A New American Town - Bentonville, Arkansas
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A New American Town - Bentonville, Arkansas
Dirt Circus: Trail Running in the Ozarks
Hear from Rob Goyen about transforming his passion for trail running into the imaginative Dirt Circus series, coming to Bentonville and six other cities. Rob, the Special Project Manager for Dirt Circus, takes us on a journey from his early days as a race director to creating the Dirt Circus concept, which celebrates trail running culture and promotes community. Gear up for an electrifying experience during the Trail Running National Championship Weekend November 15-17, where elite athletes converge for a shot at a $10,000 prize purse.
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Welcome to A New American Town presented by Visit Bentonville. I'm your host, beth Bobbitt, broadcasting from Haxton Road Studios, and today I get to chat with Rob Goyen, special Project Manager for Dirt Circus, which we'll learn a little bit about. Welcome, rob, thanks for being here.
Rob Goyen:Absolutely Thanks for having me.
Beth Bobbitt:Yeah, and I have to say I didn't know what a dirt circus was before this podcast got scheduled, but I do now. So can you tell us a little bit about it and then we'll hear from you about your background? What is a dirt, Dirt Circus? Where does the name come from?
Rob Goyen:yeah. So the well great question. So dirt, Dirt Circus was an idea that I had a few years ago, post-covid, of kind of going back to our roots, of having, like community generated events within ultra running. Um, what we saw was that we saw a lot of people get into the outdoor space because of COVID and but we didn't see all of those people kind of transition into being trail runners or find a community that embraced the dirt lifestyle which is the one that we do. So the dirt circus was an idea of having community events to bring people together, to get them into the trail community.
Rob Goyen:The name is a little bit of a play on something that I like, which is Nitro Circus, which is like a Travis Pastrana motorcycle event where they do big jumps and it's kind of a traveling show and it was my idea of combining that. And if you know the sport of ultra running or you like the sport of ultra running, the truth is that our sport started with people actually running in circles underneath circus tents and it was called pedestrianism and people would bet on who could go the longest in the furthest as they watched them run in circles underneath the tent Wow.
Rob Goyen:So it is a play on all of those things above, yeah, so kind of remembering what our sport started from and kind of adding a little flair on bringing it up to date and the reasons why. So that's why we call it the Dirt Circus.
Beth Bobbitt:I love that. It certainly, you know it creates some intrigue. So tell us a little bit about you, your background and your role. You're with Ultras Lineup, is that right?
Rob Goyen:Correct. I raced directed in the state of Texas from 2014 until 2022. I was a full-time race director, race directed championship races. I was the US Skyrunning Director. But, yeah, I put on races for a really long time but for about 10 years and post-covid, my wife and I had a, had a little daughter and, you know, was traveling 10 months out of the year and it became that time to kind of transition and want to be home and and um, I had used ultra sign up for my races for the entire time I race directed as a registration platform and when I decided to move on, they had reached out and they said hey, you know, you've used the platform for a really long time, you're one of the top race directors in the country.
Rob Goyen:How would you feel about being on the other side trying to help the sport in this way? And I loved it. And I love the idea of trying to help race directors do the best that they can and also to help preach safety and those things that are important in our sport. And then also just the chance to still be in the sport is important for me. It's a sport that I love, changed my life and ultimately like, given the opportunity. It was really fun. I didn't necessarily won't lie to you didn't ever think I would be back to putting on events. That wasn't necessarily part of the job description, but it led me to be able to start the Dirt Circus series, which has become fun, and ultimately it led me to be able to help and be an ultra sign-up. So that's how I got from from race track into here.
Beth Bobbitt:Yes, Funny how life works. We're glad it. It happened that way. So how many different locations for trail running this particular series are there?
Rob Goyen:Dirt Circus was in seven cities this year Phoenix, Boulder, San Luis Obispo, San Francisco. We'll be in Texas next weekend, my hometown, which is where I'm at now. We went to the East Coast, we went over to State College where Penn State was, and then we'll be at Bentonville. The plan for next year would be we probably expand ten cities next year and this year important part of this year Dirt Circus is different in Bentonville, where we actually have a race at the end of it, all the other events are just community events, which means there's a run, there's usually food, it's at a store, there's vendors and sponsors and it's a fun story which we can get into.
Rob Goyen:But Dirt Circus is the only one that has a race and of course, this will be our last year producing the race. You know we've had a great partner in rush running and Mike and James have done such a great job of letting us come in and fostering this race and ultimately we'll hand that off to them after this year and they'll continue the legacy of the race towards towards the future well, thank you for your work getting it to where it is now, and can you talk a little bit about why Bentonville, what, what is sort of the criteria for these?
Rob Goyen:yeah, I mean, people in Bentonville may know this, right, but nobody knows where Bentonville is and nobody knows the greatness of Bentonville and it's a. It's a classic story of you never know. So our, our owners, David and Jay, had the opportunity to come into town to meet, um, some business associates, um. So they were invited into town, they came to Bentonville, they were fortunate enough to get in a helicopter to get a tour of the city and they saw the city and they saw the mountain biking right, and that's what most people know. Mountain biking scene is so great, there's all these crazy trails, and so you know, and that's kind of the story that's been told, and this is maybe. This is two months after I first got hired, so this is, uh, about two years ago exactly. So our bosses said my boss said came back David, and they were like hey, rob, like we don't really know anything about putting on events.
Rob Goyen:So, we don't really know anything about how to put on trail events. But, man, we think there's something special in Bentonville. And I was like, well, why do you say that? They're like, man, there's just this feel and they have all these trails and they're just building stuff and it's just like all right. I'm like well, and at that time we had just hired on my other co-races and Amanda to the team and I said, well, listen, amanda, starts like the first of the month in January. We'll go take a look and I'll go tell you within a heartbeat if Bentonville is a place where you can get a race off or if not.
Rob Goyen:And then it didn't take, Amanda and I the first day we drove in. I think we stayed at a hotel that time, maybe it was an Airbnb. But when we got downtown and we saw downtown and we saw the access to the trails and we saw how everyone felt about it, I was like this is like the opposite of a ski town, this is like an outdoors town. That's just like big on trails versus slopes. But you know, I live in Houston, so I, you know I get to see the newest buildings and the newest things come up in. Houston's obviously a massive city. But I was really shocked that, like, I was just really shocked that, like the, the, how advanced the city was and what they were building, that was advanced, like the bikeable building, like all those things that we get, you know, we've seen get built over the past two years. Yeah, it was just like I. I tell people all the time, Bentonville to me is a movie set.
Rob Goyen:It feels like a movie set to me, doesn't feel real at times like I just stayed in a little airbnb like that I love. That's right by the coffee shop and right by the momentary and they had a live band playing.
Rob Goyen:I was there like three weeks ago and I just I could hear the music playing from like inside the house and like I don't know. It's just it's a really neat place where people really love the outdoors and people really foster the feeling of everyone feeling welcome and it's just not a place where you get that. And then a big thing is you also have a tourism part piece to this that wants people to come, and that's a big, huge thing that you don't get a lot of in the trail space. It's really hard to have a city like jump on board and want to help you get people there. Um, just the way it's set up. So I think that is probably the biggest reason on why bentonville is is is fostering those relationships is because they want people to come and they want to help you get people to come, and that's that's huge when you're, when you're talking about bringing in events to a space especially for us, like we don't live there, we're from the outside looking in.
Beth Bobbitt:Right.
Rob Goyen:All the relationships are new. Like any help you can get to, just help you put on an event is massive.
Beth Bobbitt:Yeah, thank you for sharing that. It's so interesting to hear that kind of outside perspective. And you're right, this place is magic perspective. And you're right, this place is magic. I'm wondering how you celebrate the unique aspects of a local community when this is, you know, something that you do in other cities.
Rob Goyen:Yeah, I mean, I think that I think that I've always looked at it when I was in parks of trying to tell the story of the park. So when I put on a race, no matter where it was in the state, you want to tell the history of a place and you want to tell that like story of the place because the race is important. Yes, sure, but you're only going to spend so much time on that race. The rest of your time is going to be spent in the city. So, for instance, you know, I look at, I look at the people that run races as the storytellers of the races. We may be the architects, we may lay it out for you, we may make you run a certain part of the course. So you see what we see and James and Mike have done a great job at helping us do that but at the end of the day, the storytellers are the people that run your races. So they're the ones that are on Instagram, they're the ones that are on TikTok, they're the ones that are on Instagram, they're the ones that are on TikTok. They're the ones that are telling other people what they saw and how they felt. So for us, it's it's last year we had, you know, we we had a really big prize purse, which we'll talk about, but we had some elites come in and some of the best runners, literally in the world, come in and we have the opportunity to get them up, you know, in a helicopter, let them see, you know, the extent of the trails, the extent of the city, fly them over.
Rob Goyen:And then, because I've been here so many times, I'm always trying to encourage people that are coming into the area, that aren't locals, to like visit the places that like I like to go to or like our families gone to. But I think it's just important to you know, to educate people on where they can go and ultimately try to get them to like the momentary like I heard the cheese shop shut down, that's. It's going to bring a tear to my daughter's eyes, I'll tell her, because that was a, that was a trip we made every time we were there as a family is to go get some of the aged cheese. But all those little places at bentonville you know that we've gotten to explore, we've gotten to gotten to see. It's just trying to like tell people to like go see the city, because as small as the city is. I mean and I say that respectfully because I live in Houston man, there's so much to do and it's always growing.
Rob Goyen:So, yeah, it's just just trying to get people to just venture out and and go see, go see. All that's there, because there's a lot like like I made a lot of trips to Bentonville, I don't feel like I've seen very much right, I've tried.
Beth Bobbitt:Yeah, there's new stuff popping up every day and you mentioned the prize purse. I do want to touch on that. You have a different approach to this. Can you explain a little bit about the model?
Rob Goyen:yeah, I mean we, when we decided to come, you know we came for one reason, like we came for a lot of reasons, but one of the reasons was, you know, right now there's we're trying to really push the post collegiate trail running scene as a company, right, if you? If you, if we think of where our runners come from. Next, you know our sports largely derived of 30 to 40 year old. You know men and women, that's how they get into the scene of trail running, that's your median age. So but but the truth is, you know we have a lot of people that run post collegially that don't have anywhere to go, which means they run fast in college. You know they don't make the Olympic trials or they do, they don't really know where to go after that. So a lot of trail running to us is trying to encourage that and foster that.
Rob Goyen:So when we came into Bentonville, the thought was like, what can we do different? So the first thing was like let's do a really big prize purse, which is huge, and do a short course. So short course would mean like a 10K or shorter. So we modeled it after that, the first year, and the goal was like if we put a big enough prize purse. Number one is it'll bring a lead. So number two is it'll be fun for everyone to come and run in an event that, like, has some notoriety, and then people will take notice, and they did literally the. The week after we put the race on, the usatf reached out to me and said hey, that was, that was nice would you like to.
Rob Goyen:Would you like it to be a national championship? Would you want to put a bid in? And we were like, yes. So this year the 10K is the national championship race and the big important part is the beginning. Part of the purse is $10,000. The purse already is $14,000. And the reason is that when we get sponsors, we're having them donate straight into the pot, which is big. And number two is we've decided to do a community funded prize purse. We have a lot of people that love the sport and a lot of people that are always saying like, how do we support our elites, how do we support those young people running or the people that are trying to make a living running on the sport?
Rob Goyen:So we've opened it up for donations. The donations don't go to Ultra Sign-Up, they go straight into this pot, and so every dollar that comes in will go right into the pot, and, for the first time ever, it's going to be live streamed.
Beth Bobbitt:Yeah, I love that, so this year.
Rob Goyen:Oh, it's going to be crazy. I'm so excited. I really am. Our folks over at Mountain Outpost they've covered some of the best running races and trail races in the country. They've done a great job. So they're going to come out and live stream it. And one of the big things about live streaming is which will be fun for our runners as well is on that live stream, at the very bottom right-hand column and I shouldn't say very bottom, but on the live stream at the very bottom right-hand column and I shouldn't say very bottom, but on the live stream will be a button and the button will say Donate to the Pot, and it's going to be an opportunity for everybody that watches that stream. We've already paid for the stream to be done, but when you go and donate through that stream, it goes right into the pot, so those runners actually start a race and have no clue on how big that pot will be wow when it ends, that's so fun yeah, and it gives it gives the spectators sort of a sense of ownership too.
Beth Bobbitt:They they want to know who who wins the prize, and I love that it's so smart yeah, I mean it's and it's, and it's, it's an idea of you know.
Rob Goyen:A how can we make it as big as we can, obviously, but B how do we give an opportunity for virality? How could it go viral, like if somebody who really wanted to donate into the pot said you know what, today's my day. I want to donate $500 into the pot. You know, and they know where it's going. How do we make that happen? So the goal is that we want and right now, currently at 14,000, it's the largest pot ever in the history of trail running for a 10K race. There's never been a bigger pot. So we're breaking new ground and those athletes that are coming and literally just had a really big name athlete signed up last night and every day it seems like they're in my email box but we're going to have an absolute world-class field both in the men's and women's race and obviously, but but a big important part to this is that it gets lost in the mix.
Rob Goyen:This weekend is for everybody yeah this is for anybody that wants to run the 10k. You're going to get to come and run on a championship course with the fastest people in the world. Now, I'm not that good at basketball, but I I can tell you that I don't get to play with lebron james right in in the sport of ultra running. In the sport of running, it is different. You do get to line up and start the race with the fastest in the world and get to chat with them before they start their race, and it is a very unique experience. Yeah, and something to boot. Just to just to push this a little bit further out, and which doesn't really happen in our sport because of time, we have a separate women's and men's race yeah, so give us a full breakdown of the weekend, because there are a few different elements.
Rob Goyen:So it's november 15th, through the 17th right it is so so that so the date actually starts on the fifth. It starts november 15th. So, in a big push, want to want to give a big shout out to nike trail. So nike trail just came on board here recently, so we're super excited to have them. So nine o'clock in the morning, at the race start, which is down hand cut hollow, obviously, um, rush running is going to do a shakeout run. It'll be powered by nike. Um, super cool. They're going to have 120 shirts out there. They have this crazy dirt circus uh logo that they made with a local artist there by the name of Ryan Holler, so they're going to give those out to everyone who comes out to that Friday group run.
Rob Goyen:But you're going to get to run with the crew from Rush Running. The elites will be in town. They'll all take you for probably we'll probably run the 5K, but we'll take you for a quick 5K run and then, right after that, when you get back at 10 o'clock, nike will be there with their shoes and we'll have a setup. But we'll do packet pickup there from 10 to 7. So you'll be able to grab all of your packet pickup on Friday. See the course, see where you park in the morning see how that's going to feel, go walk out on the trail, see how they look, and get you there.
Rob Goyen:And then, saturday morning, we'll start packet pickup at 6 am. That'll be for the 10 and the 5k, of course. Seven o'clock, which is elizabeth, seven o'clock, the live stream will actually start um. So seven o'clock it'll start and then we will let the, the ladies, lead us off. So the ladies 10k, the women's 10k, will be at 7 30. Okay, they'll start, start us off, and that's like I said, it's open for everyone. Anyone and we want, just like last year, everyone should come and register that wants to run in 10k even though it's a national championship race.
Rob Goyen:um, it's open and the national championship isn't just for the top three, it's actually an age group. Age groups go all the way up to 80 years old. So if you come out there and you run the 55 to 60 and you're first, you're going to get a USATF championship medal for the 10K in your age group if you win it.
Rob Goyen:So there's no, yeah, I mean, it's super cool, like the championships are randomly through the country, but they have this very uniqueness of you getting a medal. That's your age group and and that's what you're there for. So, um, in the middle of the, in the middle of the 10ks, we'll do the um 8 am, uh, 5k start, and then at nine o'clock we will do the 10k men's race and then at 10 30 we'll doa full aware award ceremony and then 11 o'clock is the end of the live stream and then this isn't a hundred, this is confirmed, but there'll be some added details to this. But we will be at. We will be at bentonville Brewing Company that afternoon and there's some things in the work with Nike and we're trying to get that done and I can't speak on them because they're not done, but the time may change a little bit. But we're working on something super special so that everyone who comes out post-trace would have something special. But we'll kind of adjust that as we go, cause it's not done. But we're definitely going to go to Bentonville brewing company Like we did last year. They were an amazing host for us to come and talk about the day and enjoy some time there.
Rob Goyen:So that'll happen on on Saturday, okay, and then on Sunday we have the 10 mile U S A T F Arkansas association championship and USATF Arkansas Association Championship. We wanted to do a longer race on Sunday. We wanted to give locals an opportunity if they wanted to run. Essentially, if you live in Arkansas and you're part of the USATF, it is essentially your state championship If you come out. There'll be three divisions on that. There'll be an open, a masters and a youth. You can come out if you run the race, run your 10 miler. It's a usatf championship for arkansas. They've never they haven't had any of these on the trail side and we just wanted to.
Rob Goyen:Just, you know, our goal is we just want people to come and run. So if the 10 miler isn't your thing on saturday and your thing is running a little longer, come out on sunday, get your 10 miler in in. If you live in Arkansas you have a really good chance of finishing well in the association championship and get an extra medal from them and it's exciting. And then at 8.30, we'll do another 5K. Same course it would be on Saturday, and 9.30 is a kid's 1K and it does come with a medal. And the reason that we're doing like, last year was just Saturday and this year's Sunday is what we also want to give an opportunity for is we want to give an opportunity for families to run the event which means maybe your wife wants to run Saturday and you want to run Sunday and your kids want to run the.
Rob Goyen:You know your kids want to run the 930. But you know, but at 830, you know you and your wife could run the 830, or she could run and you'd be back by 930. So, the goal there is to give everyone a chance to run a race on a weekend where all eyes are on.
Beth Bobbitt:Yeah, it's so thoughtful that's the goal so thoughtful and so inclusive, and it's just really exciting, so sounds like a fantastic weekend. Is there a deadline to register?
Rob Goyen:no, we will. We will take registration all all the way until, like, great race signing we're, we're, we're, we're able and apt to to do. It's a chimp timed event, some people ask. But it's all a chimp-timed event for all the races. But yeah, we're more than happy to get people in as late as they can make it. So if you're a Saturday night feeling froggy, want to jump in a 10-miler, we'll take you in the morning, don't worry.
Beth Bobbitt:I love it Okay and I assume spectators are welcome. Love it Okay and I assume spectators are welcome. And do you need volunteers?
Rob Goyen:Yeah, we always need volunteers. I mean, they can always reach out to me directly, rob, at ultrasignupcom, for volunteers. It's always lovely to have people that are locals to help out. But, yeah, a few volunteers would be great along the way. But, yeah, spectators more than happy to come on out. We'd love to have you out. It's definitely one of those times where it's good to have the community to come out and, ultimately, to continue to foster good racing and good local trail races is always super important, especially, I think, now more than ever. Obviously, I heard of everything that happened in Bentonville, but now more than ever it's a good time to highlight those, those people like the nwa trailblazers and those folks that are working hard on clearing trails and how you know trails are. When trails are in great shape and everybody can run them, it feels like great. When we have, you know, things like hurricanes and tornadoes and things like that, and our trails get ruined and people find out how much hard work and effort it takes to get them back open.
Rob Goyen:So for us it's a testament to their hard work and for us it's an opportunity to show off the hard work that it takes to keep those trails open and we want to do our best to be stewards of that. And and if we can get more people to come out and see how cool hand cut hollow is like, it's a, it's a really cool place to run at for sure yeah, yeah, it certainly gives you a new appreciation and well, I I just can't wait.
Beth Bobbitt:November 15th through 17th mark your calendars. There's more information on the dirt circus online and on social rob. Thank you so much for being here today yeah, thank you.
Rob Goyen:I appreciate it. Love uh live every time. I'm in Bentonville and I will be heading up there two days after my birthday, so I'll be ready to go here in a month.
Beth Bobbitt:Amazing. Well, we will welcome you and sing you a happy birthday song, and it will be fantastic. So, don't forget. Visit Bentonville is here to help you navigate things to do, where to eat and stay and what's going on in our new American town. Give us a follow on social media, sign up for our newsletter and check out our website at visitbentonvillecom. Thanks for listening.