Evidence of the running boom's bloom in Arkansas arrived on a Saturday morning in April 1980. More than 1,500 runners entered, and 1,300 finished the Diet Pepsi 10K that cool, blue morning through the downtowns of Little Rock and North Little Rock.
The name of Arkansas' landmark 10K has changed multiple times since. Still, when longtime director Bill Torrey was forced by cost to move the race to Two Rivers Park in west Little Rock in 2002, the 42-year-old 10K became unrecognizable to anyone who experienced its origin.
That should change this weekend.
The 43rd running of the former Diet Pepsi, Pepsi Challenge, Bud Run, and now the Capitol City Classic 10K will return to its original course Saturday. Near Little Rock City Hall and the Robinson Center, the downtown start is scheduled for 8 a.m.
Frontrunners will lead the field across the Broadway Bridge into North Little Rock at the gun, as world-class runners like Marty Liquori, Bill Rodgers, Ric Rojas, Francie Larrieu Smith, and Ann Audain did two generations ago.
"That was a fun race, and it was a great course," Rodgers said. "I liked the course. It changed. It would go up and then down. It was a little like running cross country."
Rodgers, 74, winner of the Boston Marathon in 1975 and 1978-80, won Little Rock's Pepsi Challenge 10K in 1982 and 1983. The 74-year-old former U.S. Olympian said he was pleased to learn the race has returned to its first course.
"The race started across the [Arkansas River], and then it came back across on another bridge," Rodgers said. "Later, it ran past the Capitol. I remember it very well. It was a very good race. I am so glad to hear they're moving it back where it started."
Ric Rojas, ranked in the top 10 in the world among road runners by Track and Field News magazine from 1977-81, won the 1981 Pepsi Challenge, a year after Liquori, a former U.S. Olympian, won the first of Little Rock's downtown 10Ks.
Rojas, 70, shared Rodgers' sentiment from his home in Boulder, Colo.
"It's great they're taking it back downtown," Rojas said. "I remember it was a fast course. It was a sunny, warm day. It was well organized. Of course, usually, you really remember them when they weren't well run. You think, 'Oh, that was a disaster,' but the support there was really good.''
Torrey said limited sponsorship forced the move to Two Rivers Park. He said the cost for traffic control was significantly reduced, but the City of Little Rock and its Department of Parks and Recreation -- also responsible for the Little Rock Marathon -- offered to help finance the new downtown 10K.
"The city agreed to pick up the tab," Torrey said. "The City of Little Rock and Parks and Recreation have really helped."
Torrey said he was unsure how many entrants to expect Saturday. He said he remembered when the old Pepsi runs attracted more than 3,000 runners and had the feel of a championship race.
"At that time, everybody was very competitive," Torrey said. "You knew when you stepped on that course, you knew better do your best because it was the largest race in the state. It was the premiere event."