Race the Base to rock runners’ world
Not long ago, runners who wanted a woodland trail race had their choice of distances: really long or really, really long.
Well, there’s that 10K at War Eagle, and the Freakin’ Eurekan is a 15K. It has been possible to find a few short trail events in Northwest Arkansas.
But lately, central Arkansas promoters have discovered the potential popularity of short courses. Consider Fred Phillips’ Arkansas Trail Running Series, which this year includes six events of 3 to 10 miles apiece.
Also consider Race the Base, a 4-mile, chip-timed footrace at Pinnacle Mountain State Park.
Last year’s first event on the rocky path ringing central Arkansas’ bestknown bump drew 115 entrants — not a tiny turnout as footraces go.
For the second annual Race the Base at 9 a.m. Saturday, organizers Lisa Mullis and Joe Jacobs expect to hit their 200-runner registration cap. “We limited it there just because we don’t want any more than that out on the trail, and you can understand why. It’s a safety thing,” Mullis says.
The course includes a bit of gravel road, grassy fields and a smoothly paved trail, but most of it uses single-track trail, rocky in spots and trip-wired with exposed roots. Experienced trail runners will enjoy the challenge, and as the website says, “beginning trail runners and speed hikers are welcome, just be aware of the technical terrain.”
Racers must be at least 13 to enter the 4-mile race, but there will also be a halfmile Kingfisher Kids fun run at 10:30 a.m., for ages 12 and below. Winners of the 4-miler will receive hand-painted stone trophies, and all those children will receive finishers medals.
The park will be open to the public as usual, and the race sponsors — Arkansas Outside, Go! Running, the Big Dam Bridge Foundation and Partners for Pinnacle — don’t want to inconvenience dayuse patrons. So Mullis says the course is designed so racers won’t go jostling past mountain hikers, who typically use the West Summit trailhead.
ROCKING THE AWARDS
The first three overall finishers, men and women, will take home unusual hand-painted awards, as will winners three deep in 10-year age divisions.
Art students in Loni Rainey and Lynn Smith’s classes at Parkview High School in Little Rock painted these locally sourced chunks of stone.
Until just recently, the trophies were lumps in the dirt at Mullis’ house. “I got a bunch of rocks out of my yard, and the kids painted rocks for trophies,” she says. “I really appreciate their help, and they’re not getting anything other than volunteer hours for it.”
LOOP THE MOUNTAIN
“The course is almost a mile longer this year,” she notes. “We’ve made some changes and added a couple of little extra things in to make it longer since we can’t really change the length of the Base Trail.”
Racers will start in Stuckey Field, which is across Arkansas 300 from the entrance to the day-use area. They’ll take the Kingfisher Trail along the Little