You'd think anyone who chose to run this would be fairly well prepared for what this race was going to be like, especially if you're used to running in Mississippi in the summer. You'd be wrong. I was supposed to do this race a few years back but had to DNS. I finally decided to give it a go, and it was my first half since I completed the RyanMan Triathlon in October 2016.

The HTH half is a no frills, point-to-point race in the Mississippi Delta. That means it's flat. The "expo" is in a local church. I wasn't even certain I was in the right place when I pulled up. They had a few past shirts for sale, but that was about it. The race bag came with a tech HTH shirt and a few things like local coupons and Honey Stinger gel. If it's not a big race that gives lots of useful swag, I'd actually rather the race bag be on the skimpy side rather than a bunch of junk to throw away. Knowing full well it gets to surface of the sun temperatures in the Delta in June, the race starts at 6 AM. We all agreed we'd have gladly gotten up at 1 AM and started at 3, just to avoid the sun. Buses ferry the runners (capped at 200) out to Children of the Corn territory to start the race.The race consists of like 5 turns, 3 of which come in the last half mile. You are on the same stretch of road for 12 miles. Yes. 12 miles. Bring some entertainment or go stir crazy. There are water stops every 1.5-2 miles along the route, which is good because there's little else. No trees. Well, maybe one or two trees, whose shade was gratefully welcomed, but essentially none. No people. Aside from race vehicles, I think I saw maybe 4 cars come through the whole race. There is NOTHING on the course but farmland. It was beautiful. Also the water stops were great simply for the fact that they existed! That and the volunteers were so wonderful. Even though they were not running, they were still out in the sun for several hours. By the time we got to mile 8, we were basically toast. Thankfully, mile 8 had a car wash style mister setup. My new friend I met along the course and I just stood under it until we were fully soaked. That was pretty much the strategy after the first 4 miles - get as much water on, and in, my body as possible. There was even a mobile water stop along the route. Some drove the course offering ice cold water and there was another, unofficial, water stop later on. These folks know exactly how hot it gets. The end of the race is at a local distributor so there's free beer, plenty of pizza, water, and bananas, and some entertainment to look forward to.

Despite what it might sound like, I really am glad I did this race. If I weren't leaving MS, I might even consider doing it again. For such a small race, they do a great job with it and despite it being a very monotonous course, it's at the same time a lovely one.