Our weekend started off pretty rough, with softball sized hail falling as my husband got home from work Friday evening. Thankfully, by the time he took a shower and was ready for us to head out, it was only misting rain. We drove an hour and a half south to check into Hotel Indigo in Hattiesburg, MS so that my daughter and I could get up Saturday morning and run the 10K portion of the Hattiesburg Half Marathon. Just before we went to bed, the race directors made the call to push the race start back from 7am to 9am. They were concerned with lightning from the storms predicted to last until early the following morning.
When Madilyn and I got up at 6:30, it was still raining fairly hard and lightning. We got dressed and drove about three miles to the start of the race so that we could pick up our race packets. We had missed the expo the day before because my husband got off work late. We picked up some really amazing cinnamon rolls at a local bagel place and snacked on those in the car before heading back to the Saenger Theater to use the restrooms and wait on the race to start. By now the rain was gone and it was a blissfully cool 60 degrees with a dewpoint of 60.
The half marathon runners were in a coral just ahead of the 10K runners so we got to watch them start. We started about three minutes after the half marathoners. Madilyn and I made a pact to start slow and stick together until the last mile. I can't tell you how proud I am of how well she did in her first 10K! She was one of the youngest three runners on the 10K course. There was a nine year old and two twelve year olds in a field of 233. With that said, we took short walk breaks at two water stations (during miles 3 and 5) and I do feel that I may have held back a little too much. I know I can do better, especially with such ideal running conditions.
My splits were:
Mile 1: 11:52
Mile 2: 11:40
Mile 3: 12:08
Mile 4: 11:41
Mile 5: 12:18
Mile 6: 10:54
.2: 9:57
All this came to a total time of 1:11:27, which was just under my goal of 1:15. I passed seven people in the last mile and Maddy finished almost exactly a minute behind me. We both really enjoyed the flat course which started downtown and passed through some residential areas as well as the entrance to the Hattiesburg Zoo before looping back downtown. The energy along the course was the best I've experienced yet. Even with the rain, there were paintings and chalk art on the streets throughout the course. This was my favorite.
Maddy was skeptical about the 10K distance going in, but she's ready to sign up for the next one, so that's a definite win in my book!
We didn't stick around the finish area long. We needed to checkout of our hotel by 11:00 and we were both keen to squeeze in a quick shower. We also skipped out on the after party at the Hattiesburg Zoo. When (not if) we participate in this run again, we will definitely stick around for that as well.
We used the 10K as an excuse to have a fun weekend. We headed another hour south to Gulfport were we spent the night at the Grand Centennial Hotel, which is a remodeled V.A. Hospital with a small water park, right across from the beach.
It was such a fantastic weekend! I've missed running events so much! I'm glad that Madilyn seems to share my love of running and that she's so much happier than she was back in the fall. I'm also glad that we were able to have a fun weekend as a family.