OPPORTUNITIES

Beat Goes On 5K, LOViT 100 Mile, 100K on cusp

The Beat Goes On 5K begins at 9 a.m. Saturday at Saline Memorial Hospital, 1 Medical Park Drive in Benton.

The course will be chip-timed and take runners on a tour of downtown Benton.

This year's race is a fundraiser for the Saline Memorial Health Foundation and aims to increase awareness of the new Wellness Park at the hospital. The foundation is also sponsoring "50 Days to 5K," giving a prize a day up to race day by random drawing from the pool of registered racers. There also will be door prizes on race day.

Awards will be given three deep to the fastest male and female runners. Awards will also be given three deep by age group beginning with ages 5 to 9 and progressing in five-year increments.

Online registration is available until 1 p.m. Friday. Those who are interested in donating, but not running, may sign up as virtual entrants.

Packet pickup begins at 7:30 a.m. Saturday at the starting line. Race-day registration will be available for $25. Registration fees include a long-sleeve T-shirt, available to race-day registrants while supplies last.

For more information or online registration, visit salinememorial.org or call (501) 776-6746.

LOViT 100 Mile and 100K Endurance Run

For those unfamiliar with the great trail system at Lake Ouachita, LOViT is an abbreviation for the Lake Ouachita Vista Trail.

The LOViT 100 Mile footrace will begin at 5 p.m. Friday and the 100K (62.1 miles) will begin at 6 a.m. Saturday, both at the East Cove Pavilion of Mountain Harbor Resort, 994 Mountain Harbor Road near Mount Ida.

Online registration is available until 11:59 p.m. Wednesday. The 100 miler costs $210; the 100K is $120.

Packets for the 100-mile race and 100K can be picked up at East Cove Pavilion from 1 to 4:30 p.m. Friday. The 100-mile racers must attend a meeting at 4:30.

100K runners will also be able to pick up packets between 4:45 and 5:45 a.m. Saturday at the pavilion, and then attend a short meeting before the run begins at 6.

At a minimum, all racers must carry a water bottle or hydration pack and flashlight or headlamp. Backup batteries are recommended. There will be 10 aid stations for the 100-mile and six for the 100K, but due to the nature of the course, racers will pass each station more than once.

It's important to understand, the 100 Mile has a 34-hour cutoff -- runners must maintain an average pace of 20:24 minutes per mile. The 100K's 21-hour cutoff means its average pace is 20:16 minutes per mile. There will be three or four checkpoints where 100-milers not keeping up will be shifted to the 100K or possibly removed from the course altogether.

The awards breakfast will be at 10 a.m. Sunday at The Harbor Lodge Restaurant. Awards will be given to the top three overall male and female finishers in both distances. All 100K finishers will receive a medal, and 100-mile finishers will receive a custom buckle.

For those interested in record breaking, all four current course records were set at the 2016 running of the LOViT. The male 100-mile record is held by Hunter Dodds at 21:52:34; the female record is held by Susan Donnelly at 27:28:20. The male record in the 100K is held by Chris Ho at 10:24:47; the female record is held by Carmen Cheadle at 11:30:42.

For course maps and online registration, visit runlovit.com.

For more information about the LOViT trail system, visit lakeouachitavistatrail.org.

Little Rock's Great Amazing Race

The Great Amazing Race will begin at 2 p.m. Sunday at Pinnacle Mountain State Park. Teams of two will compete in a 1.5-mile "adventure run" with up to eight stations similar in style to CBS' The Amazing Race.

For those unfamiliar with that TV show, clue cards will be provided at each station describing a task or obstacle that a team must complete before advancing to the next station. To ensure the safety of all involved, challenges are scaled based on age and fitness level of participants.

This event is kid-friendly and welcomes children ages 5 and up. Teams may consist of two children, a kid and adult, or two adults. There will be four race divisions decided by the age of the youngest team member.

There are also two course levels, "recreation" for leisure-pace teams and "competitive" for the more physically active teams.

Online registration is available until 11:59 p.m. Saturday for $48 per team. Teams can order two matching event T-shirts or two souvenir drawstring bags for $24 a pair. There's also an option to buy a "mulligan" for $10, which is normally shorthand for a do-over, but in this case it just means that the team may redeem the mulligan to have two minutes shaved off their finishing time. Limit one mulligan per cheat ... er ... customer.

Author's aside: Fun fact, if my last marathon instituted an unlimited mulligan rule, it would have taken me approximately 72 mulligans to qualify for the Boston Marathon with a time of 3:05.

Race-day registration will be available for $60 during team check-in provided there are any spots open (100-team max).

Team check-in will begin at the starting line at 1:15 p.m. Sunday. After a course and rules review at 1:55 p.m., participants will be released in waves every 10 minutes beginning at 2.

The awards ceremony will take place at 4 with first-place finishers from each of four divisions being recognized.

For more information and online registration, visit runsignup.com and search for "Great Amazing Race Little Rock."

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ActiveStyle on 02/20/2017

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