Early morning on July 4^th, Vicky Copeland, Kily Garcia and Nestor Raul Anzola met in Hattiesburg to go together to the Watermelon Classic in Jackson, MS. Copeland and Garcia wanted to leave at 5:00am to be sure they would arrive to the event early and with no time pressure. They said they wanted to be sure Anzola was awake. For some bizarre reason, there is a rumor between the Pacers that Anzola sometimes arrives "a little late" to the races. What a calumny! I know for certain that he always comes into sight at least 2 hours before any race, training session, or social Pacers meeting. Anyway, we were ready to leave; however, an argument arose between Kily and Vicky because both desperately wanted to be the designed driver. After 15 minutes of discussion, Anzola stepped into the middle, took the car keys, and got in his 2007 Mustang Sentra.

Kily and Becky were part of the same Pacer team, the "Fun 4 All & All 4 Fun" gang. However, after their fiery and intense argument, it was decided to separate them and make a little change in the teams’ rooster. Kily would move to the "Youth Endangered Running Species" and first-time jogger Phillip Wedgeworth would come to Vicky’s team.

We arrived to Jackson at 6:45am, forty-five minutes before the race (a new PR!). Once at the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame and Museum, we met with the other Pacers. First, we saw two sweet ladies, Adrienne "Smiley" Hick and Ashley "Irongirl" Bailey. Then we found the "Fantastic Four" PBP Rookies, Christy Pickering, Andrew Maxwell, Kelton Turner, and Dwayne Higgason. Dwayne is a future Pacer. Since the night before Joni "Speedy" Dunbar suddenly broke her multimillionaire contract to run the race, he accepted to replace Joni as a member of the "Nutter Butter Peanut Butter" squad. We also had a couple of minutes to talk to our coaches, Hollie and Becky "Mother Goose" Ryder. Right before the event started, we could see the other 3 Pacers in front of the group of runners, Phillip Wedgeworth and the Keywoods, Jerry and Amy.

The weather was nice, temperatures in the 80’s and under a cloudy sky. About 820 high-spirited runners and walkers ages 7 to 70-plus made the event a success. They were joined by another 100 young runners in the 1-mile fun race and 20 toddlers in the 50-yard Tot Trot. The course went around the neighborhood and had just enough hills to make it a challenge. The 5K race started at 7:30am. When the gun went off, Gary Guerrero sprinted to the lead and emerged with a commanding win, covering the course in 16:25. He grabbed the victory by 4 second over second-place finisher, Mark Thorne.  Third place went to Nathan Tarver in 17:11.  Mary Catherine Barlow was the first female finisher with a time of 20:10. Kirby Hendrix (29:31) was the overall winner of the 5K walk. The first female walker was Viola Dacus in 31:22. Seth Cantrell (6:31) and Niijor May (6:47) were the fastest boy and girl to finish the 1-mile fun race.

The Pine Belt Pacers were well represented. In the 5K run, Vicky Copeland won her age group. Phillip placed second in his age bracket and Ashley Bailey and Amy Keywood placed third in theirs. Jerry, Kelton, Kily, Dwayne, Andrew, Christy, and Adrienne also had a good time. Kily broke 24 minutes and set another PR (23:58). In addition, in the 5K walk event, Nestor Raul won the top Masters award and Hollie was third in his group. The Pine Belt Pacers team integrated by Hollie, Becky, Nestor Raul and 2 close friends from the Jackson area, Elizabeth Howard and Carolyn Graham, was second overall in the team competition, only one minute behind the top squad, the Port City Walkers.

In the domestic Pacers Club team competition, the final results showed the "Youth Endangered Running Species" as the overall winner team. Here are the results by cumulative time (top three):

1. Youth Endangered Running Species (Jerry, Kily & Hollie) 1:18:51

2. Four Twisted Monkeys (Amy, Ashley, Andrew & Becky) 1:18:59

3. Fun 4 All & All 4 Fun (Vicky, Phillip & Adrienne) 1:19:34

4. Nutter Butter Peanut Butter (Kelton, Dwayne, Christy & Raul) 1:21:37

Thanks to the Mississippi Track Club and the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame and Museum staff for another well organized race.  © Pijume Diwesi   See results