Arkansas Senior Games 2007

Story by Earl Hill and Photos by Jim French

On September 22 and 23, Connie French and Earl Hill participated in the Arkansas Senior Olympic bicycling competition. Jim French has a daughter living in Benton, AR, and Earl has a daughter living in Little Rock, AR. Therefore, both took the opportunity to visit family while enjoying the camaraderie of competitive cycling.

The TT was held at National Park Community College and the road race was held at Lake Catherine State Park—both in the Hot Springs area.

The weather for the TT was hot and the humidity was relatively comfortable. However, there was a half mile climb into an 18 mph wind on the back side of the oval. This was tough—particularly given the fact that we had to climb the hill twice.

The temperature for the road race was reasonable, but the humidity was almost insufferable as we climbed out of the valley to the heights above. The threatened rain started almost as soon as we were off. This was an out and back course—half of which was on newly resurfaced blacktop and the balance on an older chip and seal surface. The blacktop was quite slippery at the turn around. The finish line was at the top of a short rise.

Connie took a gold in the 5K TT as well as the 20K road race. Earl took a silver in the 5K TT and a bronze in the 20K road race.

I don’t know the exact numbers, but I believe there were at least as many out-of-state competitors participating in the weekend events as there were riders from Arkansas. There may have been other States represented, but I personally met riders from Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania and Illinois. The participant from Pennsylvania, Horst Bernhardt, was making a tour of state senior games. If I recall correctly, his next stop was Nevada and then on to Utah.

If you like moderate hills and high humidity, the Arkansas Senior Olympics might be for you.