What a fun, fun racing weekend!
Friday afternoon, I met up with 6 of my running friends from the Tupelo/Columbus area and we packed ourselves and our overnight gear into a mini van and headed west to Greenwood, Mississippi. Our 2 hour trip took us a total of 5 hours.
We managed to get lost a couple of times. Some people in the group wanted to stop at an Estate Sale on the way west. We couldn’t find the sale at first, so we meandered around a tiny town for almost an hour until we stumbled across it. It was a nice sale but super expensive.
A stop at a gas station took close to 45 minutes.
We arrived at Greenwood, Mississippi, and got lost trying to find the packet pickup and then the hotels. I have never been so happy to get to a destination in all my life!
I had planned to stay with a friend of mine that had driven up from the Gulf Coast instead of staying in the same room with all of the other people from the van. I met her (she had been waiting for me for close to three hours by this time~HA!) and another lady from the van switched over to our room due to the fact that ANOTHER lady had driven separately and was going to be in the other room, too. 6 women in one hotel room. One bathroom. Only two beds. Nope. That wasn’t for her either.
Smart lady.
The three of us got a good night’s sleep and went to the race (without getting lost, thank you) and had a great time! The rest of the crew, we didn’t see until after the race. I think they got at the starting line right before the gun went off.
The race was wonderful! It was very well organized. The volunteers were terrific. Great water stops, awards and post race foods/beverages. This was one of the best Half Marathons I have ever been to!
Because it was on the Mississippi Delta, that means it was pancake flat. Flat, yesterday, was my friend. I ran well. I ran HARD!
I had looked up the previous years results online. I knew that the two women who had taken 1st and 2nd in my AG were returning. The 1st place woman had been well under 2 hr finishing time. 2nd place had been coming in right at 2 hrs. The other people had been trickling in at 2:15-2:20. I made my race day strategy. I was after that 3rd place AG win.
I knew that I had to maintain a 10:15 pace to come in where I wanted to get that 3rd place. I flew (for me, mind you) across the finish line at 2:15 on. the. button. BOOM! Perfect! Then I went to check my results.
10th place AG!?!
No. WAY!!!
I thought maybe I had entered my bib wrong.
Nope.
10th AG.
Unreal!!!
The top 5 women in my AG had come in well under 2 hrs!!!
Holy Cow but here were some fabulous runners at that race yesterday!!!
I hadn’t stood a chance!
Hahaha!!!
What a super fun day and super fun race!!!
I was able to meet up with a LOT of my online friends that I had never met IRL. Smiled for lots of photo ops and was reminded once again at how incredible SHORT I am. HA! 🙂
A great deal of people told me how happy they were to finally get to meet me. That was nice….until in the very next breath they asked, “How’s Paxton?”
Haha!!! They were being polite but all they really wanted to know about was my pudgy pooch!
Funny stuff!!!
Had a lovely day and ran well.
I am content. 🙂
Here is a pic with two of the Mississippi RunJunkEe guys. The reason I am posting this pic is to show you just how short I really am. Enjoy!
