Mississippi Trail Run [Entered Tuesday, 5/31]

Saturday morning, I finally rolled out and ran. I skipped the planned Friday easy run, but hey, I was on vacation, and there was a pool to sit beside, beer to drink, and games to play. Saturday, however, my friends Andy and Jeff were just getting ready to run when I peeked out of my door at 8:30 or so. So, I was busted, and was convinced to join them for their scheduled 6 miler (plus or minus). I threw on my camo shorts and a singlet, slugged down some water, filled a water bottle for the journey, synched up the Garmin, and we were off.

Leaving at 8:55 is not recommended in the warmer weather, but that's what it was, so we made the best of it. We were out in the countryside of central Mississippi, on a family farm, and so I took the boys on a tour of the rolling hills on the property. We cruised through a grassy field, a gravel road, and then around the edge of a field, through nettles and grass. It was so different than our normal street running that it was fun. After crossing an old creosote bridge, we were on a well-maintained road leading through the back part of the property where we've sold off some timber to paper companies. It was pretty sunny, but not crazy hot...yet. (Temperature range was 75-80 as the run progressed).

This was a part of the property that I hadn't seen before, at least not in its current form. We passed deer stands, several deer, and a couple of wild turkeys even crossed the roads in front of us, too. It was truly quiet and peaceful out there as we loped along up and down some surprisingly long hills. Sporadic shady patches helped things, and finally, we reached the end (and more) of the property, going through the land owned by a paper company and ending up in a little group of houses way out there. We took a quick drink of water there at the turnaround (3.15 miles), and then we headed back.

The pace seemed hard, but that could be from the general debauchery of the weekend, the late start for the run, the heat, or a variety of other factors. The terrain wasn't easy, but again, it was pretty cool to see this part of the property after all these years. I faded late in the run a little, but finished the 6.3 miles in 58:05, 9:13 pace. It was a good solid run during a vacation, always a little moral victory if nothing else.

Since it was Saturday, I did the full stretching regimen and even did the core/ab post-run exercises. It was a good bit of exercise, and I'm glad I did it.

Yes, we all had a great time the entire weekend, but any other stories resulting from that annual gathering are not publishable in this forum. :)