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Longleaf Trace a fitness and economic boon in South Mississippi: bikers, skaters, runners, walkers take advantage of 41 paved miles.

Article Excerpt
When the Illinois Central railroad was shut down, the abandoned roadbed threatened to become an impenetrable jungle. But today, 41 miles of the old bed is a well-cared-for pathway for bicycling, jogging, walking and skating, with, an adjacent horse-tiding trail part of the distance.

This is the Longleaf Trace Rails to Trails, which stretches from a western gateway in Prentiss (Jefferson Davis County) to an eastern gateway at the University of Southern Mississippi (USM) in Hattiesburg and has provided new exercise venues, the opportunity for families to join together in outdoor exercise and financial benefits to communities and businesses.

On a day when the weather is fine and flowers--some planted decades ago by people who lived along the railroad--are blooming beside the trace, a spectator would have difficulty finding people who show the hard-at-work, sometimes grim determination found in gyms. And the cyclists and skaters, joggers and walkers here are still exercising aerobically, moving continuously...

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