Twelve days until the second in a string of three races packed into a 6 week period.
A week ago last Saturday (Valentine’s Day), you would have found me in Greenville, Mississippi, running the Mississippi River Marathon. My original intent when I registered for this race was to use it as a training run for the 50K I have pending in 12 days (March 7).
During the training period for these races, my focus shifted a little bit. You all know that I had two chances this year to get/break a 5 hour marathon. The Mississippi River Marathon and the Berlin Marathon in September. I decided that it would be a waste not to try for that 5 hour marathon in Greenville, so I poured on the gas at that race.
Not to be redundant, the race in Greenville was long. The marathon distance is 26.2 miles (give or take just a little bit) but the course in Greenville was 26.90. That is leaning pretty hard on 27 miles. That is uncommonly long.
My finish time in Greenville was 5:05:23. I missed my goal time but I ran a good race (for me) and am content with how I did on the long course placing 7th in my AG.
Next up is the Mississippi 50 Trail Run. This race is in Laurel, Mississippi, and consists of a 20K/50K/50Mile. I will be attempting the 50K. This will be my second 50K Ultra-Marathon.
My last 50K was the end of last July in Clinton, Mississippi. It was a very hot day and every runner was doing a walk/run combo by the 4th mile. It was a sweat-fest. It took me 10 hours and 15 minutes to complete that race. I was soooo embarrassed with my time when I crossed the finish line~I just wanted to disappear but quitting never entered my mind. So, I was super surprised and thrilled beyond words when I found out a few days later that I had placed 2nd in my AG!!! Cool Beans!
This 50K, well, you hit the first water at mile 3 and you are wet the remainder of the race. There is a lot of mud, too. It’s supposed to be a messy race. With the weather we’ve been having this year, I’m hoping I don’t freeze to death instead of melt like last July! From one extreme to another, huh? HA!
With all the rain we’ve been having, they said that they are going to put out ropes for runners to help them navigate through the water. Lovely. I don’t know how to swim. Maybe I’ll invest in a floatie or something! 🙂
After the 50K, I will have 3 weeks to lick my wounds and then head to Greenwood, Mississippi. I’m going to meet up with some of my Mississippi running buddies. We will spend the night on Friday night, have some fun and then run a Half Marathon Saturday morning. This race I will be running on fumes.
I have checked the finishing times for my AG for the Greenwood race. Holy Cow there are some uber fast women at that race! I am in the 50-54 AG and the person who won the AG last year ran a 1:47 Half! That is FAST! My PR is 2:19 so I don’t stand a chance of placing, so I will just go, run the race and have a good time.
Once the Half Marathon is over, I think that I am done racing until the Berlin Marathon in September. There IS a 10K in Corinth, Mississippi, (May 2) I would like to run~the Coke Classic 10K. Excellent race!!! I’ve run it twice and PR’d both times. I would like to try for PR #3 at that event. We’ll see…
All of this blabbering to let you know the countdown is on for the 50K. 12 days! The gun time is 6:00 am. I’m sure all of you are going to set your alarms on Saturday, March 7th at 6:00 am to wish me well, right!?! Hahaha!!!
I’ll let you know how it went. 🙂
This is a pic one of my friends took of me while we were in Greenville for the marathon. We were just getting ready to go out for some fun.
