Picture Perfect Day in Arkansas

"Who you looking at buddy?"

I started the morning off with a nice cup of coffee on the balcony overlooking that antebellum courtyard. Then we went to explore downtown and pick up my race packet. We walked from the hotel down to Markham, and it was amazingly quiet - it seemed like we were the only people in Little Rock.

But that changed as we walked a few more blocks East to find an energetic and bustling part of downtown. We got into the convention center for packet pickup and it was packed. I got my stuff, wandered around and ran into Steve Boone who had a booth there for the "50 States marathon" club - tomorrow is his 440th marathon (or something close to that). It was good to see a familiar face and he was delighted I was wearing my "Texas Marathon" shirt.

We had an excellent lunch in the River market and then meandered over to the marathon start/finish area. There was lots of activity going on - they had a 5k running this morning and they were also doing the finale of the Marathon kids program, so there was one big carnival atmosphere.

We found a path that led along the river and followed it to the Clinton presidential library. I wanted to go in, but Gavin was behaving like a horse's butt (which is a particularly frustrating phase he's going through), so Nancy took him on the river shuttle instead while I took Dylan into the museum.

Just as well as there wasn't much there for Gavin. But Dylan and I had a good few hours perusing the Clinton presidential exhibits and artifacts, which he seemed to enjoy exploring as much as I did. He got lots of "coos" from various old ladies which he milked to the full with a gaggle of grins, giggles and puppy dog eyes.

We met back up with Gavin and Nancy and got back to the hotel in late afternoon after a long day of walking.

I'm currently sipping Gatorade and water and I'll get my race stuff together a little later. We're going to a local Pei Wei restaurant for supper so I can have some noodles, and then it's going to be a relatively early night.

We enjoyed ourselves today - it was a picture perfect day for walking without a cloud in the sky (though it was probably a bit on the warm side for running), but I had a great time.

Here are another few photos from today.

Me and Dylan at the marathon expo

The boys in the river district