The streets of downtown Hot Springs will be filled with runners participating in the Spa Running Festival on Saturday morning. The race will take runners in each of the events — a 5K, 10K and half marathon — past the Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts on their way toward West Mountain.
The school will be a familiar sight for several of the runners. ASMSA will have a team of 16 people competing in the three events. That’s tied for the third largest team competing in the race.
The idea of forming a team developed among a few coworkers who were discussing their plans to participate in the event. One of them, Dan Kostopulos who serves as chair of the Humanities Department, suggested the school form a team for the run. Forming a team would have several benefits, including providing an opportunity for ASMSA to be involved in a community event.
“I wanted to get the team together because I wanted people to see ASMSA involved in a community thing,” Kostopulos said. “It’s good for us to be visible and people see us out in the community doing things like that. I wanted people to see us doing something that’s important to Hot Springs, especially downtown Hot Springs.”
The other two coworkers who were initially involved in getting the team off the ground were Julie LaRue, head of human resources, and Ashley Smith, associate director of finance. LaRue has participated in the event several times and is a longtime runner. Smith began running with LaRue in January. This will be her first time to compete in a race.
Both LaRue and Smith mentioned another benefit of forming a team — developing camaraderie between various groups on campus. Once it was decided to form a team, Kostopulos, LaRue and Smith began trying to recruit additional runners from campus — faculty, staff, students, family and friends — to sign up for the race.
“I was surprised by the number of people who are runners,” LaRue said. “Everyone has been real positive about it. It’s a kind of a common ground we all have. I like it because it connects people in a way that they haven’t connected before. So you’ll make work friends or at least have a connection with someone that you’ll have to network with in the future. It’ll make those conversations more comfortable because at least you have that common ground.”
The 16-member team is comprised of 12 ASMSA faculty and staff members, two spouses, a friend of a staff member and one parent of a student. No students signed up to participate in the event but several are planning to be on the route and at the finish line to cheer on the team members, LaRue said.
Smith said several members of the team have run the routes as groups for practice. It has given them the opportunity to connect with each other.
“I feel like it has given us a common topic. It’s given me the opportunity to engage with people that I wouldn’t normally interact with. Now when we see each in the halls, we get excited and talk about it. It allows us to talk about something other than work,” she said.
LaRue said participating in the race also serves as a good way to promote wellness on campus.
While no students signed up to participate in the run, some of their handiwork will be on display by the team. The Computer Science Club printed shirts for the team members to wear for the race. The shirts will have the word “hardcore” with a capital A and R within the shape of Arkansas, in the style of the “remarkable” and other shirts students, parents, alumni and others have received over the past couple of years.
Smith said team members selected the T-shirt design from among several designs. “Even that was a team effort,” she said.
Nine of the team members will participate in the 5K while two will run the 10K. Kostopulos will run in the half marathon that will take runners up and down West Mountain twice. This will be his fifth or sixth half marathon that he has participated in, he said.
When he turned 40, he decided to do something he had wanted to do before but had never been able to, he said. He worked his way up slowly, building up to a 5K race and then on to a 10K race before moving on to the half marathons. He said he’d like to perhaps try a full marathon someday, but he is also “quite happy running a couple of half marathons a year.”
While this will be Smith’s and other team members’ first time to run in a competition, Kostopulos said taking the step to run competitively is a huge step for any runner.
“It’s one thing to go out and run on your own, but when you run in a group, when you run in a race, it’s a totally different sensory experience. It can emotional. You run faster. You’re amazed by your time at the end. It’s a thrilling experience to run your first race,” Kostopulos said.
To learn more about the Spa Running Festival, visit http://sparunningfestival.com.