Lou Peyton
A few days after the birth of her first child in 1968, Lou Peyton had a visitor in the hospital, who suggested she try a new trend when she recovered: running.
“She said, ‘you have got to try the latest thing, which is jogging,’” Peyton remembers. “She said all you need is a gray sweatsuit and a pair of tennis shoes. In those days, that would have been Keds tennis shoes. There were no women’s running shoes at the time.”
Six weeks later, Peyton met up with some neighbors and went for her first run.
“I got a fourth of a mile the first time I tried, but I loved it. I just loved it.”
While running, Peyton found she didn’t think about “the work that was back at home to do, the baby to take care of, the clothes to fold — that was the part I loved; it was just that it took you away from any stress at home.”
Peyton’s husband, Charley, also ran, and, for a while, the couple shared a running outfit.
“It got to be [that] you wanted to have the first turn [at running] because you'd get the wet sweatsuit if you were the second one.”
A community of runners had begun to blossom in Little Rock, and Peyton joined. She started working at a local sporting goods store, then moved to a running store, where she worked part-time for 37 years. In December 1976, Peyton ran her first race, a four-mile run in Little Rock.
She soon heard about the Boston Marathon and set her sights on running the race. She first qualified in 1977, then qualified again in 1983.
After some health issues and other delays, Peyton finally ran Boston in 1985, eight years after that first jog. She finished in 3:38:46, on a warm day. She still remembers it as one of her proudest accomplishments in running, even though she went on to complete much longer races.
It was there that she first heard about the Western States Endurance Run, the iconic 100-mile race in Colorado. On her first trip to the race, she crewed for Max Hooper, whom she knew from the running store.
“[Hooper] didn’t even finish that year, but my eyes were on the women,” she said. “And the fact that a grandmother finished the Western States 100. And it just seemed magical, of course, that they could run through trails and canyons, and I just got to see some amazing people,” including Suzi Clark and Helen Klein.
In 1989, Peyton and some other Arkansas runners decided to try for the Grand Slam of Ultrarunning — four hundred-mile races in a summer. It was the first time women had attempted the feat at all, and four women finished. Peyton ran the Vermont 100, Western States, Leadville 100, and Wasatch Front 100 Mile Endurance Run. Suzi Thibeault, Helen Klein and Marge Adelman all finished the Grand Slam alongside Peyton, the first women to do so. (Peyton’s times were: 28:29:52 at Western States, 24:23:20 at Vermont, 28:58:34 at Leadville, and 35:14:39 at Wasatch.)
After completing the fourth race, Peyton and a few of her friends signed up for yet another hundred-mile race, the Angeles Crest. She finished in 31:15:36.
Lou Peyton at the Ouachita Trail 50 Mile/50K, at top of Pinnacle Mountain about five miles into the race.
Throughout the summer, Peyton and some of the other runners kept in touch by letters and phone calls, encouraging one another and talking about upcoming races.
“We did work together…You know, just saying ‘Come on. You can do it. Don't sit down in the aid stations, get up, you gotta come home,’” she remembered.
After traveling around the country, Peyton and her husband decided to start a race near home in Arkansas to show their favorite trails to the friends they had met at races.
In 1991, the Arkansas Traveller, a 100-miler in the Ouachita National Forest, was born. The Peytons directed the race for many years, welcoming runners from around the world.
After completing the Grand Slam, Peyton continued to run and some of her other career highlights include running the Ouachita Trail and the Ozark Highlands Trail in their entirety with friends over the winter holidays. Another special moment came when Peyton and her husband started the Full Moon 25K and 50K races, to celebrate her 50th birthday.
Peyton says she knew Charley was not going to buy her a diamond for the milestone birthday, but when she asked if he would help her direct an overnight race in the forest, he was all in. That was fine with Peyton.
“I like diamonds, and I like sports cars, too,” she said. “But they don't compare with running.”
Laura Fay is a journalist and runner in Brooklyn.
