September 2, 2012
4:44:20
I chose this marathon for two reasons. The race was during a holiday weekend and Tupelo is close to Memphis, which is a direct flight from Omaha. This allowed me to take the whole family. The race has a reputation as being a spartan, no-frills event for serious runners. Coming on the heels of the hyper-commercial Lululemon 1/2 marathon in Vancouver, this was a welcome change.
Travel was uneventful. We arrived in Tupelo Saturday evening. Ole Miss and Mississippi State both played home games, so Tupelo was a ghost-town that night. We had a nice dinner at an Italian restaurant in downtown Tupelo.
I missed the packet pickup Saturday because of our arrival time, but the race director allows early pickups on race day. As the race started at 5AM, this meant a really early start to the day Sunday. The 5AM start was great. I usually run at that time anyway, and this allowed us to at least mitigate the heat and humidity that was sure to follow. Temperatures were already in the high 70s at 5AM. The course is described as "rolling hills" which means you are either running up or down a hill the entire way. Thankfully it was pretty overcast most of the morning with a gentle breeze that kept the heat index in the 80s (still hot for a marathon, though).
I felt pretty good and ran the first half in about 2:12. During the second half the hills, heat, and humidity began to take their toll. My pace slowed considerably and I finished in just under 4:45. Not great, but I wasn't expecting much better.
The course was run mostly along the highways in the Tupelo countryside. The scenery wasn't spectacular, but not bad either. The start and finish was in a furniture warehouse parking lot. BBQ pulled pork, baked beans, potato salad, water, powerade, and beer awaited the finishers. The medals and t-shirt were both very unique.
All in all, it was a good race. With the 5AM start time, I was able to go back to the hotel and rest and get cleaned up before the noon checkout time. Afterwards we briefly toured Elvis's birthplace, about the only thing to see in Tupelo.
Now I set my sights on my first "double," back-to-back marathons on a Saturday/Sunday in the fall.
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