Mitchell Sinyard - Growing on the Run

The Boston 4, Josh Myers, Mitchell Sinyard, Perry Slaughter and Alan BlackElite runner Mitchell Sinyard tends to a three quarter acre garden located across the road from his home on twenty acres he recently purchased from what was his late grandfather’s farm.  The garden produces  squash, okra, cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, watermelon, and cantaloupes from which his family along with wife Lynn feed themselves.  Daughter Jessica has already left the bread basket by marring and now resides in Concord, GA with two children, daughter Scarlett and son Hayden.  Her brother, fourteen year old son John Mitchell, (they call him by both names) is still garden dependent.  Mitchell’s farming roots run deep having been raised in Hawkinsville, GA and worked after high school graduation on his grandfather’s farm for five years.  Mitchell’s grandfather intensively farmed four hundred acres of row crop peanuts, cotton, and corn plus tended a heard of fifty cows and one hundred and fifty hogs.  Mitchell’s grandfather named him his number “one hog man”.  Grandchildren Hayden and ScarlettMitchell alleges “hogs were sent to earth to teach patience” to their handlers.  Mitchell’s patience resulted in the hogs dining on mostly corn, soybeans, and supplements while not following his directions.    

 Mitchell spent the next six years porking out working on two different hog farms prior to accepting a position as a sheet metal specialist at nearby (thirty-one mile commute) Warner Robbins Air Force Base.  Mitchell toiled seventeen years as a government service sheet metal specialist prior to upgrading to a C-5 aircraft inspector for four years.  Mitchell’s running experience paid off as he has to climb every inch of the air frame during his inspection.  Mitchell now holds the position of an Industrial Planner at Warner Robbins Air Force Base.     

Mitchell and JessicaMitchell’s first race was the Macon Labor Day 5K in 1993 and he has never looked back.  His favorite is the old Tar Baby 10K (now The Torture Trail 10K) in Eatonton, GA.   Mitchell participated in forty-nine Run and See Georgia races in 2012 with a max of seventy-six a few years ago.  Mitchell also serves on weekends as back up song director for County Line Baptist.  Mitchell muses that if the Baptists need his services, he is severely limited in the number of hymns he can summon.  Mitchell acknowledges that his wife Lynn, used to be aggravated with the time he spent doing races.  Now she only inquires which direction he is going on a Saturday morning!  His hobbies include camping, with Dillard, GA being his favorite camp venue and his favorite area camping race being the one up the mountain at Sky Valley.  

Mitchell placed third in 2012 in the 50-54 men in the Black Bag Race series only due to the limited number of races he participated in, not for lack of speed or athletic ability. Mitchell didn’t even realize he had placed in the series until he ran a race at Middle Georgia Technical School where he received his Black Bag and Black Bag Series Shirt.   Mitchell would like to see more Black Bag scheduled in South Georgia in the future.   His best 5K time was 18:26 at a Plain’s Peanut Festival race, 38:52 for a 10K, one hour and 27 minutes in aMitchell with his Tar Baby Award half marathon, and three hours 17 minutes in a full marathon.  A tribute to Mitchell’s running prowess was that he qualified and participated in the 2005 Boston Marathon (Lead photo of the event with Josh Myers, Perry Slaughter, Mitchell, and Alan Black).

Bob checking out from the back of the pack.  Look for the profiles on Mary Hayes better half Larry Hayes, and on Cheryl Cook, and on Milledgeville’s Troy Garland.