Nine bike races in three days. Events you have done every year for years. Events that are new. Rides for kids. A short and casual family ride, a long and casual gravel ride. The 2018 Arkansas State Road Race Championships.
The Northwest Arkansas Emerging Leaders have bundled all that and more into three eventful days -- Friday through Sunday -- as the fourth annual Rogers Cycling Festival presented by Team Tyson.
Friday
6-7:30 p.m., Wheel Sucker Team Time Trial, followed at 7:30 by its after party and awards at GPP Cycling, 318 S. First St., Rogers. The time trials are for road cycling teams of three and use an 11-mile course from Rogers to Avoca and back.
7-8 p.m., the Frisco 5 Card Poker ride, a family-friendly two-mile course with five card stops around Lake Atalanta, followed by the prize party, with bike decorating at the Railyard Bike Park, 299 E. Cherry St., Rogers. Unlike most events, there's no online registration; you sign up in person at the general registration area (a lot at the intersection of First and Poplar streets in Rogers) for $5 a rider.
8:30-9 p.m., Family Glow Ride at Lake Atalanta Park sponsored by Rogers Activity Center. All ages are welcome at this free event; decorate your bike with LED lights and assemble at the Railyard, where glow accessories will be sold and students will paint your face with glow paint for $5. Ride with the group to the lake and then back.
Saturday
7:30-8:30 a.m., Race for the Spike. For road cyclists, this is an 11-mile time trial with a mass start at 214 S. Arkansas St. in downtown Rogers; then they race to Avoca and back. The idea is to beat the A&M excursion train -- and the mountain bikers, who will be doing a 6-mile, largely single-track route from Arkansas Street through the Railyard to Lake Atalanta and back to Arkansas Street. The mountain bikers' goal is to beat the road riders and also the train.
9-10 a.m., R.A.T.S. Kids Mountain Bike Race for ages 5 to 12, sponsored by Rogers Area Trail Supporters and held entirely on the Pleasant Ridge Road tract of Lake Atalanta Park (1615 S. Pleasant Ridge Road, Rogers).
10 a.m.-5 p.m., Walnut Valley Road Race, the age-based state championships, beginning at Avoca Town Hall, 222 Old Wire Road, Avoca (5 miles north of Rogers).
6-10 p.m., the Gambler Mountain Bike Endurance Race, a four-hour endurance ride starting at the Pleasant Ridge Road tract in Rogers. Pedal into the dark on the Lake Atalanta trails, followed by an after party that starts at 7 at Ozark Beer Co., 109 N. Arkansas St.
Sunday
7:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m., the casual Whitney Gravel Ride, either 38 or 52 miles -- your choice -- on a mix of gravel and paved back roads to the top of Mount Whitney from Phat Tire Bike Shop, 321 S. Arkansas St. in Rogers. That's a whole lot of climbing and descending. Afterward there's an after party at Phat Tire, with music, drinks and food.
8:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m., the Walnut Valley Road Race, state championships by category, beginning at the Avoca Town Hall.
Mixed in is an excursion ride on the Razorback Greenway, a "rider village/advocacy alley" and fun socializing with a lot of folks clicking around in jerseys and helmets.
Fees vary by event, and that information as well as registrations are online at rogerscyclingfestival.com. The in-person general registration area will be in the parking lot at First and Poplar streets in downtown Rogers.
The Emerging Leaders -- leaders who are emerging -- are members of a working group in the Rogers-Lowell Area Chamber of Commerce. Their group's projects benefit parks, greenways and trails in the area.
For questions that aren't answered by rogerscyclingfestival.com, call (479) 619-3197.
Little Rock Marathon
The Little Rock Marathon's free training program will start a new round of "official" training with a picnic meeting from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 2, in Murray Park's Pavilion 3. Everyone is invited. The event is free; no registration is required.
Space is the marathon theme -- "2019 A Race Odyssey" -- and so the picnic is branded "Close Encounters of the Training Kind." Running coaches will answer questions; everyone is welcome to go for a run or walk or simply step in for food, drinks and dessert.
Email newsletter subscribers received an invitation last week. To join the newsletter list, go to littlerockmarathon.com and look under "Training."
This free training group meets year-round, pretty much every Saturday, and it's open to everyone. All you have to do is register and then, of course, show up.
Trainees go at their own pace, keeping their own time.
The group meets at different places from week to week. Beginning in August, the mapped routes increase in length, following a training calendar of incrementally advancing difficulty, to prepare for the various races available March 2 and 3. Those are the 26.2-mile marathon, 13.1-mile half marathon, 6.2-mile 10K and 3.1-mile 5K. An extra medal can be earned by doing the "combo challenge" -- finish two of the events, one on March 2 and the other March 3.
Everyone signs in at the start of the training run and signs out when finished, so the leaders won't waste precious breakfast-eating time making sure you're not lying in a ditch along the route when in fact you're home, showered, breakfasted and are settling back to watch golf on TV.
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ActiveStyle on 07/23/2018