The Carl Touchstone Mississippi 50 Trail Run had another banner year with the most applicants and starters ever. This year's run also included a 20k in addition to the 50mile and 50k. We thank all of the runners for their support and kind words about the race. You are the ones that make the hard work worthwhile. We try to put on a run that you can enjoy and that makes you want to come back next year. 

We appreciate the hospitality from our major sponsor South Central Regional Medical Center for providing us with a delicious pre race meal, and caring for our safety by providing an ambulance that stayed during the entire run. Linda Gavin, Lesha Lilly and Robert Smith coordinated this. We thank Doug Higginbotham for the hospital's support  for 8 years.   

William F. Horne and Johanna Newcombe with Horne CPA Group do a wonderful service for the race by providing race accounting and advice. Thank you.

Brooke Touchstone, Jeffery LeBlanc Dr, Scott Martin DDS, Kent Leggett DMD, David Rice DMD, John Barrow DDS, Laurel Rotary Club, Stephan Ellis DDS, and Fred Walters DDS helped with our funding. Thank you all for your support of the race. 

Gifts for the pre race drawings were donated by; Buffalo Peak Outfitters, Fleet Feet Sports, Power Gel E Caps, and Rogers/Usry-Chevrolet/ Hummer. Thank you all for the great gifts.

LaDonna Stroud Walters, local artist, has provided us with the artwork for the runner’s tee shirts and plaques for the last two years. Thank you LaDonna.

Our sponsors make the run better every year. Again, we thank you all so much.

As race director I depend on an awful lot of people to come through; most go beyond the call of duty. They spend many hours working to prepare for the race. They clean trails, build web sites, send and reply to emails. You name it, the volunteers do it. All of their hard work yielded this year's exciting race.

Miraculously Davy Kennamer from Alabama over came a 7:02 minute deficit to overtake DeWayne Satterfield and Scott Belland to win the 50-mile race. What a race!

Wyck Neely was missed this year. His mother died unexpectedly. Wyck and family are in our prayers.

We thank our scorekeepers: Bill McMullan, Ann Beardshall, and Vicki Graham. Three races and 140 runners, and they were keeping splits. Think about it. Great job.

All of you hit the big loop aid stations and the 50k runners hit the 50k-aid station. From what I am told they did a whale of a job providing food, water and kind words.  Working aid station 1 at 4.25 miles was Tom and Patsy Foster, Cathy Dill and Sandy Saxon. Toby and Diane Herrington (Tom and Patsy’s daughter and son-in-law) had worked with them at this station for 7 years. They ran and completed the 50k this year. Their first run and hopefully the first of many.

Susan Brossette and my wife Marsha DeReamer worked aid station 2 at 7.5 miles. They also worked registration at the pre race meal.

Aid station 3 was manned by the Hummer bunch and was captained by Steve Burgess, John Summer, Jeff Mason, Jordan Sampson, Grey Sampson, Stephen Sampson and Matt McDonald.

Knotty Bond and Matt Roland manned the 50k-aid station. This was their first year and from what I am told they will back next year.

Our aid station at start/finish consisted of Ann Poole, Charlie Payton and Normandy Freeman.

At start/finish taking rolls and rolls of photos was our web genius (?), Elmer Beardshall. Thanks to Elmer and Ann our race results almost beat our runners home. Articles and photos were on the web within days. I can not thank Elmer and Ann enough for all they do. They have spent countless hours helping make the race better.

The trail group led by Marvin Overstreet cleaned, marked, measured, and then cleaned again after the run. Mobby volunteers over 100 hours in helping get the trail ready and other race needs.

Helping Mobby were Shannon Holder, Elmer Beardshall, Jeff Troyka, Steve Burgess, Meredith Burgess, and Antha Estridge. Thank you all.  

You can see from this long list of names and sponsors that we depend on a lot of people and are grateful beyond words.

The runners, sponsors, and many volunteers are the race we know as the Carl Touchstone Mississippi Trail 50.

Carl, it was a great race!

Sincerest Thanks,

Steve DeReamer   
Race Director