New leadership taking over Arkansas Traveller

WILLIAMS JUNCTION -- The Arkansas Traveller 100 Miler's second chapter comes to a close this weekend.

Charlie and Lou Peyton directed the first 10 Travellers, the 100-mile footrace through the Ouachita National Forest, first run in 1991. Stan and Chrissy Ferguson agreed to take over the Peytons' duties in 2001 and are about to direct their 16th and final Traveller.

At a glance

Arkansas Traveller 100 Miler

START/FINISH Lake Sylvia, near Williams Junction on Arkansas 324

WHEN 6 a.m. Saturday; noon Sunday

DEFENDING CHAMPIONS Wesley Hunt, 15:36:33; Alison Jumper, 19:16:44

COURSE RECORDS Wesley Hunt, 2015: 15:36:33; Ann Trason, 2002: 17:13:10

This year's race will start Saturday at 6 a.m., near Lake Sylvia, about 35 miles west of Little Rock, and will wind along trails and gravel roads through dense woodlands in Saline, Garland and Perry counties. The final cutoff is noon Sunday.

After that, the Fergusons, with a few volunteers, will break down and clean the course and pack away a seemingly endless array of supplies -- containers, signs, tables, and on and on through Monday, and then they will turn the race over to its third director, Little Rock's Thomas Chapin.

"Sometimes the stuff we have to do is absolutely unimaginable," Chrissy Ferguson said.

She spoke of multiple trips to grocery and department stores, constant telephone calls throughout each year, trailers and rented trucks packed with food and equipment, the constant search for volunteers, and the joy of watching racers over the years complete their trek through days and nights of effort.

It was crucial to the Fergusons that they find someone clearly qualified to assume their duties. "If we couldn't, we would've just called the race off," Chrissy Ferguson said.

They sounded delighted to have found Chapin, a 38-year-old Realtor from Little Rock. He has run the race three times, highlighted by a third-place finish in 2014, when he completed the course in 18 hours, 45 minutes, and 18 seconds.

He was introduced to the Traveller as a child before the first race in 1991. He remembers gathering at the Peytons' house with his father Tom Chapin and other holdovers from the 1970s running boom as they discussed the wherewithal of conducting a 100-mile footrace in central Arkansas.

Chapin knows what he is getting into.

"Once we started making the agreement to make this transition, I started seeing all the email files, all the money accounts, all the accounts you have to have with the forest service, the emergency services involved," he said.

"There's a lot to consider. Chrissy has something special that has helped her put this together, and Stan has some real skills. I'm not a replacement for those two, but I hope I can rally a lot of people in this case and keep the race going."

Chrissy Ferguson, 55, said she felt Chapin was an ideal choice to carry the Traveller forward.

"We wouldn't have let him take over the race if we weren't sure he was a good choice," she said. "Of the people we had to choose from, he was the best fit."

Stan Ferguson, 53, said he shared Chrissy's confidence in Chapin, but that he believes change for the Traveller was inevitable under its new director.

"I think Thomas was born to direct the Arkansas Traveller," he said. "Having someone we knew and knew would care about the race and was familiar with its origins made him a good pick, but we know that the race will be different. It will have to be different. No one can be Chrissy, so it's going to be different, but we have no doubt that he cares about the race. There are no concerns."

Lou Peyton remembered Chapin from his boyhood, including his attendance at the Peytons' house with his father and others when the Traveller was first considered. Peyton said she and her husband found their ideal replacements in the Fergusons, and that she likewise believed the Fergusons found in Chapin a nearly perfect candidate to replace them.

"Stan and Chrissy have done a wonderful job, but eventually you need a break," she said. "You just wear out, but we are definitely pleased to have Thomas take over the race."

Sports on 09/30/2016

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