Fantastic race experience! Arkansans were super friendly. The entire town knew about the race and was excited about it. The people at the expo and along the course were friendly and the participants from the area were all exceptionally willing to talk and encourage. The course was gorgeous. It takes you on a tour of downtown Little Rock and then through the beautiful hills and along the river. I will say that I was in far better shape than my first marathon, knocking nearly 25 minutes from my time, but my gosh, the hills on this course are no joke! You get some pretty good ones throughout the course, but the hardest hills are from miles 16-19. You climb steep and fast and then drop just as fast which is every bit as hard on your legs as the climb. HOWEVER, the area that this takes place in is by far and away the prettiest of the course so it makes the elevation change worth it.

As I said before, this was my second Full Marathon. Honestly I chose it because of the medal. My body had a rough time with my first marathon (though I liked the race) and I figured if I was going to do it again I wanted to have something to show for it. This race rejuvenated me towards this distance. Before I could only see doing a couple full's in my life and sticking to mainly half's. Now however I could see myself doing many many more. I'd highly recommend this race to anyone considering a marathon.