Good morning and welcome again,

I need assistants to help with on course events. Please consider it if your schedule will allow. You'll mainly be responsible to ensure the flag gets thru your portion with as little confusion as possible. Helping to organize the staging points and runner shuttles will be about it. I'll be along for most of the route but may need to take a break. Please let me know after looking at the timeline.

Just a few notes this morning and a repost of yesterday message for our new folks. Soon you'll be able to view these updates on the MS page of the web site so check back there at least daily as the run is approaching.

I'll be driving the route from Meridian to and thru Jackson today. Time permitting I'll also go over to Vicksburg. I'll have a more detailed timeline up on the site sometime later tonight. Please check back and consider when and where you will be able to run. I'll start to stage groups by the end of this week.

The night portion will be from near Newton to Brandon. Don't be shy! We will have escort vehicles and will light up the road with spotlights so don't expect any problems. If you've got a reflective vest, bring it. If not, we'll provide some. More on this later as we see how many we'll have running at night.

Think about how you'll get to and from your run segment. The more cars we have to shuttle people the better. I'll really need everyone's help on this to lighten my load. If you are running by yourself maybe you can bring a friend(s) to help drive. It won't be a problem in any case but please start thinking ahead.

The media is starting to pick up on this locally. Web site hits are close to 10,000 per day. Runners and helpers are continuing to sign on via the web site. We're approaching 50 now in MS. I'd like to see hundreds by next week with thousands more coming out along the route to cheer us on. It will be a great event for everyone involved.

Mike Cummings