Despite threatening weather conditions, a good crowd composed by 318 runners, 111 walkers, and 34 one-milers were present in the 2006 edition of the BancorpSouth 5K Mal’s St. Paddy’s Parade Race that took place in downtown Jackson, MS on Saturday, March 18.  The rain held off for most of the race but fell heavily for the post race activities (sorry! because of this reason, not pictures were taken to go with the report).

 

The overall winner in the 5K Run was Rob Oates in a time of 17:29, and for the women it was Heather Butler in a time of 19:10.  Masters winners were Robert Ross in 17:40 and Della Hillburn in 23:10.  The top Grandmasters were Curtis Kynerd (20:25) and Mary Lohrenz (22:30).  Tina Branan was the overall winner in the 5K Walk in 31:33 followed 4-seconds behind by the top male, David Chaney (31:37).

 

The Pine Belt Pacers were well represented by Phillip Wedgeworth, Brandy Windham, Nadine Archuleta, Larry Sykes, Nestor Raul Anzola, and Hollie Ryder.  Larry was the Grandmaster winner (32:03), and Néstor Raúl took the top Masters Award in the 5K Walk (32:44).  Hollie placed third in his age group in the Walk (33:59), and Phillip (21:41) was second in his group in the Run event.  Brandy and Nadine also had a great race (28:34 & 29:13 respectively).  The Pine Belt Pacer Club placed second overall in the team competition just two minutes behind the winner team from Vicksburg.  We will try to reverse the team order in the coming Run for the Roses to take place in Prentiss, MS on April 8^th.

 

After the race and under an intense rain, we enjoyed some fruit, cookies, Gatorade and pizza.  Congratulations to the Mississippi Track Club for another great event.  Next year they promise sunny skies!  Thanks for all of the hard work that went into making this a successful run.  See complete results at the MTC webpage.  © Nestor Raul Anzola