Race Recap: Little Rock Half Marathon

I do the Little Rock Marathon — either the half or the full — every year. It's my favorite road race, and the medals are amazing. This year, I just did the half because I'm not getting back into long-distance stuff until this fall. And my friend Kate from Memphis Hash House Harriers signed up to run it, too. So, we made a plan to run together.

But first, I stopped by the race expo on Saturday afternoon. This year's race was dino-themed, so I grabbed a selfie with a dinosaur.

Then, I headed to my BFF Sheridan's house. I always stay with Sheridan and Drew when I come down for this race. I dropped off my things, and then we met up with Kate for pre-race pizza at Raduno Brick Oven. 

Raduno has some really yummy Vegan Spinach-Artichoke Dip, so Kate and I split that for an appetizer.

And then we each ordered the Vegan Pepperoni Pizza.

And the Funghi Mushroom Pie with no cheese. Yay for carbs!

The next morning, the race started bright and early at 6 am! It usually starts at 8 am, but the weather was predicted to be unseasonably warm on Sunday, so they moved the race up by two hours at the last minute. I was not too happy about this, but there wasn't much I could do. And turns out, it never really got that hot. Temps were in the 60s (not 70s), and there was cloud cover and a drizzle. Oh well. 

Kate and I stayed together for the full 13.1 miles. I had originally planned to go for a PR when I signed up, but once Kate signed up, I decided to treat this as a fun run so we could run at conversational pace. But Kate is faster than me, so she kind of pushed me more than I realized she would. And I ended up finishing with my second-fastest time! Not a PR, but I was only one minute off. 

Check out these cool medals!

I had such a good time running and talking with Kate. I'm so used to running races alone with headphones, so this was a nice change. One of the best things about hashing is having a giant group of new running partners. 

After the race, I met back up with Sheridan and Drew, and we grabbed brunch at Little Rock's new City Silo. 

This place is Memphis-based, but they just expanded to Little Rock. And even though I can eat at City Silo at home, I'd never been there for breakfast/brunch. I had an oatmilk latte and this Sunshine Burrito with City Silo's veggie burger, quinoa, sweet potatoes, and vegan cheese. That hit the spot and powered me for my right home!