The twenty-third annual Blueberry Festival 5K run was held on Saturday, June 9 with 125 people finishing the hot, humid, hilly run. To add a little confusion to the start of the race, we had two starting lines--one with 124 people standing ready to run and one with one person, but before we actually began the other 124 joined me at the correct starting line. After a prayer and a few instructions, the mayor of Poplarville shot the gun, and we were off. Max Lemons, President of the Gulf Coast Running Club, skipped one of his club's races to come to Poplarville and take the early lead and win the race with two minutes over the second place finisher, Desmond O'Conner. Desmond ran this same race a few years ago in 15-something. Paige Duracher was the first female finisher.  The Pine Belt Pacers were represented well by Andy Maxwell, Tony Mozingo, Phillip Wedgeworth, the Gasparrini family, and others. The Gulf Coast Running Club had several members to skip their race and come to Poplarville. In addition to the overall winner, Bob Clark, Nancy Phillips, and several others from the coast made the short drive to run the hills at the Blueberry Festival. One interesting thing that we don't see very often was a woman who ran the last couple of blocks to finish third overall; however, officials noticed that she was cool with perfect makeup and hair. Someone confronted her and she confessed and was disqualified. Does this remind anyone of someone who tried the same thing at the Boston Marathon years ago? After the race we enjoyed blueberries, bananas, oranges, Power-Aide, and water. Some lucky people won nice door prizes.   © Phillip Wedgeworth   Some Results