Azalea Trail, Addition

Dale Rasmussen, GCRC, won the overall 10k racewalk. Jennifer Henderson, PBP, finished 3rd in the 10k racewalk. Stephen Jones, GCRC, finished 4th in his age group (10-14) in the 10k.

I, also, forgot to mention the youngest person that ran in the ATR 10k.

Seamus Hilleary is 3 years old from Mobile, Al. His time is 1:06:36 with a pace of 10:43.

Can you believe this??? Three years old! This was amazing to us. No, I don't know him, just felt like he deserved a little recognition on this blog. He came in 4th out of 13 in ages 1-9. The next youngest girls and boys was age 6. Way to go, Sweetie!!

In case I've overlooked someone by mistake, click here for the link to all the results. Congratulations to all of you! Everyone should be recognized for the great work they did.

Azalea Trail Run

What a day! We met up with a lot of our friends from the coastal area and the Laurel & Hattiesburg area. The humidity made it a challenging race for everyone as it was quite hard to breathe. My time was not as good as I had hoped but looking back over it I see where several people's time was not as good as usual.

I don't think I've ever started a race "with" someone before but this year I connected with Nancy and Dwight. It wasn't long before we went our own way and got in our pace. A little way into the race I felt this little tap on my shoulder and I looked around to see my good friend, Ginny. It was so good to see her though it was short lived. She's such a good runner and she went on by me with such ease. Regretfully, I never saw her again. It wasn't long before I heard a familiar voice next to me. It was Deleica! I was excited to see her. We pretty much have the same pace and I was needing someone to keep me on track. I knew she was coming but we didn't get together before the race started. She came down early that morning. We ran most of the race together and I really enjoyed that.

I ran in the 10k and Kent ran as a 5k racewalker. As it turned out, we both came away as winners. Actually, anyone who ran should feel like a winner! I was totally surprised when I checked the results on the wall. I had placed in my age group. I couldn't believe it! As I stated before, it was NOT my best race. When the final results came in, I ranked 5th place. Kent walked a good race, too. He's only racewalked a couple of races so far. This one they have spotters that watch this group to be sure no rules are broken. He came out 2nd in the racewalker division.

Others we met that placed are: Leonard V. first place in his age group, Ginny D. tenth in her age group and Becky R. first place in her age group. Then there were Tanya D. who placed second and Hollie R. placed second in the 10k racewalker division. I hope I didn't miss anyone; it certainly wasn't intentional. Others we know that ran are Gary T., Ed W., Bill G., Deleica C., Randy G., Nancy P., Dwight H., Bob C., Serina W., Dennis W., La Von J., Lee D. and Danny I. It was great to run up with these great runners! Congrats to everyone that ran...it was a tough race this year. Post race activites were really good, too. No pictures were taken as I didn't have my camera with me during the race or activities.

We love this race but left this year just whipped. Now, what's next???

St. Patrick's Day 5k

What a beautiful day to have a race! It is warming up quickly here in south Mississippi. I didn't know the temp but I can promise you that it got HOT before the race was finished!

I was not sure what I was going to do for the 5k. My leg was not well enough, I thought, to try to "race" it and I just didn't think I could mentally "run/jog" it. Even thought about sitting this one out. But as I begin to intermingle with many of my running buddies, the thought of sitting it out was absolutely absurd! Excitement filled the air and I could hardly wait to get going. My newest and closest friend (my leg wrap) and I headed for the front of the line. I told myself that I would run as hard as I felt I could do without hurting.

Ed W. caught me before the race and took my picture in the street. Thanks! I tried to hide my compression wrap under my shorts but had my leg wrapped as much as I could to keep from re-injuring it.


I wasn't ON the front line but got as close as I felt I could safely. I hate for others to KNOW they are slower than others (sometimes even walkers) and get ahead just to slow down the faster runners and make them run an obstacle course for the first quarter mile just to get around them. Funny, these folks don't ever get to the side but in the middle of the street. Okay...done with that now. So off we go! Not sure exactly when/where this picture was taken but I'm to the right of the second cone in the black shorts and red shirt. Hopefully, you won't recognize me because my hair has a mind of it's own when I run!


I felt pretty good running. No pain at all...alright!! The wrap must be helping. I ran as good a race as I could. Since my marathon training and race, my speed is really off but I'm looking to regain it by summer provided I lose some of this flab I've decided was a good idea to carry around. NOT!!!!!!

When all was said and done I was able to whip out First Place in my age group...woo-hoo!! I was not expecting a single bit of recognition. This really helped my feelings especially since I was 2 minutes off my best 5k!! Did you hear me??? Two minutes!! This was a flat course and I couldn't do better than that?? Come on, Robbie...this will HAVE to get better. But I'm feeling stronger all the time and that's good news.

I'm so excited here!

Friends with their trophies:
Bob C. and Tommy P. Way to go guys!

One more bit of VERY exciting news. One of our club members, Bill G., set a new state record for his age in this race!! He came in at a fast 20:33. Our hats are off to you, friend!
Got his picture before the others in his age group for this reason.

And, finally, Congratulations to Leonard V. for coming in first overall, as usual!! Way to go, Superman. He not only directs the races, he starts them, wins them and comes in so early to cheer everyone on when they cross the line. And, oh yeah, he tallies the results and gives out the awards. Whew!! This tires me just trying to get it all written down. There's soooo much more but this is it for now. How he directs, starts and wins races is beyond my ability to understand.

Update: Nine (9) state records were set in this race. Just found out. Congratulations to Leonard V. AGAIN for running such a good race! Good job to all of you.

For more running stats, go here for the results: http://gulfcoastrunningclub.org/results/data_5K.php?race=stpat&yr=2011

Picture with running buddies: Julie and Bob
Me, Julie, Bob & Kent. Great job to all of you!

One more picture with a good friend taken at the last race.

Tommy & Kent

We decided to hang around for the St. Patrick's Day Parade. Here is a picture with just a tad of all the booty I got. Check out that cute white garter with a green 4-leaf clover on it. The necklaces I'm wearing are all really different. Not just the usual beads. All of those were given to a little girl in the car next to us.


Can you tell who took this picture? Look REAL close. It's a no-brainer.

What in the world???

Last week was quite challenging for me. I ran 8 miles on Monday and felt pretty good. Maintained my half marathon pace like I wanted to as I prepare to do one soon. But Tuesday...Tuesday came and it was a completely different story. As I started to run a 3 measley slow miles I was stopped in my tracks, literally. What is going on? I mean I couldn't run 3 steps without a sharp pain in my right thigh. This has not happened before. As those that read my blog know, I am stubborn; therefore I REFUSED to stop. So walking it was. Iced, drugged and wrapped my thigh afterward. It helped and continued to doctor it often. Next day came and 4 miles were planned. I wrapped my leg and headed out the door. Cautiously, I ran VERY slow. I stopped and stretched 3-4 times throughout and that seemed to help. For the next few days, my wrap and I became one. I began to get better even though I could still feel the "hurt" deeply. Carefully, I ran hoping it would help heal as long as I didn't injury it further. By the end of the week, I was feeling better but still "one" with my wrap.

ECO 5k

It was so good to race again! It's been too long. Now, don't take me wrong, the marathon was a race but for me it was more of finishing than a race. My racing for me had been put on hold during my training as I didn't want to take a chance of incurring an injury just before the marathon. We'd signed up for the ECO 5k but as the weather begin to worsen we weren't sure we were going to make it. But decided to bite the bullet and go for it.

Festivities began the night before when we picked up our packet. They were held at the quaint little Mockingbird Cafe. I loved the ambience and art there. We were also treated with a choice of a hamburger or veggie burger with drink and Miss Vicki's chips as part of our race fee. Let me tell you, that is probably the absolute bestest hamburger we've EVER eaten!! I'm not talking size (though it was huge), I'm talking taste. It was 100% Angus beef, at least an inch thick. It was on a roll type bun made with cheese and jalapeno's in it. Oh my goodness...it was fine!!! We could not finish it, it was so huge.

Race day started out with a 100% percent chance of rain forecasted but for "some" reason it delayed until lunch. The winds had been so strong for a couple of days and nights with gusts up to 30 mph, but they had subsided some. This was a biathalon (kayaking and running) AND a 5k race. You could do either one. But the wind and currents were so bad (a small craft advisory had been issued) that the kayaking was deemed unsafe and was canceled; therefore moving everyone to the 5k race. Even that was a bit questionable. We spoke with a couple of EMT's before the race and they were concerned because of a terrible storm that was to be there in about 30 minutes...the time the race was to start. With this in mind, we planned on racing in the rain. Unless the weather presents circumstances like lightning, it's not cancelled. We, also, met up with Ed W., lovingly called "Special Ed", and he took pictures until his disk reached "full" and that ended his tour of duty.

Here's Kent & I...okay...we didn't plan to dress alike. We NEVER do! And, I almost wore my black/gray cap, too.

At the beginning. Me in the middle and on the far right is Tommy P. Great job in your run, TP!

Ed on the left. Thanks so much for taking your time to snap a few pics.

ADDED NOTE: I forgot to mention this when I initially wrote the article but I really wanted to. There was a very nice man, D. Baria, who came up behind me when I was coming to the Finish Line. He was like an angel. Seems he just "appeared" right behind me and pushed me to run harder at the end. He could have easily ran past me but stayed right behind and kept telling me to "beat" him forcing me to run harder and harder. Thank you so much, D. You'll never know what that meant to me. Because you were so close and yet behind me I never got a good look at your face so I could never find you and tell you what that meant. I hope you read my blog so you will know now that "I thank you" for your help!

Because it continued to look like the sky was going to split wide open, we immediately left when the race was finished and headed back over to the Mockingbird Cafe where post race activities were going to take place. We received an extra shirt, an energy drink and a wrist band which gave us access to LOTS of good food, drink and homemade cookies. There were sausage and chicken jambalaya, chicken with tomatoes and onions in vermicelli, and a black bean with rice and pork loin dish followed by very large oatmeal raisin homemade cookies. Of course, there were energy drinks, beer, and coke products. It was delish! Here are some pics of the Mockingbird Cafe.

Here are the pics of the 5k winners. Loved the masks that the top winners got. They were all different and very pretty.

Overall Male

Overall Female

Masters Winners: Nancy & Leonard

Grand Masters Winners...that's me!

My Cool Mask!

Also, received this pretty handmade plaque

Race report can be found here. Thanks to Leonard and everyone who made this race a very successful one in spite of the weather! Great job...