the bombing, he said the Oklahoma City Marathon is also special because of the Federal Building bombing in 1995.

DR. PERKINS MUKUNYADZI, 50

Little Rock, 3:34.47Mukunyadazi moved to Little Rock in 1992, and has run seven of his 12 marathons in Little Rock.

Mukunyadazi was raised in Zimbabwe, where the temperatures rarely reach the 30s, as they did Sunday in Little Rock. But Mukunyadazi said he has run two marathons - in Oklahoma - in conditions worse than Sunday. “This one, though was very, very cold,” he said. “Really quite terrible. So cold I can’t really feel my mouth.”

RICHARD LOVING, 44 Kankakee, Ill. 3:38.54Loving , who lives 60 miles south of Chicago, has run in five marathons and two ultra marathons (races longer than the standard 26.2 miles).

Sunday’s conditions mighthave seemed awful to many of the runners, but not Loving. “It’s my first time in Little Rock, so checking this morning when we got up it was negative-14 [degrees] in Chicago and snowing,” Loving said. “Today, I am in shorts and a tank top and I am loving it even with the rains.” ALICE STEWART, 47 Little Rock, 3:50.30 Radio talk show host Stewart ran her 15th marathon Sunday, including races in Dublin, Ireland, Stockholm, Sweden and Amsterdam, The Netherlands, but said she met her No. 1 goal Sunday - getting back to Boston. “I wanted to qualify for Boston one more time before I turn the big 5-0, so I am blessed to do it,” Stewart said.

“I’ve done Boston four times and after last year, my heart goes out to the people in Boston and I just want to be a part of it. I am excited to do this in Little Rock and see fans come out and support on such a yucky day.”

MAUREEN JOHNSON, 35 Spingfield, Va., 4:02.43

Johnson and her husband have a goal to run 50 marathons in 50 states, and there was no way they were going to get yanked off the course with 3 miles to go when some of the slower runners were brought in from the course. “Oh my gosh, I couldn’t believe after hearing at mile 23 that the race was going to be canceled. I wanted to keep on going. I have 3 miles left. I’m not stopping.”JOAN MOONEY, 58 Dallas, 5:56.48Mooney was an early starter and faced the wrath of some of the hardest rains of the day just as she crossed the finish line.

“This was my third marathon and was just a couple minutes over my PR,” she said. “Tulsa was colder. This was the wettest one probably. Just glad to finish.

Again, very pleased for that.”ALLISON MCKAY, 29

KEITH MCKAY, 29 Rogers, 6:02.49Keith McKay, who said he is pushing 300 pounds, credits Allison, his wife of 7 ½ years, for helping him get over the hump Sunday.

“She talked me through it,” Keith said. “It’s the most I have ever ran by about 14 miles. … She coached me the last 5 miles. If it wasn’t for her I would have fell out.” Allison said Keith helped her, as well.

“About the 18- to 23-mile mark he coached me,” Allison said. “This was my best run ever because I got to do it with my best friend.”WHEELCHAIR DIVISION

SCOTT PORTER, 55 Orlando, Fla. 2:30Porter, a T-4 Paraplegic, was participating in his 17th marathon. He had a attended a charity function in Fort Smith that benefits those who have spinal-cord injuries and wanted to do the race because he liked Arkansas. He has already qualified for the Boston Marathon, and said he is excited about going to there in April. “It’s going to be great because it is one race you work so hard to get to and we want to show everyone that we don’t back down.”