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Mississippi Trail Run
    There is a little pre-story to this story. I first attended the MS50 to run my first 50K on my 55th
birthday. Richard Cozart and his wife Shirley invited me to join them on this adventure. Skip
ahead 7 years and I had this urge to run my first 50 miler on my 62nd birthday at the same
MS50. Richard decided to go and run the 20K. Marty and another friend, Lisa, also joined in the
fun. Marty was doing her first 50K since she was 40! That is 18 years ago! This was to be Lisa’s
second trail run in her short career.
    Well, here is my story! It rained the entire night before the run. What I had remembered as a
“flat” course was anything but flat. I had touted this flatness to Marty and that helped make up
her mind to join us. Well, it is hilly with most of the trails made of clay! Picture clay and water...
What do you get?? Extremely slick downhills. We had streams to cross about every mile or
two. The 50 mile course was 3 x 12.5 miles and then a separate 6+ mile trail to that had to be
done twice. The 50K was 2 big loops with one shorter one while the 20K was just one big
loop. Marty and I ran the first 25 miles together. Slippin’ and slidin’ along. She had braved
wearing road shoes but on the second loop, quickly switched to trail shoes!
    Richard stopped at mile 8 of his 12.4 mile quest. The conditions were so bad, we feared him
falling and being hurt and even getting hypothermia. It was a cold rain that never gave anyone
a break. Lisa managed to finish her 20K in 2:58. Another local girl, Cari Trapp ran a very fast 50
mile time of 9:52.
    As remote as this race was, Marty and I were breaking out of the forest and had to cross one
of the very few roads that were navigate able in the park when a car just happened by at that
very instance. It was our friend Lisa. Had her car been 30 seconds earlier or later, we never
would have seen each other. Things happen in very mysterious ways! Might just have to
reflect on that one for a moment!
    We ran together for about 6 hours in a horrible thunderstorm! All the rivers were rising and
the trails like ice! I split off from Marty after the first two big loops. She then headed to the
shorter one while I headed back to the bigger loop. The shorter loop consisted of flatter trails
at times but they had 2-4 inches of water in them on the level ground! It was a real slog fest!
Marty finished her race in 6:50 and was the 5th O/A female and the first female over 51 years
old (she’s 58)! I continued on with my wet and wild challenge. I had just finished mile 44 and
was at the start/finishline with a time of about 9:40. I had ONLY 6 more miles to go. The race
director held me up saying the National Forestry Service had pulled the plug on the race! We
had lightning popping all around, had trees falling across the trails, etc. Reports were received
about a line of worse thunderstorms carrying tornado cells headed towards us! He stopped
the race! I felt great! Had more energy and had the course been dry, I feel I could have run
much faster. I was bummed about not getting my 50 mile buckle. I could have walked the last 6
miles slowly in 2:20! The race director is still trying to make those type of decisions as to
whether or not to give out the buckles for essentially finishing the race. Stopping the race was
a good decision but I'm still bummed. I will warn everyone that if we talk about this race you
might just hear a little disappointment in my voice about not finishing (and not getting my
buckle!). I was the first person over 58 to run the 44 miles. I turned 62 the next day.
Our trail run turned out to be a real adventure race. We had a great time in spite of not having
“great” times! I think we are finally starting to dry out!