The First Annual Mississippi Premier Mile Championship and Festival took place at the Southern Miss Track complex last Saturday in the evening hours. It was a great event organized and promoted by Pine Belt Pacer Yousri Elmejdoubi. A good crowd turned out for the run, had a great time, and cheered for all runners competing in the four 1-mile races.

As you have already read in the Hattiesburg American article, Cory McGee and Logan Waites were first and second place in the Premier high-school girls run with times close to the five minute mark. In the boys Premier competition, Daniel Simpkins took the lead early in the race and won the event in 4:29 followed by Matthew Cameron two seconds behind. Pine Belt Pacer, Corey Rigdon, finished in fifth or sixth place. The kids’ 1-mile race was also very competitive. 11-years-old Kayla Stricker got a fotofinish win over the first boy, crossing the finish line in a little more than 6 minutes. Her younger sister Christie was third. Hunter Murray won the high-school open division in 4:50 while Pine Belt Pacer Bob Press was the first finisher in the oldies category. John Oliveri place second, and Pacer Nestor Raul Anzola was officially third………. and last! J

Have you ever been the last-place finisher in a race? Well, I had the feeling for the first time; I was the dead last-place in the open race on Saturday! Even I was not attempting to make any mockery of the sport, I finished a long way behind the previous runner. What happened? As there were so few entries in the "oldies" category, we ran along the high-school sprinters. The youngsters started fast, killed and beat us badly! In addition, other Pine Belt Pacers, males and females, were 100% chicken and never showed up for the running event.

Moreover, I had a really poor performance. Since I normally run the first mile in a 5K race in 7 minutes, I was expecting to have a finish time between 6:10 and 6:30 in the Saturday event. But no, it did not happen. I did not even get close! I crossed the finish line in an awful 7:05. Excuses? Not a good one! Maybe, if I work out a little bit and stop jumping from race to race without running in between, I could improve my times a lot. I had plenty of fun watching the new generation of Mississippi runners giving its best performance, but it will also be a forgettable day for my personal record book.

Special Thanks go to Pine Belt Pacers Elmer and Ann Beardshall (helped with timing), Steve Ulery (starter), and the track coach at St. Andrews in Jackson for the race timing, the youngsters who volunteered to be rabbits for the Premier competitions (hard work guys!), the race announcers, and all other volunteers who helped Yousri to make this event in its first edition a complete success.

I hope I meet the PBP Chicken in the relay team competition at USM this Saturday J