Before I pressed forward into triathlon season, I had one more marathon stop to make in Music City USA. My wife, Allyson, had been training last summer for the Thunder Road Half Marathon in Charlotte when she started having some pretty severe pain in her hips and legs that pretty much sidelined her for the remainder of the summer. She then rolled her ankle, nearly breaking it, in November and was sidelined for the rest of the year.
She got back on her feet around the first of the year and decided she was going to start visiting a sports chiropractor and get herself ready to do her first half marathon. We were eyeballing the Rock and Roll half in Virginia Beach on Labor Day, but determined that was going to be too far away. So we decided to go for it in Nashville, her doing the half and me the full.
We had moved to Charlotte from Nashville five years prior, so Nashville has a very special place in our hearts. Some of our best friends we’ve ever had live there, the city is incredible, and we have had so many fond memories. We couldn’t think of a better place to go run.
We set out on Thursday evening before in the van, kiddos and grandparents in tow. We were going to make a weekend of it. Friday evening, Allyson and I went downtown to the expo to pick up our race packets and the first word that came to mind – big. Huge, enormous, unbelievably big. I don’t think either of us realized just how big this race was. Charlotte in December was 5,100 total runners. Myrtle Beach was about 6,500. Nashville was going to be 31,000 total runners. It is actually the biggest combination full/half marathon race east of the Mississippi. This should pretty much sum it up...
This thing was a production. The expo completely filled the convention center, which is not a small place. We went from there down to the finish line area where they were having the finish to the YMCA Kids Marathon. Our great friends the Josephs have a daughter that was running in it. The area around the finish line was huge. Seriously, I have no idea how they pulled this off. The logistics alone were amazing.We finally bedded down at the Josephs around 11. I was awaked around 3:30 by severe thunder, lightening and rain. This was not good. The forecast was calling for rain all morning actually. What was worse than the rain was that the thunder and lightening had me up and I wasn’t going back to sleep. Looks like I was doing a marathon on about 4.5 hours sleep.
We got up early, picked up my good friends Darren Tyler and Brian Petak who were also doing their first half marathons, and headed down to the parking area near the finish line. From there we were bused over to the starting line some four or five miles away in Centennial Park directly across from Vanderbilt campus on West End Blvd. It had been raining lightly all morning. It picked up as we were waiting for the bus, which was lovely. Good thing we grabbed those trash bag rain coats out of the Josephs garage.
We pulled up to the start area about 10 minutes before the start, so hugs to the guys, kisses to the wife and off to the start line, which was simply amazing. 31,000 people smashed into this small area on West End. I was in corral one. The scene when I got on my toes, turned back and looked down West End was unbelievable. Just a sea of people. The rain had stopped and I shed the trash bag. They sent off the elites and the rest of us about a minute or so later. Here we go.
I didn’t publicize this much before the race to too many folks, but I went into it trying to qualify for the Boston Marathon. For my age group, I needed to run a 3:15:59 to get in, or a 7:28 per mile average. More to come on this later, but let’s just say it didn’t happen and had I known how hilly this course was I wouldn’t have even given it a second thought. It was crazy hilly. According to my friend Walt, about 1,700 feet more incline than Charlotte, which I thought was torturously hilly.
Even with the rain, the crowd support for the first half of this race was outstanding. There were people everywhere. We headed down West End then into the infamous Music Row area, down through Belmont and back into downtown. There were bands playing every 2 miles along the course and a cheering station on every alternate mile, which certainly helped pass the time and keep the mind on other things. But back to running…
So I went out waaaaay too fast. I’m not sure what I was thinking, or maybe I was listening to the bands too much or enjoying the Nashville scenery and not paying attention to the running because I was got to the half way point of the race and was at a 1:32. That is tracking toward a 3:04 marathon. There was no way on God’s green earth I was going to do a 3:04.
Between the increasing hills and the ridiculous pace, around mile 16 I realized I was in pretty big trouble. I was on a part of the course down by the Cumberland River on a walking/running path all by myself. After the half split, the crowd support had all but disappeared until we ran through downtown on miles 18-20. I was starting to hurt and the pace was taking it’s toll.
Adding insult to the pain was having to traverse the biggest hill on the course which was about a one mile climb straight back into downtown. At least I was hydrated! I had to stop about a third of the way up the hill and hit a porta-john. Quick stop and it was back to the climb. Despite the pain, running into downtown was a blast. Nashville is an amazing city and I realized how much I missed it. It has a feel and culture of its own unlike any other city or town I’ve been in. But enough with that, back to the running (soon to be walking…)
At mile 20, I hit the proverbial wall, which I knew was coming, however it was about two miles before I wanted or expected it. I hit the water stop and had to walk through it. I pretty much proceeded to walk the water stops for the remainder of the race. I was cramping around mile 22, so when I hit that stop, I grabbed two cups of water and a banana, walked while I ate and drank everything, then started back up.
It was a painful, humiliating last 6 miles. I was pretty frustrated with myself for going out too fast. I showed much more control and patience in Myrtle a couple of months prior. I tried to take some solace in convincing myself the hilly course was the cause of all my pains, but that only lasted so long. I’d trained on plenty of hilly ground and that wasn’t going to fly.
I picked it up after the mile 25 water stop and cruised in to the finish. One of the best parts of the day was having our friends the Josephs, Murray and Wells cheering me on at the end. These are three couples that Allyson and I had been the closest we’ve ever been to anyone over the years. It was really cool of them to come out and support us. They had just come from the half marathon finish line where they got to see Allyson finish.
I hobbled across the line with a 3:28:54. After all that, a PR by about a minute. I was pretty happy to have this one over with, though again I learned a ton during this race and really enjoyed the experience of running back in Nashville. I’m hoping to go back again next year much more prepared and disciplined and tackle those hills again. I was so very proud of my wife though. She finished with a 2:07 in her first ever half, this after a very frustrating and grueling year of injures. That alone made the trip worth it ten fold.Official results 302nd overall
Event photos
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