A New American Town - Bentonville, Arkansas

Celebrating 15 Years of the Bentonville Half Marathon

• Visit Bentonville

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Curious about what it takes to run a half marathon? Join us as we chat with Christian Moore from Bentonville Parks and Recreation about Run Bentonville. Celebrating its 15th year, this event has it all— a half marathon, a 5k, and a two-person relay, fun atmosphere, live music, and a supportive community. Christian shares his journey from Fayetteville to California and back and stories like the 92-year-old who completed the Bentonville Half Marathon. We also offer insights into registration, including early bird pricing and deadlines (February 14), to help you secure your spot. Discover the course in Bentonville, with must-visit spots like Crystal Bridges trails.

Register Today: www.runbentonville.com/half-marathon

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Beth Bobbitt:

Welcome to A New American Town presented by Visit Bentonville. I'm your host, Beth Bobbitt, broadcasting from Haxton Road Studio, and today we get to talk to Christian Moore with the Bentonville Half Marathon. Christian, thanks so much for being here.

Christian Moore:

Thanks for having me.

Beth Bobbitt:

Of course. So you are the Bentonville Half Marathon, christian, thanks so much for being here, thanks for having me. Of course, so you are with Bentonville Parks and Rec and you were telling me that they actually own the half.

Christian Moore:

We do. It's owned and operated by the Bentonville Parks and Recreation, and this next year will be our 15th year.

Beth Bobbitt:

Wow, that's hard to believe. Well, tell us a little bit about you and how you got sort of affiliated with. You. Know your current job and running in the Bentonville Half.

Christian Moore:

Sure, so I grew up in Fayetteville. I am a Fayetteville boy at heart. I now are in Bentonville, but I grew up in Fayetteville, went to the U of A, then I left for about 10 years for California. So I went to grad school out in California, worked for HOKA for about eight years and I was a global events manager out there. But then I wanted to move home and the Run Bentonville job is the best job in running in northwest Arkansas. And here I am.

Beth Bobbitt:

Amazing. Well, we're so glad you came back. That's kind of a common story, I feel like.

Christian Moore:

It is.

Beth Bobbitt:

They can stay away a little while, but not for long.

Christian Moore:

Something about the area just always draws you back. That's right.

Beth Bobbitt:

Well, let's talk about some details for the half. So for those that don't know what's the distance, where's it happening, give us sort of the 411.

Christian Moore:

Yeah, so half marathon is 13.1 miles. We also offer a 5k, which is 3.1 miles. We also offer a relay option as well, so it's a two person relay. The the distance is roughly split in half. It's not exactly split in half uh, from where we have to uh put the actual relay exchange point, but it's, it's roughly um, what like six and a half miles or so.

Beth Bobbitt:

Which is the better half? Probably the first one you don't have the big hill at the end. Yes, yeah, true, okay, so has registration already opened?

Christian Moore:

Yeah, registration has been open since September and it is open until basically the last day of packet pickup, which is April 4th.

Beth Bobbitt:

Yeah, and I used to do a lot of half marathons and the you know atmosphere is just so much fun, especially the Bentonville half. I mean there's music, and talk a little bit about that experience.

Christian Moore:

Yeah, so, uh, one of the great things about the half marathon is it's basically it's, I think, participation wise. It's the second largest race in the whole state as far as I know, the biggest one being Little Rock Marathon, which Northwest Arkansas big community. But still to have that second largest race is something really, really special. And as part of Run Bentonville, we do seven races total throughout the year. Uh, each one has kind of a unique theme, uh and atmosphere and feel to it. The half marathon is just, it's something totally unique and different because you have so many people that have trained for so many months, sometimes even years to to complete that half marathon months, sometimes even years, to to complete that half marathon, and so it's just that energy that's there, the excitement, um, to see people coming across the line and they're just in tears because they've they've accomplished their goal, uh, it's really just something truly special. It's still fun, still exciting, but it's also just really really special to see people just, you know, they hit their fitness goals, their life goals, that sort of thing.

Christian Moore:

Yeah, and for those that collect them there is a nice medal, correct, there's always a nice medal, yep, and this being our 15th year, it's going to be a slightly larger medal than normal Amazing, so that'll be good.

Beth Bobbitt:

Incentive. Okay, so I see there is a training program online. Can you talk a little bit about how you might go about training, especially if it's your first time?

Christian Moore:

Yeah, absolutely so. The training program we're sold out for this year. We had 350 spots. This year, which is up from 300, basically 300 that we had last year and that's always a really exciting program. It's run by a Rush running company. Mike Rush is really the coach and takes charge of that. On my side I handle the registration, but he's the coach. So funny story is, Mike Rush was my high school coach, so he and I have known each other since I was probably 14 years old.

Beth Bobbitt:

That's awesome.

Christian Moore:

But he's a fantastic coach, fantastic person.

Christian Moore:

But when it comes to just training for a half in general anyone can run a half it's one of those things that a marathon to me is so much harder than just running a half. There's so much more time involved and things like that. But a lot of people they look at a half and they just see this daunting mountain of a of a task. But really, if you just start taking your training day by day, but slowly, you can reach that goal of running a half marathon. What too many people do is they think, oh, I go run five miles every day, so they just go run five miles every day, and then they're like, oh, I need to get a long run in, so they'll go run 10 miles and there's not a lot of consistency with it. So just taking it slowly and being consistent and working your way up in those long runs on a weekly basis will definitely help with getting you to the finish line on race day In a faster way, but also a less injured way, right, which is the most important part.

Beth Bobbitt:

And I've always heard, incrementally 10% increase each week is a healthy, safe amount.

Christian Moore:

I think that's probably a good blanket thing to follow. I mean, I follow it myself, but sometimes some people need a little bit less.

Beth Bobbitt:

It's kind of a case-by-case basis.

Christian Moore:

It's really listening to your body, because you know different strokes for different folks right. I'm a big believer in that in all walks of life, but especially with training, and I know people that can jump from 10 miles a week to 20 miles a week and they're fine. I know other people that can barely do 10 to 12 miles a week. It's all about listening to your body and just seeing what can get you to that finish line.

Beth Bobbitt:

Yeah.

Christian Moore:

That said, there are many, many like couch to half marathon training programs online. If you just go on and Google um, you can find some um, and they're all pretty good. Yeah, uh, it's literally, they're designed to get you from the couch being a couch potato doing nothing to finishing that, uh, finishing that half marathon and it's not too late.

Beth Bobbitt:

I mean depending on when you listen to this podcast, but four and a half months away is plenty of time.

Christian Moore:

Absolutely, absolutely.

Beth Bobbitt:

Great, well, tell us what we need to know. Are you looking for pacers or volunteers?

Christian Moore:

Yeah, volunteers are always needed. Any big race or any big event can always use volunteers. You know we need course marshals every year. That's probably where we're the most in need. Course marshals are basically those people that you see on the course at intersections, guiding runners to make sure they stay on the course. Also making sure cars don't necessarily drive on the course when there's runners.

Christian Moore:

But also this year we're implementing a new system at the start called a corral start. If you've ever done the half marathon before the Bentonville half marathon, you've probably noticed that it's kind of just a mass start and people come from all directions. We're kind of too big for that now, so we need a little bit more order to the chaos.

Beth Bobbitt:

How many people are you expecting?

Christian Moore:

A total between the half marathon, 5k and relay, we're expecting over 4,000. Could be potentially up to 4,600.

Beth Bobbitt:

Wow.

Christian Moore:

If our trends from year to date hold up. So we're trying to bring some order to the chaos at the start. But, that being said, we will need more volunteers to help with that corral system.

Beth Bobbitt:

Has the course changed?

Christian Moore:

Remind us where the start and finish is yeah so the start is going to be both start and finish are on the square. So the start is going to be both start and finish are on the square. The start is going to be basically outside the new hotel that's being built on the square, just what south of the courthouse, and then the finish is going to be pretty much right in front of the new Five and Dime or, I guess, the existing Five and Dime but it'll be done by then.

Christian Moore:

Yeah, with the construction, so we're excited about that.

Beth Bobbitt:

So they're just around the corner from and dime, but it'll be done by then.

Christian Moore:

Yeah, with the construction, so we're excited about that. So they're just around the corner from each other, but you got to run 13 miles to get from one to the other. That's right.

Beth Bobbitt:

But it's a great 13 miles and there are lots of spectators and support along the way, so it's really a fun one. Any stories that stick out to you over the years of doing this?

Christian Moore:

So for me, I've only just done my first year of running all the races, so I don't have many personal. My personal story is I ran the first two before I moved to California. Wow, and my personal record is on this course, which is kind of strange, because it shouldn't be.

Beth Bobbitt:

Yeah, it's a hard one Because of the big hill.

Christian Moore:

But that's my personal story. It's been fun to follow it as I was in the event space, you know, in another world, basically in California. So it's been fun to come back and see it in person and just also just watch it grow. But last year we had a gentleman named Gordon Allredge Um. He finished the half marathon in four hours 13 minutes and 55 seconds 92 years old.

Christian Moore:

Um, and it got a lot of coverage as well. Um, we, we did something special. We didn't even I didn't realize he was in the race or a 92-year-old was in the race. But then it got. Word got back to us at the finish line that a gentleman who was 92 years old was coming in. And so Mike Rush and I we got the finisher tape that the winner would normally do and we held it up for him. And you know, there's some cool video, there's some cool photos, but it's just really cool that he's out there doing this at 92 years old.

Beth Bobbitt:

Yeah, it's inspiring.

Christian Moore:

I can't imagine that that's.

Beth Bobbitt:

No excuses.

Christian Moore:

I'm 37 and I'm thinking 92,. That's a whole nother lifetime, and he's still doing this.

Beth Bobbitt:

It's amazing.

Christian Moore:

So that was pretty special. But for me the special things, like I said, is seeing those people come across the line and you know, a lot of times it's their first half marathon and it's just so cool to see them kind of just break down and like they're tears of happiness, but also I'm probably really hurting.

Christian Moore:

But, it's really cool just to see those individuals. They're like I accomplished this. I put so much work into this. That's not something that I do every day. There's a lot of runners like at the front of the pack, runners like myself who that's all we do. That's our life. Right, we run. There's other people who don't. They maybe have some health issues. They maybe have something that's going on in their life that they want a distraction from. So I want to put all my energy into training for this race and then to see them come across the line and see all that weight just come off their shoulders is something really really special.

Beth Bobbitt:

Yeah, it's also just. You know a great feeling to know that you're. You know misery loves company. There's a lot of other people with you and you know it's not. You're not going to be alone. And even if you're not able to talk to people along the way. You feel that support.

Christian Moore:

Yeah, and the race is growing so much every year that there's not a whole lot of what I call dead man zone where you're kind of just out there by yourself. I mean, I'm sure there's some instances where you are, but with 4,000 people spread across the course, you're around someone usually. And people are typically pretty encouraging, the spectators are encouraging. We have a number of bands out on the course, so we try to create this atmosphere to really just push you to that finish line.

Beth Bobbitt:

Yeah. And water stations, you've got that covered, yeah water stations.

Christian Moore:

We have seven bands sprinkled around the course, including one at the finish. We have 12 aid stations or water stations, so pretty much one every mile. So you're well covered.

Beth Bobbitt:

Yeah, that's amazing, Come a long way. Let's see you mentioned registration is open. So is there? What's that next level? For when the price?

Christian Moore:

increases? Yeah, absolutely so. For the half marathon right now, registration is $85. As of February 14th, that cost will go up to $105.

Beth Bobbitt:

Okay.

Christian Moore:

And then that $105 will go to the packet pickup.

Beth Bobbitt:

Okay.

Christian Moore:

So you've still got about two months of that $85 range. So we try to encourage people to register as early as possible. It just helps us from a planning standpoint with shirts and medals and all that Cause.

Beth Bobbitt:

all of that is due even before that two 14 date, so earlier the better, okay, well, let's get on it then. Plus, it saves you money. Yeah, true, early bird yeah, okay. So, um, wrap up question we ask all our guests yeah. If you had a dream day in Bentonville, what would that look like? Maybe not a?

Christian Moore:

half marathon, but no, because that's still work. I love what I do but that's still work. I would say taking my wife and my two-year-old to the Amazium and then going for a walk on the Crystal Bridges trails all through there, maybe grabbing a milkshake from the Spark truck and then having lunch or dinner at Oven and Tap. Just kind of keeping it local to downtown. But those are kind of my favorite things to do in Bentonville.

Beth Bobbitt:

I love it. Yeah, amazium is so fun, especially for a two-year-old. I mean that's like the perfect age to see that wonder he loves the big truck.

Christian Moore:

All he wants to do is sit in the big truck.

Beth Bobbitt:

Well, you can spend some time there, for sure.

Christian Moore:

Yes, we can.

Beth Bobbitt:

So what do we need to know about? Where to find information and how to keep posted on the half.

Christian Moore:

Yeah, so everything is on the website, so runbintonvillecom. You can also follow us on Instagram, which is just at Run Bentonville, and same with Facebook as well. We also do some posts on Friends of Bentonville Facebook page as well, but our main pages are those run Bentonville.

Beth Bobbitt:

Okay, so let's check out the half and as well as other races you have on the website. Thank you, christian, for coming on and sharing your insights.

Christian Moore:

Thank you so much for having me.

Beth Bobbitt:

And don't forget, visit Bentonville is here to help us 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 the newsletter and check out our website at visitbittenvillecom. Thanks for listening.