Hattiesburg 5k/10k/half marathon weekend- Meg's POV

I got the honor and privilege to be a part of the Hattiesburg 5k/10k/Half Marathon from the eyes of the RD, Rhonda. Mind you, said race had 1700 racers, plus all the volunteers and cheerleaders. I helped Rhonda some with Molten Mohawk back in February, so when Rhonda called asking if I would head up packet pickup for Hburg Half, I answered back with a resounding yes. I also told her I would help her out in the days leading up to the race. Spoiler: that was the single best offer I could have ever made- for me and for her.

How did this change my personal life? Having someone choose and trust me to head up something as big as a 1700 person packet pick up, meant a lot to me. And then, I proceeded to delve into her world for 4 straight days. My entire life paused with anyone outside the race. She trusted me to be her right hand woman, even when she didn’t ask for it. She thanked me no less than 57894789 times. (Her/Kinda Gritty also was and is my biggest spporter of Megamiles.)

Rhonda and I spent a lot of time just us 2 via marking the course. I got to learn her story. If you know me, you know 1 on 1 time is my love language. Learning her story whilst marking the race course was a time I enjoyed and cherish (even while yelling at each other across traffic). The amount of respect I gained for Rhonda is innumerable. I wish everyone could hear. I know I helped her out with this race, but I sure hope she knows how much it helped me. I felt ‘normal’ for the first time in a while. I felt trusted without the asterisk. I felt, should I say it, happy. And with a new med, I feared not being able to feel a high, and I got to, and oh how sweet it felt. Imma switch to second person. Rhonda, thank you for trusting me as a person and talking to me as an equal, despite this being your race. Thank you for helping me start the process of trusting that I am capable of hard things. Thank you for your generous heart. Oki done being sappy.

Wednesday: It was only a few hours for me. Rhonda and I set all the signs up around her kitchen/dining room. Labeled each sign what intersection they would go in. Put them in order. Put the ground stakes in each one. And organized what went in the car.

Thursday: Rhonda and I set off and marked the course. What does that look like? Going to every intersection, putting sign(s) where they need to go. Putting the biodegradable sticker arrows on the ground. Looking like an idiot running in the middle of Hardy St., Main St, and all the roads to lay out an arrow. Having 4-6 arrow stickers on your shirt at any given point. I am gonna share a few funny things that happened. If you wanna skip, you do you boo.

Story #1: We met up with a cop who was leading and wanted to go over the course. Rhonda went with him and I stayed. Leanna needed to give me some cookies for JA’s birthday, so instead of making her U-turn, I ran in the middle of the intersection of Highway 49 and Hardy to grab them. How thoughtful of me. Except. Rhonda was with the cop and the cop started saying WHAT IS YOUR FRIEND DOING. Now, I had just told Rhonda I was starting to get tremors because of taking Lithium, which happens most days, but was why it was harder for me to do something. So, sweet Rhonda, not having seen me, just going off the cop freaking out, thought I had an episode of some sort and was laid out in the middle of the road. So she looks and tells him oh she’s just going to get cookies from a friend. The cop is like ……………. So Rhonda tells the cop that I have bipolar, and isn’t exactly sure what’s up. I. FELL. OUT. SO. HARD. FROM. LAUGHING.

Story #2: I was yet again running through traffic, and ran in front of a firetruck. IMO there was plenty of space. So this guy in a truck slows down and says you’re gonna get hit by a firetruck! And I was like eh it’s oki. And he was like no it’s really not. And in my head I was like stay in your lane sir. But Rhonda and I got a kick outta him being like be careful and I was like eh. YOLO.

Story #3: When we were marking the course for Molten Mohawk, Rhonda would put the arrow stickers all over her shirt and thighs, and I would laugh at how ridiculous she looked. Fast forward to Hburg Half marking, I didn’t even hesitate when we started, to put them on my shirt. Rhonda told me I had arrived.

Friday: I didn’t sleep a lot because I was so hype. We finished marking the course in the morning. Then we set off to packet pickup where that was mine. We organized the set up and made it aestetically pleasing. The volunteers started showing up and I got to explaining everything that was about to happen for 4 hours. There were enough volunteers to where I could ‘float’, meaning get to walk around the expo/packet pickup and answer questions. I had on my pink ‘Coach Meg’ hat (S/O Sarah for the gift) so I became ‘ask the girl in the pink hat.’! I did that all afternoon.

After packet pickup, Rhonda and I set off to the start line to set up the flags, do some banners, and other random stuff that RD’s apparently do the night before a race, of which involve sitting on top of the start line looking at her 8594058409 messages she won’t ever get through.

Saturday: I slept less than 4 hours. Rhonda slept 0 hours. Great start. Did packet pickup that morning with my pink hat. I ended up driving around a race photographer all around the course for pictures for a few hours. It was fun to see all my friends all around the course. FYI, I am terrible at remembering a race course that I drove for 2 straight days. I am not the best photographer driver to say the least (sorry, Jesse).

Afterwards, I went to the finish to see my fiancé and fiancé 2.0 finish their second and first half marathon. After everyone finished, we cleaned up the finish line. Rhonda, her hubs, a sweet volunteer who crushed it, Ashlynn, and I put stuff where it went for a while. Rhonda and I went sweep the course for signs and trash. Finally, we parted ways. I had lunch with Leigh Anne and dinner with my run fiancé, Seth, to hear about their race and share about mine.

Overall, I would 1000 times do it all over again. I would encourage anyone that has the time to invest in a local race director, you won't regret seeing the intricate details that are put into making the event the best one ever and getting to be a small part of the success in the event. You might even just come out of it a better person than before.