I don’t even know where to begin. Nashville is possibly my new favorite city, and this is coming from someone who experienced about 72 hours of pouring rain while visiting Nashville. I loved the southern sweetness of everyone we met; I loved that everywhere we turned there was live music; I loved that things were actually relatively affordable; I loved the ridiculous amount of food that was served at every meal; and I loved the general appreciation for country music.
I have so much to say, and so many pictures post show, that I think I may have to do a separate post just to talk about Nashville.
But first, The Rock’n’Roll Nashville Country Music Marathon! Brace yourself, I get wordy after big races…
This past weekend Anna, Kate, Molly and I flew to Nashville for a mini-getaway and for the marathon and half marathon. I was more excited than usual for this race weekend because it was Anna’s first half marathon, my girlfriends were coming – and as always they were an unbelievable support system, and because I had actually followed some semblance of a training plan.
When we arrived in Nashville, we made our way to the hotel, checked in early, and then headed over to the Expo to pick up our numbers. Since it was Anna’s first half marathon I stalked her every move to capture the excitement. She was extremely sick (and still is), so the pictures are only now being posted because she was a trooper and her race went off without a hitch.
Molly and Kate were also troopers and walked around the Expo while I geeked out over my obsession with running related products. This Expo was honestly one of my favorites, well done RNR! I left with a new running head band that read “Boston Strong” and a new pandora charm that said Nashville 26.2 with a guitar.
What was even better was that Nissan had a meet and greet with Kara Goucher set up for the afternoon. I think I’ve made it clear how much I look up to Kara Goucher, so this put me on cloud 9 and was a great way to kick off the weekend.
After the Expo we had a nice pre-race meal at Cafe Nonna, and Anna and I tracked down race-day breakfast. We went to bed earlier than ever so that we’d be ready to catch the shuttle at 5am for a 7am race start.
When we woke up it was raining. No, pouring. No, borderline hurricaning out. Despite the disgusting weather we lined up with all of these crazies and took off for a long rainy run.
Rain or shine, RNR did a GREAT job! There were countless amounts of corrals because there were over 20,000 runners. As annoying as it is to start a race towards the back end of 20,000 runners, RNR had a wave system set up to alleviate some of the chaos. I didn’t cross the starting line until about 30 minutes after the race started, but what was great, was that by the time I was crossing there was room to move as well as time to move before they let the next corral go.
Another awesome part about this race was that there were bands along the course. Because of the incessant rain, there were far fewer bands out than there would have been, but for future RNR CMM participants, I’m sure this will be a fun perk.
The volunteers were friendly, the spectators were resilient and withstood hours of rain, and there seemed to be endless supplies at the water stations. There were even first aid stations set up where runners stopped for vaseline for arm chafing because of the friction that the rain caused (overshare? ehh).
My favorite spectators made it through the rain and watched from mile 17 and mile 26. When I saw them at mile 26 it was such a surreal feeling. At that point I could barely breath or move, but seeing them made my day and I knew there was only .2 miles standing between me and having a blast in Nashville with them. Not only did they withstand the rain (and also get covered in mud), but they also made awesome SporadicRunner cards and running presents for Anna and me.
From the above, you would think this is my standard “I LOVED EVERY SECOND OF THIS RACE!” post, but believe it or not, and as much as I loved the details, this wouldn’t be the first race I’d recommend to people. It was great, and I haven’t gotten to the best part yet…wait for it… but I’ve never experienced so many hills. I had read reviews about the Nashville course being hilly, but I did not expect each of the 26.2 miles to have a hill. After hitting 21 miles of hills we entered a park. Leading up to the park there were spectators everywhere. Once we got to the park, it felt like we were running in the middle of nowhere. My legs burned from the hills, and I desperately needed affirmation from spectators, so I wasn’t thrilled that there were were about 3 miles of solidarity this far into the race. I don’t know what they could have done differently, but if I ever become a race route planner (which I doubt I will – but IF), I will not pick a course with 26.2 miles of hills and an empty park.
Also, though this was unique to this specific day, the rain was relentless. At dinner someone asked me at which mile I hit a wall, and my honest answer was I didn’t hit a wall, I hit a million walls. Each time I ran past a sewer and the rain water submerged my feet up to my ankles while rain continued to pour down on my head, I hit a wall. I wanted to scream, and I wanted to give up, but what I wanted more was to PR.
And that brings me to the best part of the race. I am so excited to say that I ran the Nashville Country Music Marathon in 5:07:27. Though I was hoping to break 5 hours, this was a 34 minute 1 second PR and I will take it!
Congrats to everyone that braved the rain in Nashville, that ran in Eugene, that ran the Nike Women’s Half in D.C. and all of the other races this past weekend!
How did your races go!?
What I’m Running To: Get Lucky – Daft Punk featuring Pharrell Williams
Fueled by Endorphins 
4 responses to “Nashville Country Music Marathon and a Rainy Girls Getaway”
WOW….did I read that correctly? A 34 minute PR???? WOW!!!!!
Great job……I've been to Nash-vegas a million times and would love to run that one someday. Great recap of what was obviously a great race!
Woo! Congrats on the PR! And I'm so glad you fell in love with Nashville. I went to college there and LOVE it! I ran the Nike race and, although I did not PR, I had a blast. Our weather was the total opposite of yours! Now just imagine what you can do in GOOD weather!
Thank you so much Bill!! It ended up being a great race even in the rain! My friends and I loved Nashville and definitely want to go back.
I hope the final weeks of training for Vermont are going well for you! Looking forward to reading your race recap!
Thank you very much! Nashville was amazing! Hopefully next time I got the sun stays out for a bit haha.
It sounds like you did an awesome job in the Nike Women's Half! I love Women's races and the Tiffany's necklace is a nice perk, too. Great job on an awesome race!