Pepper Chase Drive

SOUTHAVEN, Miss. — There was a senior guard from Alabama-Huntsville, Julie Richardson, I think (No. 12), who struck me a bit in her post-game interview yesterday, but Harding's Kaitlin May will be hard to beat in today's Miss Gulf South Conference Pageant.

I ran 2 miles on an out-and-back course on Pepper Chase Drive from the Key West Inn and Suites this morning in 21:35, with splits of 10:45 and 10:50. Pepper Chase Drive has the feel of a freeway-access road, except that it offers no access to I-55, which it parallels north and south. Maybe a dozen cars passed me as I ran by the Great American Home Store, a factory called American Steel, which, based on its empty parking lot, looked like a lot of factories in this country with names like "American Steel," the Southaven Animal Shelter, and RV City, to the turnaround at the Southaven Eagle (a newspaper, I think)

The course is slightly downhill headed out, south away from the Key West, offset some this morning by a 15-20 mph north wind. I felt okay. My legs are a little dead, but that didn't surprise me. I ran a marathon four days ago, and ate too much yesterday. The chef they hire for the GSC men's and women's basketball tournament is the best mass producer of food I have encountered. Yesterday he turned sheets of pasta, butter-drenched steamed squash, and cheese into a fucking masterpiece. The lasagna was close to perfect. Lunch consisted of salad (several varieties of fresh lettuce and spinach, red onions, tomatoes, mushrooms, and thinly sliced cucumbers), juicy beef sliced thin with crisp, fatty edges, homemade bread, and a pot of chili.

Now I will shower, drive two blocks to the DeSoto Civic Center, eat, and start judging the beauty pageant.