Dan Mullen had never ran a 5K, but he finished the Boston Marathon for charity

Mississippi State head coach Dan Mullen is not a runner by trade. In fact, he’s never even run a 5K race, which only covers about 3.1 miles. But that didn’t stop him from running in Monday’s 26-mile Boston Marathon, finishing with a respectable average mile under 11 minutes.

It was an endurance test for Mullen, whose day job coaching the Bulldogs does not require him to run long distances. But he did it for a good cause -- to raise money for his Mullen 36 Family Foundation, which seeks to “give children around the state of Mississippi opportunities to succeed” by donating money to 36 children’s charities around the state.

So, while Mullen likely huffed and puffed his way through the end of the race, remember he’s in it for the right reasons.

It does seem like the race’s organizers didn’t have a great sense of Mississippi geography, based on this abbreviation.

Mullen has been doing six-mile runs to train for the race, he said, in which he’s participating with other members of the foundation’s “26 for 36” marathon team. He didn’t win the race, but that’s not the point. Good for Mullen for pushing himself and, hopefully, pushing some money toward Mississippi kids who could use it.