Warming Up

Last Sunday was the Little Rock Marathon race. Fortunately, the temperatures jumped from the mid-40s earlier in the week to the mid-60s over the weekend, making the race much more comfortable for the 9,000 runners and 25,000 spectators. A Texas man took first place by finishing the 26.2 miles with a time of 2:49:40. A native Little Rock woman finished with at time of 2:48:28.

The race course passed down our street, and we could have watched the whole thing from our front door. Instead, we met Katie downtown to watch Travis finish his leg of a relay run. I don't know what his time was, or how his team finished, but they ran pretty well. Looking good, Travis!

I enjoyed joining into the scene downtown, where lots of people were cheering and dancing and having fun, and the fun continued when we got home. Our next door neighbors hosted a cheering party on their front porch. Their little boy was playing his fiddle for the runners - "Turkey in the Straw", I think it was - and the adults were throwing money into the street for marathoners to find. Apparently - and this is an unconfirmed rumor - runners often have a special jar to hold the money they find while racing or training. And in Little Rock, its a custom to drop change onto the street for the marathoners. It seems like an odd custom to me, but sure enough, runners kept bending down to collect some change and saying "Thanks" to us.

The course crossed the river a few times. Here's a shot taken by one of the runners as they crossed the main bridge. You can see what a clear, sunny day it was. In this picture, you can't see the beautiful view from that bridge but trust me, its very nice. Generally speaking, I think people like the Little Rock Marathon because it is such a pretty course.

The warm weather continues into this week, but we are warned to be wary about the coming of Spring. This is tornado county. Forecasters say a wetter-than-usual winter and a jet stream dipping deep into Tornado Alley could lead to an active spring for tornadoes in Arkansas. Here's a map of Arkansas tornadoes by county. We're in Pulaski county, smack in the center of that bright red patch. Worrying about tornadoes is a sobering price to pay for warmer weather, don't you think?

Here is this week's gratuitous picture of Honey, taken at a huge consignment sale of used kids stuff that I went to with Katie. In the toy corner, we found a talking cash register - if you pushed the picture of eggs, it would say 'eggs' and if you pushed the right button, the cash drawer would snap open with a 'ca-ching' sound. Every time the toy spoke, Honey would lean in close to it and say, "Thank you!"

Life feels pretty good this week. I hope its treating you well, too, my friends. Cheers!