Meggan Franks ran the 13 miles in the Columbus Pilgrimage Half Marathon on Saturday morning.
She then had to run some more.
Franks finished ninth overall in the third-annual Columbus Pilgrimage Half Marathon and 5-Kilometer Road Race, and was the first area female to cross the finish line. Franks made the hilly downtown trek in 1 hour, 21 minutes, 45 seconds. She then ran back down hill to her vehicle to lead some 1,000 Mississippi State students in The Big Event service day.
“I ran as hard as I could,” said Franks, The Big Event coordinator still catching her breath just beyond the finish line. “I’m about to head back to Starkville. Can’t slow down.”
Franks, 32, placed fourth among the female runners, and first in the 30- to 34-year-old age group.
“The course was a little hilly, but it’s Columbus, and like Starkville, there are rolling hills,” she said. “It was perfect weather, very well organized. They just do a really fantastic job here.”
Franks ran a race last weekend, too, which she said might not have been such a great idea in hindsight.
“I got past mile seven and the third-place girl (Auburn, Ala.’s Taylor Ward), I legitimately could not catch her,” Franks said. “She was hauling butt.”
Ward, 25, fresh off competing in the Olympic trials in February in Los Angeles, finished in 1:20:17, 3:30 behind first-place female Pauline Mutwa, of Kenya.
Melissa Atkins, who organizes the event with her husband, Brad, said the growing marathon and simultaneous 5-K run featured runners from 13 states.
The runners included second-place female Valentine Kibet, who came all the way from High Falls, New York.
“(The elites) are really fast,” Atkins said. “We have more hills than last year. We’ll see how they do, but they want that cash prize.”
Stephen Njoroge, of Kenya, won the first-place half marathon payout of $1,000. Njoroge’s training partner and fellow Kenyan Robert Gititu took home $650. The 26-year-old Njoroge finished in 1:07:26.
“For it to grow just in three years from a couple of hundred people to close to 370, we are thrilled,” Visit Columbus CEO Nancy Carpenter said. “Melissa and Brad are amazing. We are thrilled. The hotel rooms are full and there are so many fun activities going on throughout the weekend. People get a chance to see what Columbus is all about.”
The race started and ended at the Tennessee Williams Home and Welcome Center under sunny skies.
In a cool breeze, Starkville’s Jay McCurdy, 31, was the first area runner to cross. He finished fifth overall with a time of 1:15:05, a pace of 5:44 per mile.
“It’s a fast, fair, flat course,” McCurdy said, “mostly in the shade, sheltered from the wind on a beautiful bike path. It’s a really nice race.”
It was McCurdy’s second time to run the race.
“The winners today, they deserve a lot of credit,” McCurdy said. “Brad and Melissa deserve a lot of credit because they attract quite a crowd with a nice money purse. This is a real crown jewel of races.”
Booneville’s Greg Windham finished sixth among the men and 11th overall. John Long, 35, was the lone wheelchair racer. He finished in 1:59:36.
Local runners finished in the top six spots of the female 20-24 age group, including first place Megan Pole, of Columbus. She placed 28th among the females.
“This is the toughest one I’ve ran. That’s a new record for me,” said Windham, who finished in 1:27:57. “For a 44-year-old, not too bad.”
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