Rave Run: Arkansas River Trail and Clinton Presidential Park (Little Rock)
The fifth post in the series I started a couple years ago, unabashedly based on a regular spread in Runner's World Magazine called Rave Runs, in order to share interesting routes with other runners. Why a post on running within a blog that concentates on business and technology? One habit that I picked up on the road as a consultant over the years is always inquiring about local running paths while visiting unfamiliar locales for the first time. As discussed in other posts, I find running a pleasurable way to explore new places, and running has been a gift to me from an early age by helping me focus and providing stress relief.
A few weeks ago, I visited Little Rock, Arkansas. This visit was not my first. Perchance, my first visit to the area was due to a Fayetteville based consulting project, which resulted in visits to several other Arkansas locations for on-site testing of the software the team had designed and developed. The weather was incredibly hot and humid during this time period, and subsequent visits have revived those memories, but a rather large storm passed through the area the first day of this recent trip, leaving in its wake some great running weather for this time of year.
The Arkansas River Trail System (second map below) is an expansive 88-mile loop in Central Arkansas, although the portion on which I recently ran is the 15.6-mile smaller loop (first map below) linking Big Dam Bridge in the west and Clinton Presidental Park Bridge in the east.