Few footraces manage to use the same website from year to year, let alone make it an interesting read. But that's the case with the eighth annual Go! Mile, whose heats begin at 7 a.m. Saturday in downtown Little Rock.
It helps that the registration site, gorunning.com, isn't put together by a bleary-eyed volunteer sitting up past midnight. It belongs to Gary and Erin Taylor's athletic boutique, Go! Running. What distinguishes it from most race sites is that besides event basics, it answers questions from last year's racers.
Go! Mile is the only one-mile event for the general public that's sanctioned by the Road Runners Club of America's Arkansas chapter and, as a championship event in the Arkansas Grand Prix series, it crowns the state's fastest milers -- men and women.
One mile is a rare race for adult runners and walkers. Kiddie fun runs are often a mile or less, on the theory that little legs need an easy course, and short is easier than long. But the opposite is true for adults: The shorter the distance, the harder they run.
Some blazingly fast runners will compete, but there will be many less anxious participants who show up because they simply want to know how long it takes them to do a mile.
For adults, Go! Mile has six one-mile races in downtown Little Rock that go off as heats, so racers can face off against their own generation (as it were). All the heats take the same course, which begins in Clinton Presidential Park.
• Heat A at 7 a.m. is for women ages 40 and older.
• Heat B at 7:20 pits men 40 and older.
• Heat C at 7:40 is for women 39 and younger.
• Heat D at 8 is for men ages 39 and younger.
• Heat E at 8:20 -- the Elite Heat -- is for men of any age who run a mile faster than 5:30 and women of any age who can do better than 6:30.
• Heat F -- the First Mile -- at 8:40 is a first race for the novice, who couldn't run a 5K yet.
A Kids' Mini Mile follows at 9 a.m. for ages 9 and younger. It is an untimed half-mile with prizes for all the kids. Parents are welcome, but they should line up with their children toward the back so that the bigger youngsters won't trample them.
During race awards, winners stand on a podium to have their photos taken.
Those who run the fastest are the overall and age-group winners, no matter which heat they enter -- although if that happens to be the First Mile, scrutiny will ensue.
Besides the map and registration link, a FAQ page and parking advice, the website lets Gary Taylor answer last year's feedback.
So he explains why the First Mile will come last this year. It used to come first, but it's after the Elite Heat this time. Starting later could appeal to "nonracers" who will benefit from watching a race before they try it. But also, advanced runners want to jog with their friends in the First Heat, to support them, he writes. If those age-group racers carry the timing chip they'll need for their own, later heat, it could mess up overall results.
"We have worked with the timing company to ensure the chip will only register in the event you run," he writes, "but we have also moved the First Mile to after the Elite race."
Registration costs $20 for adults, $10 for those younger than 18, free for a child who runs with a parent and $5 for additional kids. Add $2.50 if registering an adult online, $2 for a child running alone. Online registration closes at midnight Thursday.
The fee doesn't include a T-shirt; they cost $10.
In response to complaints that $20 was a lot for a short race without aid stops, Taylor explains, "When you put on a race, the cost for your venue, police, ambulance, insurance, awards, timing company and shirt is the same no matter what the distance of the race, maybe with the exception of full and half marathons. Police and ambulance have a three-hour minimum, for example. Aid stations in most races use donated supplies and volunteers and therefore do not add cost to a longer race."
Also, he notes that proceeds benefit the Winston Penn Wardlaw Memorial Fund, which provides scholarships for students of Little Rock Catholic High School for Boys.
ArkansasRunner.com and arkrrca.com also link to registration. And racers can register in person during packet pickup from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the shop, 1819 N. Grant St. in Little Rock, or on race day beginning at 6 a.m. in the park.
The phone number is (501) 663-6800.
$5 5K
Pirate Perry Events, a Mountain Home company that conducts fundraising footraces and other events around the Ozarks, invites runners and walkers to a small, friendly 5K at 7 p.m. Thursday. The $5 5K is designed to encourage the 12 participants in personal trainer Misty Krug's Couch to 5K training program, who have been working out for six weeks with sessions in Cooper Park.
The race will begin at 3598 Arkansas 5 North and travel south and west to County Road 916. Elevationwise the course is higher at the start and finish and lower in the middle; but race director Paul Gigliotti promises it's only mildly hilly. There's one aid stop at the halfway point.
Registration costs $5 ($15 if you want a T-shirt). Gigliotti plans to use an eclectic mix of bib numbers and medals from earlier events conducted by Pirate Perry.
More information is available by calling (870) 404-8363 or emailing paul@pirateperry.com.
Please send tips about active recreation opportunities to
cstorey@arkansasonlinecom
ActiveStyle on 06/11/2018