Big Dam Bridge 100 vs. Arkansas Marathon

Both the Big Dam Bridge 100 mile bike race and the Arkansas Marathon are taking place in central Arkansas Saturday morning. My crew has all decided on the bike race, but I'm opting for the Arkansas Marathon, mainly to get this nifty finisher's medal for my office. I understand it's a pretty remote and hilly run (too hilly to be certified, in fact).

Also in central Arkansas on Saturday, I'll be attending the Cystic Fibrosis Breath of Life Gala at the LR Doubletree at 7:00 p.m. If you're interested in attending the CF benefit gala, click here to register. Plenty of seats are still available, and we'll see a video made for Joshua Lewis, the Texarkana youngster who inspired Joshua's Law.

Speaking of long runs, the endurance grandaddy of 'em all takes place on the logging roads in the Ouachitas west of Little Rock on October 4-5. Due to forest fires in California, the Arkansas Traveller 100 mile race replaces the Western States 100 as the final leg of the 2008 Grand Slam. I remember reading one runner's account of this race in the Demozette several years ago -- he'd been having some trouble in the latter miles of the race, and around mile 88, he would crest a hill only to see people at the summit of the next hill, thinking it was the finish line. Once he'd get there, though, the people he thought he saw were just trees. Here's the belt buckle you get for finishing that race, but only if you cross the finish line under 24 hours: