Marathon

6   254 Leonard Vergunst     51 M Ocean Springs    MS     2:47:18     2:47:16      6:23     1:20:40
39  1030 James Coll               33 M Hattiesburg          MS     3:16:31     3:16:22      7:30     1:36:59

262   800 Aquilino Garcia    33 M Hattiesburg          MS     4:00:18     3:59:23      9:08     1:53:57

159   392 William Gasparrini   55 M Biloxi                MS     3:44:59     3:44:47       8:35    1:44:12
Also Marathon --> Ronald Williams  5:34:17

 

Half Marathon

131  3903 Nestor Raul Anzola   42 M Hattiesburg     MS     1:46:25     1:46:14      8:07

243  3356 Jerry Defatta                29 M Petal                 MS      1:55:22     1:54:47      8:46
Also Half-Marathon ---> Sarah Gasparrini  1:58:49

 

5K

17  5394 Ginny Dufrene        38 F Purvis          MS USA       25:47     8:18  
 

Kily did it….

 On a beautiful Sunday February 25 2007, Kily Garcia ran the Mardi Grass Marathon. The weather was just perfect! Some times the wind was blowing enough to refresh the most of 4,000 runners in the road. The course was flat, except the hilly bridge at mile 5.We had aid stations almost every 2 miles and porta potty everywhere (just in case) and the volunteers did a great job.

The race started exactly a 7:00 A.M. We ran trough the history area of New Orleans heading to the City Park and then way back to the Super Dome to finish the first half. From there we ran the opposite way in direction to the Audubon Park and coming back to the finish line in the superdome.

 I feel I ran a good race, keeping a steady pace of 8:36 until mile 18 and then slowing down about one minute…(I lost signal in my Garmin about mile 19)…so my average reading was not accurate. By mile 23 I was exhausted, so I ate my last gel, trying to get energy from anything. I checked my clock at mile 24, was 20 minutes to 11:00 A.M…then realize if I ran each mile in 10 minutes I can finish in 4 hours…but maybe because the lack of energy/oxygen, my math didn’t work, then I thought…what about the last .2 miles at the end…so I pushed more, feeling confident that I can give more at the end. I was really happy crossing the finish line finding that my net time was 3:59:23. I accomplish my goal of running a marathon under 4 hours.

 At the finish line I met Jim the fast and “Cool” ex-president, who ran a much better time of 3:16. As he promises the day before he was waiting on me with a freezing cold beer in his hands (the only problem is that he was drinking it). We went for a recover walk and we saw the “Strong” Ginny Dufrene who after running Austin marathon last weekend, ran the 5K in N.O. and was pacing to the finish line her friend from Team and Training Margie Crawford.

 The Fastest Colombian living in Hattiesburg, also ran an impressive half marathon, setting a new PR for that distance finishing in 1:46:14, just a day after running fast the “Run for Love” 5K. Also I want to congratulate my friend Carlos Muñoz from New Orleans, who ran his first marathon in a good time of 4:44:38 without following a formal training; I know that he can do better with more training.

 At the end, I want to thank Becky Ryder, person who I trust as a coach, but I didn’t ask her for an advice knowing in advance her emphatic NO to run a marathon a month. Don’t worry; I am going to stop if I get any injuries in the process.

For now wish me luck in the ING Georgia Marathon in March 25.  © Kily Garcia 

1. Start
2. Carlos Munoz and Kily
3. Carlos, Kily, and Raul
4. I do
5. Kily and Jim
6. Mission accomplished
7. The fastest Columbian
8. The start