Presley LaBeff, a rising freshman at Siloam Springs High School, will participate in the 112th annual Dipsea Race in Marin County, Calif., on Sunday, but she won't be running alone.
LaBeff, 14, and her uncle, Robert Spencer, 55, who's from the San Francisco Bay area, were selected to run in the exclusive race, which only has 1,500 participants each year.
And it was their personal story of finding lost family, a DNA test, and a love for running that helped sway the selection committee to choose LaBeff and Spencer for the race, according to Dave Albee, Dipsea Race communications manager.
"To be able to share the Dipsea with Presley is real special to me," Spencer said during a recent May afternoon at Glenn W. Black Stadium on the campus of Siloam Springs Middle School. "On so many levels, it's special to be able to share that with her."
Finding family
As recent as 2018, Spencer believed that the only biological family he had were his wife and two sons.
He was given up for adoption at birth and assumed his biological parents were no longer living.
"I was just under the impression that my mother and father were dead," he said.
Spencer took a 23andMe test and the DNA results led him to Northwest Arkansas.
It turns out Spencer was the son of Thomas Paulsey LaBeff, who was more commonly known as "Sleepy LaBeef," an Arkansas "rockabilly" musician who performed all over the country and in Europe, with southern gospel, country, and rock and roll hits in a career that began in the 1950s.
In 2018, Spencer was able to reconnect with his dad, who was in his 80s and living in Springdale at the time.
But Spencer didn't just meet his dad. There were other family members, too, including his young niece, Presley LaBeff, who was living with her grandparents.
"I was expecting to maybe meet a second cousin, a distant relative," Spencer said. "So when it turned into meeting my father and having siblings, it was just a blessing."
It wasn't long after that Spencer learned Presley, who was in fourth grade, had developed a love for running and had joined a running club.
Spencer had started running himself a few years earlier, and he signed Presley and himself up for the Turkey Trot in Springdale that fall.
In 2019, the LaBeffs moved to Siloam Springs.
"We moved here first of September," said Linda LaBeff, Sleepy LaBeef's wife and Presley's grandmother. "(Sleepy) was playing his last big show in Switzerland, a three-day show. I signed the papers while he was gone."
On Dec. 26, 2019, Sleepy LaBeef died at the age of 84 at his home in Siloam Springs.
"He didn't get to know Siloam very well before he passed away," Linda LaBeff said.
Sleepy LaBeef is buried at Oak Hill Cemetery in Siloam Springs, near Siloam Springs Middle School and the campus of John Brown University.
"He's buried right over here," Spencer said of his father. "It's one of our regular running spots."
Fast forward more than three years later, and Spencer is still visiting Northwest Arkansas regularly.
"To me, it's a really special thing because Robert came into our lives, and part of it is, I'm sure, he didn't think he had any family, but now he's got nieces and nephews and sisters, and it's something that they have connected over," Linda LaBeff said.
Spencer and Presley LaBeff have also continued to bond over their love for running.
"He helps me be better because running with someone is easier," Presley LaBeff said of her uncle. "And he makes it more fun."
Presley LaBeff just completed her eighth-grade season running cross country and track for Siloam Springs Middle School. She said she enjoys running and has used it to deal with stress.
"It does make me feel good about myself when I'm done," she said. "Once you get into a rhythm when you're running -- I don't know how to explain it -- it just feels fun, and it really doesn't feel like you're exercising. It just feels fun."
An idea came up to try and get Spencer and Presley into the Dipsea Race, which Spencer had run five times previously and had applied for even more than that and had been rejected on several occasions.
"Every year, I've tried to get into the Dipsea," Spencer said. "We talked about it for a while because it's so hard to get in for the Dipsea. I said, well, let's just try and get in. There have been years where I've submitted my application, and it didn't get in quick enough."
The race itself
The Dipsea Race is a 7.4-mile race that begins in Mill Valley, Calif., and finishes at Stinson Beach in Marin County.
According to the race's website, the race is one of the more challenging in the country because of its steep and narrow trails. It's labeled as the oldest trail race in the country.
Only 1,500 runners are allowed to participate each year, and a significant portion of those are returnees from the previous race.
Because of that, only 500 spots are allocated on a first-come, first-accepted basis, according to the website.
Other spots are filled based on donations, and the final 300 are filled by a lottery.
According to the race's website, one way to gain entry is to send a convincing "sob story" to the committee.
And that's what Spencer and Presley LaBeff did for 2023. They both included the story of their family reunion and their common bond of running.
"Just writing a sob story doesn't get you in this race," Spencer said. "Everybody sends in a sob story."
They also had to get in their application quickly. Spots fill up quickly after the application portal opens in mid-March, and no applications are accepted after April 1.
"There are 3,000 applications there the next day," Spencer said. "The deadline is that moment. If you wait, if you do regular mail, you won't get in."
Spencer downloaded the application at midnight the day it became available and next-day mailed it later that day. His application was received by noon. On that same afternoon, he downloaded Presley LaBeff's application, drove 40 miles to a Staples and printed it, and put it in the mail.
"It showed up the next morning," Spencer said of his niece's application.
Their efforts paid off, and their applications were accepted.
"The Dipsea Committee Race read their 'sob stories' and granted Robert's wish to have Presley join him in this year's race," Albee said in an email. "Presley, who has never been to California, in her 'sob story,' said she wants to see the ocean, the redwoods, and her new cousins."
Training for the Dipsea
Spencer visited his family in Northwest Arkansas in May, and part of the trip was training with his niece to prepare for the race.
They trained in several different parts of Northwest Arkansas, including running at Lake Fayetteville, the Simmons Course in Siloam Springs, Natural Falls State Park in Oklahoma, and the famous 100 stairs at John Brown University.
"Just trying to get in what we can," Spencer said.
Presley LaBeff often runs with her red husky, Opie, and works out with her grandmother Linda LaBeff.
"She comes to the gym with me," Linda LaBeff said. "The first part of the race is 683 steps, so she goes the gym with me and uses the stair step there."
The LaBeffs recently traveled out to California in advance of the race and have been able to see the course.
The race begins at 8 a.m. Pacific Time.
Graham Thomas/Herald-Leader Siloam Springs rising ninth-grader Presley LaBeff, left, and her uncle Robert Spencer of California will compete in the famous Dipsea Race in Marin County, Calif., on Sunday.
Submitted photo Robert Spencer and Presley LaBeff pose for a selfie at Natural Falls in Oklahoma.