Mississippi Blues Half Marathon - RunMarathon


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Jackson, Mississippi
United States
Mississippi Track Club
18F / -8C
Overcast
 		Total Time = 2h 15m 51s
Overall Rank = 425/817
Age Group = 25-29
Age Group Rank = 32/45
Pre-race routine:

Drove down and parked at the Forest Association building. A member of our tri club works there and opened it for us so we could wait inside and also not have to wait in line at the porta-pottys. Seeing as it was 18 degrees with a wind chill of 10 at race start, this was pretty damn helpful. I got all my layers on and smeared vaseline all over my face. Time to go outside...
Event warmup:

I jogged the four blocks to the race start... and that was it. They had a big video board with some soldiers in Iraq who had run earlier in the week. They counted down to the start gun for us. Pretty damn cool, and just one other way that a race so small puts on the big boy pants and runs a really, really cool event.
Run
  • 2h 15m 51s
  • 13.1 miles
  • 10m 22s  min/mile
Comments:

This is a really tough course, and I've decided the best way to run it is slooooow down. The hills are going to wear you out if you aren't careful. Take it ez, and if you get to around 3-5 miles and feel ok, then push it home.

Sooo... that's what I did, and I did it pretty well. I took around 5 minutes off my time from last year, and that makes a total of 8 minutes since the first time I ran it (this was only the third year). At this rate, I'll win the thing in fifty years.
What would you do differently?:

Not much. I had a plan, the same plan I have every year in this race, and probably stuck to it the best I've ever done.

Oh... I would have liked not to have had an abscessed tooth over the Christmas holidays. That cut out some pretty significant training miles because the pain made me want to pull a Tom Hanks and knock my tooth out with an ice skate.
Post race
Warm down:

Warm down? Seriously? The temp had risen to a balmy 21F. I actually heard somebody say they only had Alaska left in their 50 in 50 quest and that he wished he was there now. I almost froze my nuts off walking back to my car.

Anyway, the full marathon was actually going right by my parents house. So, my wife and I drove over there, I drank some beers, rang a cowbell, blared some Jimmy Buffet, and cheered on those who went twice as far as I did.

What limited your ability to perform faster:

I dunno if the cold hurt or helped. I've never run when it was that cold.

Event comments:

This a hidden gem of a race people. The weather gets crazy sometimes (it was 70 and 98% humidity last year). But the organization, the volunteers, the post race food, and the beer truck are awesome. The course is scenic and a challenge. There is just a cool vibe with it. It's not a Rock and Roll marathon... it's the Blues marathon. A guy plays a blues version of the star spangled banner on his guitar to kick off the race. They put harmonicas and blues cds in the race packets. Oh, and there's a pub crawl the night after. If you ran you got a wristband, and the wristband gets you on the bus that takes you bar hopping. Awesome.

Do this race, people!




Last updated: 2009-06-23 12:00 AM
Running
02:15:51 | 13.1 miles | 10m 22s  min/mile
Age Group: 0/45
Overall: 0/817
Performance:
Course: First few miles are relatively flat. Then there's a few miles of hills that resemble walls, then it flattens out for about a mile, then more hills. The course is hilly and hard (that's what she said).
Keeping cool Good Drinking Just right
Post race
Weight change: %
Overall: Good
Mental exertion [1-5] 5
Physical exertion [1-5] 5
Good race? Yes
Evaluation
Course challenge Too hard
Organized? Yes
Events on-time? Yes
Lots of volunteers? Yes
Plenty of drinks? Yes
Post race activities: Good
Race evaluation [1-5] 5