R and J in the USA

January 18, 2025

A cold wind was blowing in Fort Smith, Arkansas, for the Medal Madness 5K, and it was blowing right at us. The course’s flat, open fields gave the 25 mile an hour winds plenty of room to pick up the chill of the 25-degree Saturday morning air and blast the running path and anyone on it. It was so pleasant we decided to run among our slowest paces of trip so we could enjoy the arctic blast for a few extra minutes.

Like our Texas race, the Medal Madness 5K, 10K, and half marathon was part of a monthly racing series organized by US Road Running, an organization that puts on small, local, race series throughout the country. Each month US Road Running Race Club selects a charity to support. January’s charity is St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, whose mission is to lead the way the world understands, treats, and defeats childhood cancer and other life-threatening diseases.

The course was a flat, two lap out and back along a muddy dirt and gravel running path meandering through the open expanse of Ben Geren Regional Park. As with the Texas race, the two laps of the out and back resulted in three turnarounds, which gave the two of us three occasions to cross paths and high five each other – and those high fives were fantastic.

We swept the top two spots, with Ryan finishing 1^st overall and Julie finishing 2^nd overall (and 1^st among females). Given that our paces were on the slower side of our norm, our 1-2 finish may have been a function of the race field and not our swiftness. This was by far the smallest field we’ve run in, with a whopping eight participants (three of whom were walkers). As for Julie’s 1st place among females…she was also the only of the females running the race. So, context matters.

Despite the cold and slow pace, it was still a 5K for the books, bringing the trip’s total to 37 races run so far in 36 states plus the District of Columbia.

Detailed Race Report for Running Nerds

Some days, you just don’t feel like running. This was one of those days. We had both gone for an easy 2 mile run two days before the race, but between a heavy feeling in our legs and a biting wind that greeted us when we exited the cozy cocoon of the van, we both felt the weight of cobwebs as we took on the course. Julie was proud that while she was keeping pace with Ryan at the beginning of the race at what felt like an easy 8:35/8:45 pace, she decided to lean into her lessons learned and slow down to stay focused on her “take it easy and claim negative splits” habit, despite however easy a first mile felt. Regardless, when mile 3 came, even though she had kept a nice easy even pace for mile 1 and 2 that just a few weeks ago had been her forever pace on a 10K, in mile 3, she just felt tired and was feeling her shins starting to act up again. She stopped two times for a quick shin stretch and then leaned back into the easy pace, picking it up a bit in the last half mile. She decided not to monitor her time and just take it easy, and, as a result, missing the negative splits by a few seconds. 9:23, 9:22.5 and then 9:31. This was about as low stakes a “race” as could be, so she paid it no mind. Her favorite part of the race was the women who were walking cheering her on as she ran by with calls of “Go Rosie!” thanks to Julie’s favorite new sweatshirt from the Rosie the Riveter museum.

We both felt the race was inexplicably heavy and hard. Unfortunately, Milli Vanilli’s list of allowable precipitation phenomenon to scapegoat for one’s problems being limited to rain, though we wanted to blame it on the wind, we left the race with only ourselves to hold responsible. And, with smiles on our faces after having a good time in our small but enthusiastic crowd, that was just fine by us.