State # 17: Mississippi River Marathon (MS) February 10, 2018

I had been pondering which Mississippi race to do for a while. A number of the races/courses interested me for one reason or another, but it was tough to narrow down a decision while juggling different criteria such as cost, travel distance, expected weather, medal, etc. Finally, the decision was made easier when I responded to a call for pacers and got a slot! (5:45) This process all started in September 2017, so it was one of the first races to go on my schedule for 2018. One of the unique features of Mississippi River is that it starts in one state and ends in another, this actually makes it allowable to count for either of the states (AR or MS). It was my plan to count it for MS, because I really wanted to do Little Rock for AR. They also offered half marathons for either state or the Delta Double Down which is running the full but counting it as two half marathons, one in each state! The other big draw of the course was to cross the river on a very cool and modern looking bridge.

In the week leading up to the race I was starting to get more and more cynical about the weather. Rain was predicted and I knew that because it was a point-to-point race we were being bused out to the start and then dropped off in a field waiting for the race to start. Who wants to get soaked and have wet, muddy shoes before the race even starts‽ (yes, that's an interrobang)  I was also grumbling about the slow finish time I had been assigned knowing that it was a long way back home and we would lose an hour crossing back from central to eastern time.

The trip down to MS was a lot like my trip to Louisiana, I just didn't have to go as far. This time, however,  after turning to the south at Memphis I stuck a bit closer to the river and went through the town of Leland.  This is where a young Jim Henson grew up playing in the creek and came up with the idea for the Kermit the Frog character. There is a small museum full of Jim Henson/muppet memorabilia.

The race expo was easy to find. It was small and very personal. We ended up talking with the race director for quite a while. He is a fellow 50 stater, and is working towards finishing out his goal. We got plenty of assurance that we would not just be dumped out of the bus to wait in a muddy field and that even with my long finishing time there would still be plenty of food left at the finish line.

Race morning it was, in fact, raining and 57º. I wore a dollar store rain poncho over my race gear and put on an old pair of goretex shoes to try to keep my feet dry. We got a quick pacer picture, and then it was time to board the shuttle bus.

The bus took us across the river and from the south end of Lake Chicot, the largest oxbow lake in North America, up to the north end. It wasn't raining very hard, and since it was kind of hot/humid on the bus I got off and got in the bathroom line. The lines weren't moving that fast, but there was still plenty of time before the race started and my need wasn't urgent. While waiting in line, I met the Maniacs regional ambassador from Miami. She was working on 50 states, too! I can't imagine having to travel from Miami--you'd have to fly almost anywhere!

As the race started I ditched the sign for the 6 hour pacer (maybe he got on the wrong shuttle bus?) and fell in at the back of the pack. Because of the slower pace I had decided to use a run walk ratio of 30 sec run/35 sec walk. I had been practicing! We started by crossing a causeway/bridge from the inner side of the lake to the outer side and then followed the lake shore to the south. Along with the rain it was very foggy/misty so we couldn't see very far out onto the lake. It didn't take very long before I met Renee, who would be my constant companion for nearly the next six hours. She was from Florida and doing the Delta Double to collect both states for her 50 state half marathon quest. She was also doing another half in AL the next day to make it 3 states in one weekend! Even though the pace was slow, the time went by quickly as we talked about races and life in general. We were going a little faster than we needed to on the run intervals, so we had plenty of time to walk through aid stations, take extra walk breaks, and stop for pictures.

At this point we got on the highway, so we weren't right next to the lake anymore. We headed east towards the river, and the state line. We were going along with fields (mostly cotton, I think) on our right and the lake (out of sight) on our left. During this somewhat barren stretch Caroline caught up to us and joined our group. She was originally from the UK, but living in FL. Also, like Renee, she was running in AL the next day. When we made it to the halfway point the bridge itself was barely visible in the fog. We got a picture together on the bridge with the river in the background.

As we crossed the long bridge I had gotten warm enough that I took off the poncho. The three of us kept trekking along and working our way through just about any topic of coversation we could think of. We even heard the story of how Caroline had nearly drowned on a scuba diving excursion! The rain continued and filled the ruts in the road we turned onto next. Going by the map, I expected to be on this road for a while but it wasn't long before we turned to go through a neighborhood. The map may have been outdated, but I suspect we were re-routed due to flooding. However, as we wound our way through the neighborhood there was often standing AND running water. It was in this stretch that I got my first drink of beer from an aid station. We passed the 20 mile mark in this section and we were well on our way to downtown Greenville and the finish line. In the final 10k I got both beer and pizza from another aid station. This was turning out to be a pretty good race!

In the last stretch I realized I was coming in a bit faster than I wanted to, so I sent the ladies ahead while I took some extra walk breaks to adjust my pace. I crossed the finish right in the zone I had been hoping. After having a little celebration with Renee & Caroline getting into dry clothes was the first thing on my agenda! We had not been lied to; there was plenty of finish line food including pizza, donuts, and tamales.

Even though the course felt a little boring at times, and there were very few spectators, I wouldn't hesitate to endorse this race. The race director has run a lot of races and attends to all of the details that only a frequent particpant knows matter to other runners. Great aid support and finish line food. Awesome swag, too! One of my top 3 largest medals and the race shirt is one of my all time favorites.