LITTLE ROCK — New year, new euphony.
Fleet Feet Sports in Fayetteville deserves a plaudit or two for the melodious name it’s given the first footrace of 2010: the New Year’s Day Twenty-10K.
Beginning at 10 a.m. Friday (Jan. 1), the 6.2-mile event will challenge runners and walkers to scamper through the cold from Clubhaus Fitness (612 W. Dickson St.) down Dickson, around Arkansas Avenue and onto the Fayetteville Trail System. Eventually racers will return to Clubhaus Fitness.
The race will benefit The Fayetteville Exchange Club, which donates shoes to schoolchildren through teachers, coaches and counselors. Entry, which costs $20, is available using forms at the shoe shop, the fitness center and Fayetteville Visitors Center. Online registration is at signmeup.com through a link at fleetfeetfayetteville.com.
More information is at (479) 571-8786.
Resolve and predict
Ken and Michelle McSpadden are once again conducting a Resolution/Prediction Less Than 4 Mile Fun Run/Walk for their friends in the White River Roadrunners Club at Batesville.
This is a timed fun run, but participants won’t be racing to be fastest: They’ll race to prove how wellthey can pace themselves. The fun race will begin at 9 a.m. Friday.
The course begins at the Merchants and Planters Bank on Main Street in Batesville, a fact which will register alarm in the minds of those familiar with the route of Batesville’s annual 4 Mile Classic race. Yes, it’s that same route, the one with the long, rousing downhill at the start and the exhausting uphill at the end. But get this - they’re running the course backward: long downhill at the start, huge uphill at the end. Same difference.
But they aren’t using the full Classic route; they’re leaving out three relatively level blocks.
Entry is free, but only preregistered participants will be given the prized finishers award: a bandanna (unless there are a bunch of bandannas left over, in which case late arrivals might get one).
When they sign up, racers must predict the time they think it will take them to walk or run the route. No watches or other timing devices are allowed on the course. As the entry form puts it, “you will be disqualified and dragged and beaten severely with your watch if you wear one.”
The men and women walkers and runners whose predictions most closely match their times will win trophies, as will those whose predictions most wildly miss the mark. Other trophies willbe awarded at random.
Water and refreshments will be provided at the finish line, but there will not be an aid stop on the course.
More information is at (870) 793-2464.
Resolve only
The Little Rock Roadrunners Club plans a New Year’s Day run open to any walker or runner who’d like to hasten into the next decade with other aspirants after alacrity. Or, if you merely aspire to put one foot in front of the other and keep on going until it’s time to stop, they’ll welcome you, too.
They won’t time you; they won’t leave water on the street for you; but they will run with you.
The club’s annual Resolution Run begins at 8 a.m. Friday in front of The Full Moon center on Kavanaugh Boulevard in Little Rock. The small strip mall sits between Evergreen and L streets.
The out-and-back course, with options of two to seven miles, will head up the ridge on Kavanaugh (a mild hill so evenly graded it never has to be closed for ice), through the relatively level Cammack Village and across to Overlook Hill - but not down the hill to Murray Park.
Runners should bring water or whatever, and any uncrushed party hats and noisemakers they find lying around. Paul Ward will provide written course descriptions. But,he warns, “if it’s raining, icy or colder than 20 degrees, you’re on your own; I’m going back to bed.”
Roll on
The Arkansas Bicycle Club’s first group outing of the year will be 9:30 a.m. Friday from the Kroger parking lot at 2509 McCain Blvd. in North Little Rock. Cyclists will travel north on the rolling hills of North Hills Boulevard and then east into the countryside for a 30-mile loop.
Ride leader Jim Britt says he plans to discuss and practice road safety and pass out safety cards, so this would be a good first group outing for a rider who doesn’t want to fall in with a scofflaw crowd.
More information is at (501) 912-1449.
Om free
Barefoot Studio will welcome all comers with a free yoga class at 9:30 a.m. Friday. The studio is at 3515 Old Cantrell Road in Little Rock. More information is at (501) 661-8005.
Winter Series
Saturday, when ActiveStyle wasn’t looking, North Little Rock’s Arkansas Running Klub began its annual Winter Series of weekend fun runs. The club planned four runs, which means there are still three left.
Each will include aid stops for those running 5, 10 or 20K and theclub sets up its clock so you don’t have to guess how slow you are.
Participation costs $15 ($10 for ARK members) and includes a long-sleeved technical-fabric running shirt. Remaining dates are:
7:30 a.m. Saturday, Cook’s Landing Park.
7:30 a.m. Jan. 9, north foot of the Big Dam Bridge.
7:30 a.m. Jan. 16, Two Rivers Park.
More information is at (501) 851-6310.
Returning
Matthew and Holly Krepps, former owners of Barefoot Studio, will lead a three-day yoga workshop at the studio Jan. 15-17.
“Hatha Yoga: Sacredness in Action” will include asana, pranayama and meditation practice with attention to traditional techniques and their relationship to the five senses, as well as spiritual and emotional realities. The couple are developing Circle Yoga Shala, a yoga retreat and teacher-training center on Shiloh Mountain in the Ozarks.
The cost for the full weekend is $170, which doesn’t include meals. Those who can’t attend the whole weekend can come to individual sessions: The evening of Jan. 15 costs $40; the morning of Jan. 16 is $50; the afternoon of Jan. 16 is $45; the morning of Jan. 17 is $50.
More information is at (501) 661-8005.
ActiveStyle, Pages 24 on 12/28/2009