Mount Nebo Fun Run

Mt. Nebo State Park

AURA Mount Nebo Fun Run 14 +/-

A few of us decided to ride up the morning of the run instead of driving up the night before and staying at the campsite. This was my first trip to this state park and the first time to get up way early to drive to the location. I was picked up at 2:40 am and then we picked up the other guy. It took us about 3.5 hours to get there but it was mostly all interstate highways so the drive was an easy one. We got off in the town of Russellville and then drove thru Dardanelle and then up Hwy 155 until it ended at Mt Nebo. 

Sun rise on the Mountain

We arrived at the site about 30 minutes before the start and had a beautiful sunrise greet us. This is a very low key fun run that is put on by the Ark Ultra Runners Association. No cost to run but asked for a small donation to help cover the drinks at the aid station. After the race they offer a small cookout. 

Me enjoying the sun rise!

The run was 14 miles approximately and you could do as many miles as you liked. You carried your own water and fuel but they did have one aid station with drinks. You would pass by this aid station 4 times during the run. 

Sunrise near Rim Trailhead

We started out in the parking lot where the pool is located. We did a loop on the pavement and then we got onto the trail at the Bench trailhead. The view on the top was just beautiful. I was stopping so much that most of the runners where long gone except for a few folks. I had already decided that this was going to be a “fun” run for sure and I was going to go easy since the Bartlett 50k race was in just weeks. I was going run/walk 1/1s at first and taking pictures at the same time. We passed a lot of deer, some running in the woods next to us and a pair of fawns on the side of the road eating. 

Near the Bench trailhead

There were two different Bench trailheads that we entered on from the road. At the beginning of the first trailhead was really rocky with some fist size rocks. The trail slowly starts the descent down but not too much and it loops all the way around the top of the mountain. You go a little less than three miles on the first loop and then you come back out on the road to head back to the trail head in a different location. When you come out on the road that is where the aid station was located.

Near the Bench trailhead

On the second loop you do about 3.5 miles on this loop of the trail. So you are running approximately (according to my Garmin) 6+ miles on the trails and the rest is on the pavement. The trail was very shaded and the weather was nice and cool. I was running more then the 1/1s I had planned since it was a gradual decline but there were spots I had to walk so I wouldn’t inflame my IT band. I was still on my first trail loop when the first runners were making their 2^nd loop around. Everyone was very friendly as they went by you. On this loop my friend, Roger, had shown up and I was running behind him for most of the way since I was still stopping and taking videos. I did have some company but not a lot.

I had gotten a new pair of shorts just for this run and my ITB problems. The CW-X Expert shorts really seemed to help me with the declines of this run. I had also used Rocktape on the left ITB and across the bottom of that knee. So I am not sure which helped the most but I was very pleased. I didn’t have the usual IT pain that I had on my last long run. This was the second time to wear these shorts and I don’t regret getting them. I made sure not to run too fast going downhill since that is what really flares up my leg problem. I only took a Hammer Bar and a Luna bar to fuel on and drank plain water and did well for the 3 plus hours I was out there. 

Robert going up

One of the many switchbacks

After we came back out on the road for a second time, we now head down Hwy 155 or you could choose to go back up to the starting line/finish line. The elevation at this location was around 1500’ and as you go down the road you encounter quite a few switchbacks. As I was going down I was now passing folks that were walking on the way back up. It was really hard to run up since it was so steep at most places. I saw a sign that said no trailers over 24’ so that goes to show how steep and tight the road was.

I was really getting nervous about this stretch of the run. It would have been so easy to run the way down but all I could think of was my ITB so I did more of a race walk down the mountain. Roger was ahead of me and now I couldn’t see him but I kept hoping to see him on the way up so I would know I was almost at the turning point. Finally ran into Robert, the other runner that went with us and he was on the way up. It seemed to take forever to go the 2 miles to the turning point and it had dropped to 488’. Finally reached the bottom of the road where it was flat again. You turn around then start the climb up. At first, it wasn’t so bad but as you got farther up the mountain the steeper it got. I finally caught up with my friend, Roger, and then we started to pass other folks that were slowly walking up. 

Roger almost to the top

View from the road almost at the top

The incline was incredible and I couldn’t have run any of it because my heart felt like it was going to beat out of my chest but I kept going.  I’m not sure of how many switchbacks we encountered but it was between 7 and 9! It seemed to take forever to climb those two miles and once we reach the location of the aid station it leveled out for a bit. I was following Roger and he headed back on the Bench trail since that is where the arrows were leading. I told him I didn’t think we should be getting back on the trail but went with him for about a tenth of a mile and then decided it wasn’t right and told him I was going to take the road up. It turns out I was right and we had to do the last bit of the hardest incline of the mountain. The view from this point was gorgeous, you could see for miles and miles.

Finally we see the parking lot and were able to start running again. We finished at 3:17 and had about 13.8 miles give or take.  Most of the people were already back and was eating or leaving. They had a pool house there for those who wanted to shower before heading home. We ate hamburgers, chips and cookies. I took a nice shower and got dressed and we headed for home. 

Roger and I at the finish

Map view of route

Climb chart

For more pictures or videos please see my upload here.


I totally enjoyed this run and I would recommend if you live close enough to go and do it. It’s a low frill event and counts towards the AURA series points. I think the AURA did a good job with putting this on. Thanks

Until next year....

Tapering for the Bartlett Ultra

Map of where the Bartlett Ultra will be held.

I decided to post a little update on the progress of my training for the Bartlett Ultra. My training has been going as well as it could due to the few workouts that were missed because of my dental problems I have been having.

I wish I could say I slowly built up my mileage this summer but I missed a few workouts and I wasn’t able to use the same schedule as I did last year for this race. The two things that are different this year are the walk to a run/walk and building up my miles faster in fewer weeks.

I was at the point where I wasn’t quite at the right mileage and I had to make up for some lost weeks. I started at 18 miles and then went to 20, 22, and then the last long one of 25 miles. I wasn’t have any problems on the first 3 weeks but on the last one I did the 25 miles on the actual race course and my knees started to give me problems at mile 16 and I decided to keep going but went from a run/walk to a mostly walk with a little running. I got the miles done but my ITB is now acting up some and I have to run with the knee straps. Plus I was still going to the boot camp classes 2-3 times a week and I have decided that I don’t think I need to do those until my knees are much better.

I think if I had dropped down to 16 miles and then did the 25 miles I might not have had the problems I did since it was going well. If I had done it that way, I would only have a two week taper instead of the three.

This week’s 16 miler I decided to walk instead of run/walk for two reasons: need to work on walking faster and to give the running muscles a break and use the walking muscles. Yes there are different muscles for the two different work outs. Running – ITB, knees, walking – hips, at least, for me.

I am hoping that now I am tapering that my ITB will get better with the icing, stretching and rolling I am doing. Plus I plan on cutting out the boot camp workouts and doing something at home that doesn’t cause me to irritate my knees any more than I need to. My goal now is to get to the starting line injury free or at least enough to be able to complete the race. 

For the next three weeks, I plan on doing 14 miles, 6 miles and then the race. 

My thoughts on running both roads and trails together

I have been training for the Bartlett Ultra 50k this summer and had some set backs due to surgery and tooth problems. I wasn’t sure if I could play catch up to get my mileage high enough with enough time to taper and still be ready for the race come Sept 10, 2011. On top of that, I have switched from walking to running 2/1s this summer so my running is still slow since I got started during the summer.

Map of the different trails

I have been building up my mileage for the last 3 weeks and next week will be my last long one at 25 miles. I got the 22 miler out of the way yesterday. I have been trying something different and I hope it will help me become a little faster over all. Since we are having really high temps I have been getting out early before sunrise and running on the roads. Once the sun has come up enough to see I head for the trails to be out of the heat.

I have done this for the last two LSD by splitting them almost into half. Yesterday, I got out a little later and end up running with some old friends on the sidewalks and streets for the first 2.5 hours. We stopped a few times trying to decide which way to go; I was lucky this group does 2/1s but they did go a little faster than I am used to but that was good because I do need to speed up a little bit.

Once I finished I headed about 25 minutes away to a local trail, Herb Parsons Lake, and got started around 8 am. It was a little hard to get started but I had been wanting to run on this trail for a while and there isn't any where to run safe (in the dark) because of the rural roads.

Started out with the 2/1s but it was warming up and the humid was high back in the woods so I end up dropping down to 1/1s and decided to just keep going forward. I don’t know if I would do this again with me stopping and sitting for the time it took me to get to the other location. I didn’t accomplish anything by getting out so early and then to be so late to get started on the trails. I wanted to be on the trails by 6:30 or 7 at the latest and got there around almost 8. I told myself that I needed to be out later any how since the race will take me almost 8 hours to finish.

One of the pros about doing part road and part trail is it doesn’t take me as long to get in the miles as it would if I was doing all trails. The other is I can get a little faster pace going to get me used to going faster. The con might be that I am not doing all my training on the trails since the race is on the trail. Only time will tell if that is going to help or not.

I am still not too sure about me finishing the 50k the way I want, I might end up walking a lot of the later miles of the race due to the heat. Toward the end of my run yesterday I was walking more then running on the last 5 miles. I still got 5 weeks to go before the race so maybe I will improve a lot between now and then.