Early bird runners prepare for Sunday’s Gulf Coast Marathon

OCEAN SPRINGS, Miss. (WLOX) - It’s a Tuesday tradition for a group of runners who show up at Greyhound Stadium in Ocean Springs to run and train for races before the sun comes up. They call it “Track Tuesday.”

“We love Track Tuesdays. All levels, all paces. It’s great we can run here together fast or slow,” said Amanda Ray.

And in this case, runners are getting in their tapering work ahead of this weekend’s Gulf Coast Marathon.

“The week before the race you want to back off so you’ll have fresh legs and probably do half the normal mileage,” said Leonard Vergunst.

One of those luminous beings in the dark is Savannah Turner. She’s doing the Gulf Coast Marathon less than a month after competing in an Ironman event in Panama City.

“This is a really fun race, and you would think that just a marathon after an Ironman wouldn’t be a big deal, but I think fundamentally it’s a little bit different,” Turner said.

On Sunday at 7 a.m., runners will start the Gulf Coast Marathon at Henderson Point and go 26.2 miles to MGM Park in Biloxi. Those doing the half marathon begin at Jones Park. Drivers should avoid this area or expect delays. Hwy 90 will close to traffic at 6:45 a.m. and reopen in sections after the runners have moved forward on the route.

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