Fun, runs popping across state for the firecracker-hot Fourth
Posted on Monday, June 30, 2008
URL: http://www.nwanews.com/adg/Style/230167/
To celebrate freedom and liberty for all on the Fourth of July, Americans like to eat from paper plates and play with explosives. They also hold contests to prove how fast they can run.
Patriotic Arkansans have their choice of five 3. 1-mile running competitions in Arkansas on Friday. There’s also a 5 K of anticipation (as it were ) Thursday at Flippin in Marion County.
The largest race is usually the one in the capital city, the Firecracker Fast 5 K, sponsored by Easy Runner shoe shop. Some years, store owner Gary Smith brings in celebrity racers like Bill Rodgers, Frank Shorter and Joan Benoit Samuelson.
Although the 32 nd annual Firecracker has no such fancy person to rouse attention, race director Bill Torrey said Wednesday that 200 people had already registered. About 30 racers had signed up using a link to active. com at www. arkansasrunner. com.
The race had 994 finishers last year, he said. Although it was too early to predict turnout, he noted that the downhill race usually draws 800 or 900 runners.
“Typically the day before is when we have the big push,” he said. “We’ll have people at Easy Runner, volunteers there, to register people, give out the shirts and race numbers.”
And many will roll out of bed the morning of the race and decide on the spur of the moment to register.
“Really, the bottom line, it’s tradition,” Torrey said. “It’s what everybody does that day, to start their day off. This year it should be a good year because it’s a Friday morning. Once the 5 K’s done you’ve still got three full days.”
Not only are the runners and walkers following tradition, so are the Firecracker’s volunteers, many of whom have worked the race for decades.
For instance, Steve Eubanks and friends always provide the one water stop, on Kavanaugh Boulevard across from Mount St. Mary Academy. After the last walker hurries past, he turns the water hose on volunteers as they upend unused cups on one another. Stalwarts like Hobbit and Tom Singleton and Terry Gravenmeier chase everyone around with squirt guns. And for 10 years, Lynnette and Michael Watts have provided flags and other decorations and cooked breakfast for the aid-station volunteers.
“It’s just tradition,” Torrey said.
“June Baron and her friends, they’ve done [race-day ] registration for seven or eight years now,” he said. “She gets together that little clan of the Cackling Hens, as I call them” — with affection — “to work the registration. Then they go down to work the finish line, too.
“ Bill Bulloch has a crew that does the finish line,” he said, including a group of running women who call themselves the Endorfemmes and other longtime members of the Little Rock Roadrunners and the Arkansas Running Klub. Sometimes early finishers turn around to help on the hectic line.
“Linda Sue Sanders and Stacy Majors do the food court, as I call it, where the food and water are,” Torrey said. “Harold Hays has a crew that puts out the tables, shirts, water and stuff like that starting at 5 o’clock in the morning.”
Racers rush downhill from Kavanaugh and North University Avenue to War Memorial Stadium following a car usually driven by ultrarunner Jack Evans. “It’s just a straight shot, even Jack can handle that,” Torrey jokes.
Joking about the pace-car driver is also tradition. The race begins at 7: 30 a. m. Friday. Entry costs $ 25 ($ 30 on race day ); children race for $ 10. More information is at www. arkansas runner. com or (501 ) 221-0017.
AROUND THE STATE Flippin’s Fireworks 5 K has the great (theoretical ) virtue of beginning after the heat of the day has settled down. Racers will toe the line at 7: 30 p. m. Thursday at the footbridge on Second Street outside the city park. The race has awards for male and female runners and walkers; walkers who run will be disqualified. Entry costs $ 20; race-day registration will be accepted from 6 to 7 p. m. in the park. More information is at (870 ) 453-8522. Greenwood’s Independence Day town festival includes the 28 th annual Freedomfest 5 K at 7: 30 a. m. Friday. Pre-registration is available from the Greenwood Chamber of Commerce at (479 ) 996-6357 or by e-mail at info@greenwoodchamber. net and costs $ 15. Race-day registration costs $ 20 and will be accepted beginning at 6: 30 a. m. at the Betty Wilkinson Senior Activity Center (next door to Farmers Bank, 71 W. Center St. ).
In Rogers, First Christian Church of Rogers will raise money for a Youth Outreach Ministries playground with the Firecracker Fun Run 5 K. The race begins at 8 a. m. Friday in the Lake Atalanta city park. The event includes a 3. 1-mile fun run and a half-mile kiddy run. Children who race with an adult can enter for free, but unaccompanied children will pay $ 5. Adult entry costs $ 15 ($ 20 on race day ). Registration opens at 7 a. m. Friday. More information is at fcc rogers. org. Jonesboro’s seventh annual Freedom Run 5 K Run and Walk is part of the Ridge Rider Athletic Club’s Northeast Arkansas Running & Walking Series and will use the club’s ChampionChip timing system. The race begins at 8 a. m. near Access 6 in Craighead Forest Park. Entry costs $ 20. More information is at (870 ) 933-4604.
In El Dorado, the third annual Firecracker 5 K is part of the Fantastic Fourth celebration. The race begins at 7: 30 a. m. Friday near First Financial Bank, 315 W. Main St. Entry costs $ 15 ($ 20 on race day ). Registration forms are available at the El Dorado Chamber of Commerce and by e-mail from delora@suddenlinkmail. com. More information is at (870 ) 863-6113.