JimColl / Special to The Clarion-Ledger Children run the track at University of Southern Mississippi in the Bops Kids Quarter Mile, which was a fund-raiser for the university's track program and a fun day for kids.

HATTIESBURG — Joni Dunbar of Petal has run marathons, most recently the Boston Marathon.

But on a recent Saturday morning, she appeared to be getting a bigger kick running with her 5-year-old daughter, Emme, who was completing her once-around-the-track run at the Marshall Bell Track and Field/Soccer Complex at the University of Southern Mississippi.

"She got tired, but she finished fourth," Dunbar said. "She seemed to like this, but this wasn't anything really serious. This was a lot fun."

The race was a fund raiser of the Pine Belt Pacers, an a amateur running club that regularly donates money to causes ranging from muscular dystrophy to the establishment of an outdoor classroom along the Long Leaf Trace.

The funds from the event, dubbed the second annual Pine Belt Pacers Relays, were raised through a Friday night dinner/silent auction and the entry fees.

The money was then donated to the USM track program.

"It will go toward our track foundation, so we can use it for whatever purpose," USM coach Wayne Williams said. "It's such a good thing. They're the only group that does anything like this to help us, so we greatly appreciate it."

The club was formed in 1999 by Becky Ryder, a former track coach from Katy, Texas, who retired with her husband to Hattiesburg.

"I didn't know anybody, and there was no runner's club here, so, I started one," said Ryder. "At the beginning, it was all people in their 40s. Now, there's a lot of young people involved, and that's made a difference."

One of those young people was 4-year-old Jacob Hilpp, who had a trophy and a bowl of ice cream to show for his efforts.

"The whole track," he said, pointing to the far side of the infield. "I ran real hard."

Jim Coll, president of the Pacers, said the club membership stands at an all-time high of 135 runners, up from about 90 at the end of 2005.

"Walking, running, whatever," Coll said. "We try to encourage people to do whatever they're comfortable with, and if they want to join, that's great."

Coll said club members hail from as far off as Jackson to the Coast, though the heart of the club beats in the Hub City and the immediate area.

It's there that Ryder teaches a 15-week running course at three levels - beginner, intermediate and expert -at the Thames Elementary track.

It's where Dunbar, Coll and three others from the area, Robin Ryder (Becky's son and a former USM trackman), Keith Barrett and Vicki Copeland, came to qualify for the Boston Marathon.

"It was interesting, having like 2.5 million people watching the race and them trying to hand you a beer," Coll said. "That was different."

Dunbar said she was doing fine until she hit the hills.

"I was great during the first 15 miles, and then there were those hills," Dunbar said, wincing at the thought.

"Heartbreak Hill, they don't call it that for nothing. I swear it's straight up," he said.

The Pacers usually sponsors three road races a year around the Hattiesburg area.

Last year, the proceeds from one race, $1,500, helped send three kids with muscular dystrophy, to summer camp.

Another race helped fund the planning/construction of an amphitheater of sorts on a half-acre along the Long Leaf Trace, where schoolchildren could be brought for lessons.

"We want to give kids a place for field trips and that sort of thing," said Tony Mozingo of the $5,000 project. "That's one of the things we're doing, and that's the kind of thing we want to keep doing."