The Mississippi River Half Marathon

We are becoming a nation of sissies. Our school closed all campuses Thursday because of "inclement weather." Huh? It rained. The weather forecasters predicted our temperatures should drop all the way down to 36 at 10:00 a.m. At 10:00 a.m. nothing will freeze until you get well down into the 20s. I am confused as to why people can no longer understand a weather forecast. It baffles me. But hey, I did not have to go in to work. So there is that.

The Mississippi River Marathon and Half was scheduled for Saturday, February 5. It snowed in Texas so they cancelled the race here. "Going virtual" is what they called it. Well, at least I got to sleep longer and save some money on a drive. Forrest, Vicki, and I decided to go ahead and do our virtual half by meeting at Bankston School Saturday morning at 9:00 and doing and out and back on Money Road. It was cold. 

We did our run anyway. We're bad like that. At least we had sunshine and light winds. But let me tell you, at 28 degrees, even a two-mile-per-hour wind, which is what we had, is a tough thing. I felt it. All. The. Way.

The Greenwood Trio before our race

From the start, Forrest jumped out and left Vicki and me to battle the wind alone. Vicki passed me on the Tallahatchie bridge but I stayed about 25 yards behind for several miles. But slowly I slowed and she held her pace, putting more and more distance between us. When we were in the upper end of the chute, Forrest was coming back already. I checked my watch and did the math. He was 1.4 miles ahead of me. When I met Vicki coming back, she was .4 miles ahead. As I ran on, I saw some clothes on the shoulder. It took a second, but I realized that Vicki dumped some stuff. All her colors were left on the road's shoulder and when I turned and re-entered the chute, I never saw her again. I even grew concerned for her when I never could find her up ahead. I was praying she had not been abducted.

Although my pace kept slowing, I never really suffered. I finished in 2:58:58. That is a terrible time, but I felt pretty good getting it done. And it was a good training run. We didn't wimp out or wait for a better day. The race director said we have until March 15 to turn in our results. Only a handful of us did it that day.

The route

At the end, Vicki had chocolate milk and donuts. Forrest was gone already, so I had lots of eating to do. He finished in 2:15, and Vicki did her first ever half in 2:42. It had taken me weeks to convince her that she could do it. Finally, she agreed to give it a try, and she did well. I went home and took a nap and studied for Sunday. 

After a lot of napping, I went to Plate City. Although I had run a half, it was leg day and since my legs are so pathetically weak, I have committed this year to not skipping my lower body work, ever. I did not do what I usually do. But I did some squats and played around with some other stuff. Saturdays are play days at the gym. Pee Wee was happy to have me, and we had fun. Besides squats, I did some Swim Pulls and some SkiErg work. Also I played with some tubing that Vicki donated to the gym. This will help for with it we can work our fast twitch swimming muscles. I think I still have one fast twitch muscle fiber in my upper body. I think, I just don't know where it is. Then I called an end to all efforts, turned off the TV, and went inside for the night. It was a good day for me. Thank you, Jesus.