My latest running adventure took place last weekend up in Leland, MS at the "Hotter than Hades" Tribbett Half Marathon. Originally, Emilee and De'Dee were going to do it with me, but we all talked ourselves out of it. Then De'Dee decided to go ahead and do it because she was able to get the Kermit mascot from Team All Ears. She had to do it because Leland is the birthplace of Kermit the Frog. She wasn't able to convince Emilee to run it, but I was there with bells on!
Leland is about a hundred miles away from anything, so it was an interesting journey even to get there. I left Hattiesburg on Friday afternoon and drove to De'Dee's new cabin in Lexington. Then after about a three hour nap and a bit of random car trouble, we drove to the Budweiser Brewery in Leland, where we were bused to the start line.
The "Facilities" at the Start Line
Now, I honestly was not expecting much from this race. I knew that there would be about three-hundred participants, and being so far removed, I thought that would be a stretch. Typically, when a race has a low number of participants, the amenities are few and far between, but that really was not the case here. The water stops were well stocked with water, Gatorade, and Gu and the volunteers manning the stops were entertaining. My only complaint was that there were not enough facilities along the course. Pretty much what got me through the race was knowing that there was a bathroom at the finish.
The View along the Course
All in all, it was a good race. Very flat terrain, paved most of the way with hardly any turns. But there was no shade through out the course and absolutely nothing to look at except corn and soy bean fields. So it was very boring. But us stragglers made the best of it. Of the three-hundred participants, all but a handful were elite runners. So after about an hour and a half, we were the only people left on the course. But we still had fun and made good time until around mile 9 when the heat started to get to me. But I still managed to cross the finish at about 3:24. Not bad, even if we were at the back of the pack. That's still better than the WDW half back in January.
The next race I am planning on doing will be the Meridian Half or Full Marathon. I'm not sure which one I will attempt yet, but I want to be running a three hour half by the point. Let's see if I can make that goal!
