With the exception of races in places like Miami or Key West, this race is no doubt in the running for one of the flattest anywhere in the United States, as it is run along the banks of what is perhaps America’s most storied river, the winding Mississippi River that gives the race its name, making its 13th annual running in the late winter season of 2025.
The race organizers — a pair of Teach for America teachers who came up with the idea for the race while working at Lakeside High School in nearby Lake Village, Ark. — note that the race takes runners through some forgotten pieces of the nation’s history, including the site where Charles Lindbergh made his first nighttime flight as well as the largest ox-bow lake anywhere in the United States.
(What is an “ox-bow” lake, you ask? It’s a U-shaped body of water made by diverting water from a river — in this case, the Mississippi River.)