Participants in a 340-mile pedestrian road race have been passing through North Alabama this week on their way from West Memphis, Arkansas, toward the race’s finish line in northwest Georgia.
The Last Annual Heart of the South Road Race follows a portion of the historic Lee Highway transcontinental auto trail route.
Participants began their journey on Thursday, June 18, by crossing the Harahan Bridge over the Mississippi River just east of West Memphis.
Asked why this is the race’s final year, one participant replied, “That’s just the organizer’s sense of humor.”
In this case, ‘last’ means ‘most recent,’ though this is in fact the first year for the Heart of the South Road Race. The race’s organizer has also produced the Last Annual Vol State Road Race, among others.
The Heart of the South Road Race route winds through Tennessee, Mississippi and Alabama, including part of the Natchez Trace Parkway and long stretches of U.S. Highway 72, passing through numerous towns along the way toward northwest Georgia and the finish line at Castle Rock, located atop Sand Mountain across the Georgia state line.
On Tuesday, June 23, a number of participants were making their way east alongside Highway 72 through Rogersville, with several teams stopping to dine at local restaurants.
Among the road racers who had reached Rogersville around midday Tuesday were Jen Campanella and Nick Vermeulen, of Rochester, NY, and Tony Hendrix and Melissa Wagner, of Memphis, TN.
These were two of several teams that made it to town on Tuesday. Other participants had passed through earlier in the week, while some were still on their way.
As of 7 a.m. Thursday morning, 13 participants had crossed the finish line in Georgia while others were in Limestone County, Madison County and areas farther east.
A documentary film crew has been chronicling the participants’ journeys along the way.
Learn more and follow real-time results on the Last Annual Heart of the South Road Race website.
Nick Vermeulen and Jen Campanella, Rochester, NY 
Tony Hendrix and Melissa Wagner, Memphis, TN
[…] Around 2:30 or 3 we made our way out of Florence through Killen (home of Killen Drugs) and Elgin and into Rogersville. It was in Rogersville where we became locally famous as we ran into Brady Cox who is a writer for the local newspaper and he stopped us to ask what was going on and take our photo for the newspaper, we also talked with another fellow whom I forget his name but he did a bunch of social media for the area, funny because he was an older gentleman in his 70’s probably. Interesting folks! And really all I wanted to do was sit down and eat some lunch and poop!!! Have to have your 15 seconds of fame first, right? It is pretty amazing how fast word spreads. Here is the link to Brady’s article https://eastlauderdalenews.com/2020/06/25/heart-of-the-south-road-race-participants-make-their.way-t… […]