Mississippi Blues Marathon

The Mississippi Blues Marathon (http://www.msbluesmarathon.com) is just in its second year, but it already getting a national reputation. Today, John Sewell, Director of Corporate Communications for Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Mississippi, announced that Bill Rodgers, a four-time winner of the Boston Marathon and the New York Marathon, will be the featured speaker at the Mississippi Blues Marathon expo on January 2. This is a major coup for the marathon.

Rodgers is the Michael Phelps of American distance running, and he will surely draw a huge crowd of listeners. I can assure you, I will be there. Maybe some of his knowledge will drip down on me. I'm certain Rodgers has forgotten more about distance running than I will ever know. So I welcome the opportunity to hear from him.

In addition to the Rodgers announcement, Sewell also said that the 50 States Marathon Club has chosen the Blues Marathon as the site for their first quarter reunion meeting. That will likely bring even more people to Jackson.

Last year, I ran the half marathon at the inaugural running of the Mississippi Blues Marathon, and this year, I'll run the full distance. In fact, my training starts tomorrow. I'm continuing to use the running program that I got from Hal Higdon (http://www.halhigdon.com/) years ago, and even though it's a beginner program, it works well for me. I'll probably modify it slightly this year because I'd really like to break the four-hour mark. I came very close in Houston in 2007 but an IT band problem really hampered me in the second half of the race. I finished with a 4:13.

My next-door-neighbor ran the Nashville marathon this spring in 3:50, and he's planning to run the Blues event with me. He says we'll set a target of 3:45, and I'm hoping we can pull it off. This is a challenging course, and the stars will have to align for me to hit that mark, but I'll give it my best shot.