The First Pearl River Ramble 10K took place in Henleyfield, MS on Saturday, November 10.  The weather was beautiful, warm, temperatures around 60 (after 2 days with sunrises in the 30’s!) and a little overcast.  The crowd was small but enthusiastic, 22 fast runners of South Mississippi and Louisiana.  The course was somehow challenging and hilly and ran through the Henleyfield area.  The scenery was awesome.  The course was not a closed course, but the volunteers, police, and fire department really did a great job at keeping traffic out of the areas.  It had big mile markers, so it was easy to keep track of our split times.

Just before 6am, Audrey, Hollie, Becky and I drove down to the race site.  We arrived at about 7:00, in time to pick up our T shirt.  Hollie and Becky worked the finish line and the clock.  We met other familiar faces from our area; Keith Barrett, Jeff Hathorn, Robin and Kim Ryder, Tony and Millie Mozingo were there.  Since the starting point was downhill from the community center, transportation was offered from the finish line to the starting line.  Someone told us that the distance to the race start was about 0.75 miles, so we decided to do our warming up just by running there.  Well…. In fact, the distance was more than 1.5 miles, and we almost missed the start!

Becky gave us some final instructions, and we went off.  12-years old Tanner Bryant took an early lead, but then after half mile was passed by the 2 big guys, Robin Ryder and Jeff Hathorn who battled to the end.  Robin took first place overall in 36:19.  Jeff finished 10 seconds behind Robin (36:29).  Third place went to Keith Barrett who finished in 42:45.  In a photo-finish end, 15-year old Melinda Salomon claimed the victory in the women race over her classmate, running peer, and Pine Belt pacer Brittany Ware; both finished in 48:27.  Audrey got the masters title in 49:35.   We were impressed by the fact that everyone who ran the race finished under 1 hour (look for complete results at the bottom).

I started out strong the first 2 miles then dropped into a steadier but slower pace.  However, I ran a pretty consistent pace throughout the entire race (can you believe it?).  I didn’t get caught up in anyone else's race so I was able to maintain my pace and pass a few people in the final 2 miles.  I finished in 46:11, my best 10K time in November 2007!