Wherever You'll Go

When it’s just not meant to be: Mississippi Blues Race

I hadn’t planned to blog about this weekend, but the ridiculousness of just getting to Jackson, Mississippi warrants a few words.

I signed up for the 10th anniversary of the Mississippi Blues Half Marathon, which would have been my sixth half marathon in as many states. I picked this race, because I’d only spent about an hour at a time in Mississippi. That’s how long it takes to drive through the small part on our way to Florida. I thought this would be a short juant to collect another medal, but give us 48 hours to check out the city’s famous Blues music and civil rights history. Not only would there be music along the race route, there would be a blues crawl the night of the race. And when I heard we were getting jackets instead of shirts, I was more than excited.

It was a warm 70 degrees for my last training run the weekend before the race. But January came in with a bang. Friday, the day before the race, brought a severe cold front to the South, especially to major cities that aren’t prepare for icy conditions. Our second flight to Jackson was already cancelled when we arrived in Houston at 9am. There were three flights later that day, but the next two we could only get on standby. By about 11am, both of those flights were also cancelled due to the severe weather. At the same time I received an email from the race that everything was still on. So, while I’m also trying to work at the airport, we now have to figure out a new route to Jackson. Surrounding area airports were still open, and the closest was Monroe, LA with a two hour drive. This would also require us renting a car to drive to the Jackson airport to get the rental car I’d already paid for. A handful of people in front of us in the customer service line, were also planning on flying into a different city and driving the rest of the way.

It sounds complicated, and it was. Luckily my husband was super supportive and agreed to this plan, knowing instead of flying into severe weather, we might now be driving into it. Our flight to Monroe was a short 35 minutes, and we got the last two seats on the flight. My seat was 1A – practically first class, if this regional jet had such a thing – but I was actually the only seat in row 1. So now, after two short 35 minute flights, we just had to drive two more hours. The first hour was fine, but it started to sleet as we entered Mississippi.

Practically first class, except the plane was so tiny the first row only had one seat: mine.

The next hour was slow going. We passed at least ten vehicles in ditches, so we took our time along the slushy roads. Our first stop in Jackson was packet pickup. While there wasn’t much of an expo, they did have live music and I got my race jacket! The roads were a bit icy, and we almost slipped just walking into the convention center. Now, we had to get to the airport to exchange rental cars. While it was only about ten miles, the traffic and ice made it a tense drive. As we got near the airport, we realized it was kind of dark and quiet. At that moment I realized, if our flights were cancelled the whole airport might have closed down. The rental car attendants were still there, and even though my original rental was through a different company, they let us keep the same car. And we found out that indeed the airport had been closed the whole day.

All in all, it took us about ten hours to get to Jackson. That’s double what I thought it would take, but at least we made it. That’s also a couple hours more than if we had just driven the whole way in the first place, not to mention the cost. After such a stressful day, we needed nourishment. The Iron Horse Grill was giving a racer discount, and it did not disappoint. It was also the top stop I wanted to hit on the Blues Crawl the next night.

I got the email about 9pm that the race was cancelled, I was disappointed to say the least. The road conditions were only going to get worse over night. So, I turned off my alarm and crashed. It had been an exhausting day. I couldn’t even image how the race director must have felt.

The next day, I figured we’d do all the things we planned to do the day before and didn’t do. The first guy I talked to in the elevator said he’d already ran that morning. Well, challenge accepted! I mentally added a run to the day’s activities. He also told me I could still pick up my race medal. Now, this might be a little controversial, but yes, I still wanted my medal. I came to this city to run, which I did do maybe not a half marathon, but sometimes just getting to the start line is medal worthy. And if nothing else, I wanted it to dedicate to my husband. The medal has ten guitars and I told him five were his. A lot of us have supporters, encouragers and those that make us dinner so we can eat as soon as we finish our long runs. I would never have even gotten to that start line without him. So, yes I will take that medal, thank you very much.

We ice skated out of the hotel and to the car – definitely dicey road conditions. A sheet of white slush covered the roads, but of course there were people out running! After picking up the ginormous medal, the first place I wanted to go was the Medgar Evers Home. I had originally booked a tour with the curator, from Tougaloo College, but called her from Houston when I knew we wouldn’t make it. There are a couple informational signs outside the home, and I was glad we could at least pay homage to a man that fought for civil rights and social justice. A fight we are still fighting this day.

The Evers’ home has no front door. They thought it would be safer, but he was still killed in his driveway. His killer wouldn’t be convicted for over 30 years.

Next we head over to the Lucky Town Brewery. We drove by it about three times, until we noticed the tiny sign. There were no cars around, so I called – no answer – and then looked at their Facebook page, which indicated they were open but just use the back door. My husband wasn’t sure about walking into this abandoned warehouse, but as soon as we saw the “Christopher Walk-In” sign on the walk-in cooler, we knew we were in the right place. This little brewery has only been around a few years, but they had eight beers on tap! The “tour” costs $10 for a pint and six 6 oz. pours, plus there’s a tap room, and plenty of games. We ended up playing corn hole against a few other would-be marathoners we met. It was easy to make new friends because it was so cold everyone was wearing their new race jackets. We spent almost three hours there before we left to find lunch. They also gave us tickets for a free beer at a local pizza joint.

Our new friends suggested Pig and Pint, but it was closed when we arrived. The roads were drying up and we didn’t have any issues as long as we stayed off bridges, but we guessed most people opted to stay home that day. It was a bitingly cold day, but the sun was out and the roads were mostly dry now. So, after a quick consult with Yelp, we went around the corner to Saltine, a cute oyster bar in an old brick school building. We were treated to oysters, gumbo and blackened catfish – a yelp success.

We cruised over to the Mississippi Museum of Art next. When I picked up my medal, I noticed a sign saying they’d be open later and admission was free. The museum was small, but a nice exhibit and really we had nothing else to do, since the city was mostly shut down.

Abandoned gatorade at the would-be race finish, outside the Museum of Art.

It wasn’t going to get any warmer, so I went for a six mile run. I came to this city to run and I was determined to earn that medal. As long as I kept moving and stayed on the sunny side of the street it was bearable. My run took my by the Mississippi War Memorial, the Old Capital Museum, the Capital, a cemetery, and a Wing-stop.

The race’s Facebook page notified us that the Blues shuttle was not going to be
running after all. Some of the venues were even closed. Hal and Mal’s was nearby, but when we walked in we were told there’d be no live music since the musicians cancelled. We figured that’s about how it was going to be everywhere so after some amazing Jambalaya nachos, we headed to Sal and Mookie’s for dessert. Actually that was the third place we went to but the first two were closed. My husband summed up the weather best: underprepared for the first day, and over prepared for the next. By now the roads were a non-issue.

The next morning the airport had re-opened and our flight left on time. But as we sat on the runway in Houston, waiting for our gate to open, our connection was already boarding. We sprinted to our next gate, only to be told the doors closed five minutes ago. So, we ran to the customer service desk to try to get on the next flight leaving in a hour. Well, that flight already had nine people on standby. We were booked on the next next flight which was already delayed. We didn’t even get lunch vouchers because our original flight was less an hour delayed, even though we’d now be spending over four more hours in the airport. I crazily thought getting home would be easy. It’s tough to sit in an airport knowing you could just drive home faster. After about ten extra travel hours, no race, and no live music, I definitely had the blues.

I can’t help but wonder what the rest of the year is going to be like.

Tips:

• Check out Lucky Town Brewery. They even have games for the kids and live music every third Saturday.
• Call Mrs. Watson at Tougaloo College for a tour of the Medgar Evers home, and let me know how it is.
• Follow the self guided civil rights trail.
• Check out a blues artist featured at local venue, and again let me know how it is.
• Make the most of it – whatever that means to you. And when everything is going wrong, I hope you have a friend by your side that helps you laugh about it. If not, a giant dessert might help.