Well, we’ve checked another state off our 50 State quest – #22! The Mississippi River Marathon and Half Marathon was close(ish) to home, which made for a simple weekend dash over and back to run, as well as pick up a bit of sight seeing while we were in northwest Mississippi.
This race is a fun one to consider doing if you:
- want a flat course
- want a longer marathon time limit (7hr)
- want to pick up two states half marathons (you have to run the full marathon, but for you it’s called the Delta Double and you earn two half marathon medals).
They have terrific crowd support, friendly race staff and plentiful post-race food – our race day included fresh fruit, Shipley’s donuts, hot pizza, hot tamales, beer, gatorade, chocolate milk and cold water.
The race is point to point. Both the full and half start in Arkansas and run across the Mississippi River to finish in downtown Greenville, Mississippi. A nice option is to run the full marathon as two half marathons – this is called the Delta Double – and allows you to earn two state medals.
All runners are shuttled to the start lines (separate busses for the full and Delta Double, and the halfers). Fortunately, you can hang out on the bus until race start. Even more fortunately, there are a ton of porta-potties waiting at the start line for you. The entire course is that way, too!
Although a small race (just 542 total runners in 2020), it should be no surprise this is a favorite of the 50 state club runners.
