Tupelo Marathon 8-31-2014

This marathon was kinda another accidental one like so many of mine.  I had seen a picture of the shirt for this year about a week before Heather and I drove to Kansas and it looked to be purple and purple is my favorite color so I thought - cool I may have to do this race! I also had always loved the design they use for this shirt over the years. When Heather and I were driving back from Kansas I recall telling her about the Tupelo Race and even though I already had done the state of Mississippi she had not....so I had told her to pull up the site and check out how cool the shirt was! (Yes the purple one on their page) and then I proceeded to say if we take you're car I'll drive!! I dont mind the driving just hate always putting the mileage on mine so we decided at that time we would start letting our cars take turns to each event. Of course all it took was for Heather to pull up the site and my suggestion and we were both in! I just love her- we think so much alike!
We head to tupelo and get our packets and find the damn shirt is hot pink NOT purple....a little bummed but it still is a cool shirt. After packet pick up we checked out the town and drove to Elvis's birthplace.  The time zone was an hour earlier for us which was awesome due to the run having a 5am start time!! They hold it that early due to the heat and humidity at that time of the year.  The forecast had been calling for rain all week so we were not looking forward to that.
We did get lucky and the rains didnt come and the heat was not as bad as the previous years but boy it was still hot and humid. I was completely wet within the first mile. It was a 2 looped course and went through some of the areas that had been hit hard by the tornado in April of this year. It really was devastating to see so much damage!  It was also strange to see one house totally destroyed and another beside it with not even a roof shingle blown off.  Heather and I talked about how strange it would be to wake up and walk outside after the storm and your home be the only one not touched?
 Our friend Diane was running as well and there were quite a few marathon maniacs. I also got to see Bre and Andrew from Texas which was great because I hadn't seen them since the New England Challenge Series. During the second loop I had to stop and play the Elvis guitar! This section of downtown had about a half dozen guitars and they were all so cool! The only drawbacks of this course was not enough water stops and only porta potty was at the turn around and maybe a mile or so into the run. I really had to go too when I was on the second loop and was grateful for the woods that were off to the side of this one road, I was also grateful I was running with a handkerchief but I didnt return with one. As I was getting ready to exit the woods I heard Bre and Andrew holler my name...opps am sure a couple folks got a nice full moon before they came by.
With about 4 or so miles left Diane was coming up on us and was running with a couple friends I had not met yet who were in the Run It Fast Group....it was a pleasure to be able to meet some of them! We are not a large group like the Maniacs or 50 staters.

Not to far up the road I could here someone scream and Diane and George were checking out this snake....I kept trying to persuade Diane to just get a little closer for a really cool photo op but then as I got closer I realized shit its a copperhead!!!! HA We all headed on up the road and a motorcycle cop came by and I told him there was a snake ahead...he really got excited and decided to run over it 3-4 times and then kicked it off the road.
For the finish they had us run into a indoor facility and this was awesome...you could feel the air conditioning pouring out of it as you approached!! They had a band playing and pulled pork, coleslaw and potato salad. We grabbed some food and the RIFers took a photo together. The nice thing about the race starting so early is we had time to get back to our rooms to take a shower before driving home 450 miles!!