Mississippi Blues Marathon Race# 17

Jackson, Mississippi
Saturday January 9, 2016
Time: 5:07:17
Overall Place: 473/755

 

Running in January can be quite fun if you go far enough south where the temperatures are warm enough to strap on the shorts and a thin top.  I have now experienced both, running in the cold frozen north of Winnipeg and the deep south in Jackson Mississippi. 

 
Sorry but the south trumps the north.  I’ve had my eye on this weekend for a long time and really was not sure what to expect because I was running two marathons on one weekend.  Some, okay, most people thought I was crazy for attempting this but I am always up for a challenge and couldn’t resist the opportunity to see how it felt to run marathons on consecutive days.  After all, a lot of fellow Maniacs that I know in the states run doubles quite often.  How difficult could it be?

I was very fortunate to have Heidi with me on this trip since I thought it would be very helpful to have someone with me given the problems I’ve had in the past with losing things, so she was there to kind of look after some of those needs.  We left on the early morning of January 9 driven to the airport by our wonderful neighbor Herb at 5:00 AM.  It is great to have such wonderful neighbors.  We flew through Minneapolis and then on to New Orleans.

 

In the Minneapolis Airport, Cheese head or Viking

 

Why did we fly to New Orleans you ask?  It was the cheapest airfare and was sort of at the bottom of the triangle from Jackson and Mobile.  We rented a car in New Orleans.  A little Ford Focus which had a few problem of its own but kept us on the road for the whole trip.  We had to drive about 2 ½ hours straight north to Jackson Mississippi where the race was being held.  Our first taste of southern culture came on this drive when we pulled off the interstate to a gas station to pick up some drinks for our lunch.  We brought some homemade meat buns along that we had made a couple of weeks before.  The first thing we found were Cajun boiled peanuts. 

 

Now normally I would have tried these because I like peanuts and I like hot but probably not the best thing to do before a race.  The second thing was that they all talk with a southern drawl.  You almost need a dictionary to interpret what they were saying.  Actually I think it was us that stood out with our Canadian accent and we threw in the odd, eh!

 

 We arrived in Jackson in the late afternoon with the temperature hovering around the 20 degrees Celsius mark so we weren’t too sad about that.  We thought we would pick up our race kit when we arrived and then we could see what the Expo was all about and could plan better for Friday.  The race was on Saturday.  We got to the Expo picked up our race kit and were through the whole thing in about 15 minutes.  This is not what you would call a big city Expo so that was a little disappointing but we made the most of it.  As we were leaving Heidi had left me for a moment I spotted two ladies that I was planning to meet up with that I had gotten to know in Indianapolis.  Jennifer and Ildiko had driven up from Albany Georgia to run the race as well so it was great to see them again.  Heidi finally got to meet the two new friends that I was talking so much about.  We visited for quite some time and then they left for their hotel which was in the area.  We had to drive about 25 miles to Canton Mississippi, a small town just outside of Jackson.  It was early evening by now and the short drive to Canton didn’t take very long, we arrived at our hotel and checked in.  Sometimes it is really nice to be outside of the big city and in a small quaint little southern town.  We decided to go out to Wendy’s for a little snack and had another cultural experience.  We were served by a local person and we went to order our food.  When the person taking our order began to speak we saw her lips moving but couldn’t understand a word she was saying.  It was such a thick heavy southern accent we kind of just muddled our way through and hoped we got the food that we ordered.  It all worked out and we got what we wanted.  We also went into their town and saw a beautiful town square in the center of the town.  It was a great day and everything had gone so well.

The next morning we got up and went down for our free hot breakfast which was pretty good I might add.  When we went back to our room we found out there was no hot water.  The manager on duty said the hot water tank “bust”.  On to plan B, this was a shower when we got to our next hotel. 

 

Anyway that morning the weather was again sunny and warm and we decided to go for a walk around the town square.  It had been beautifully decorated for Christmas and we were told that the square was packed every night before Christmas. 

 

 

 

 

We even had lunch at a diner that had only been open for about two weeks and sat with a couple of ladies.  Talk about getting the local flavor for an experience.  It was great to meet these ladies and almost feel a part of the community.  I have mentioned something to Heidi on a few occasions already that it is not all about the races but rather about the adventure and the experiences that you get when going to these events.  There is so much to see and do which is not a part of the races that really enriches our experiences.

We headed back to Jackson because we just wanted to check out the Expo one more time in case we missed anything. 

 

 

 

Sure enough there was nothing more to see except they did have a couple of guys playing and singing some blues music.  When we were leaving out in the parking lot, who did we meet but, Jennifer and Ildiko.  We spent about the next hour visiting with them and two other runners also in for the race.  We had a nice visit with the two of them, but we also had an interesting visit with the two other guys.  One of the guys was from North Dakota, who for the last ten years or so took off from his job from about October to March and came down south to run marathons every weekend and lived out of his vehicle.  He had a mattress, a cooler and all the comforts of home. 

 

 

He would park in race parking lots, Wal-Mart's, and rest areas and just go from place to place.  Some people have called me crazy?  This set a whole new level which I never aspire to.    Anyways, it was an interesting conversation.

Finally race morning came and we woke up to rain, it was warm outside but there was rain.  The rain was supposed to stop right around race start and they were pretty much bang on. 

It is tradition for many of the Maniacs, Half Fanatics to gather for a pre race photo

 

 

 

This race had the full and half marathoners starting together and it was my plan to run the race with Jennifer and a Pacer named Tom, whom I had run with in two other races before.  Tom was going to be the 5 hours pacer so I figured that would be a nice pace given I was going to do another race on Sunday.  The marathon started out in the downtown area and like most others, eventually moved to the outskirts or the more beautiful areas.  Jackson has a lot of poverty and you see a lot of it when you run through some of the downtown neighbor hoods.  This course was also very hilly, the entire way.  There is no reprieve from the hills and they can be a little tiring.  The good news was that I was taking this race at a very comfortable pace running with Jennifer so we kept each other entertained.  Around mile 20 the rains hit again.  Not only that but it was at the beginning of the hardest climb of the day.  Not only that, but there was thunder and it rained hard.  I was actually a little concerned that they would call the race due to the weather.  Imagine going this far into the race and being pulled off the course?  This rain lasted for about four miles and then around mile 24 the heavens opened up to the most glorious blue sky and sunshine.  We coasted in to the finish in the warm sunshine, and I had the time of my life finishing together with Jennifer. 

 

Jennifer, Ildiko, Me and Pacer Tom

I’m not usually hungry after a race, but after this one I couldn’t wait to eat.  We got to the food tent and all the food was gone, great.  We were told that if we waited for about 20 minutes they would have fresh pizza for us.  Sure enough it came and I started putting it down.  Some lady told Heidi that for a little guy I could eat a lot.  We took some finishing pictures and prepared to leave.  Unfortunately we couldn’t get a late checkout so Heidi had to check us out of our room by 11:00 so I had no chance to clean up after the race.  I guess I should run faster so that I could make the checkout times.  Fortunately Jennifer and Ildiko were gracious enough to allow me to use their room to shower in because they weren’t leaving till the next day.  This was really nice because then Heidi didn’t have to smell me all the way to Mobile3  We said our goodbyes and got in our car heading to the next race about 2 ½ hours away in Mobile Alabama.