The last weekend in April my mom flew in and we drove down to Nashville for my 6^th half marathon, the Rock N Roll Nashville or previously referred to as the St. Jude Country Music Marathon.

I had two first during this marathon:

• This is was the first time I ran a 5K and half marathon back to back
• My mom also participated in the 5K (a first for her), so I had a running partner (well at least for the first 3 miles)

We arrived in Nashville the Wednesday before the race, which meant that we spent Wednesday afternoon through Friday actually exploring Nashville.

Packet Pick Up and Expo

We picked up our packets on Wednesday since we were just down the street from Music Center Hall, visiting the Ryman Auditorium and the Country Music Hall of Fame.  The Expo had only been open a few hours, when we arrived.

After picking up our packets we hit the expo.  Our first stop was the merchandise area.   Brooks had sale on all of their non RNR merchandise, so my mom and I both picked up a couple of items.   I also picked up a t-shirt and magnet to commemorate the race (the magnet has become a tradition at every RNR event).

Then we moved on to the “Run Happy Island” by Brooks.   They had various activities from riding the mechanical running shoe to run the mountain person up the mountain along with treadmill where you could learn about your feet and what shoes are best for you. I debated riding the shoe but changed my mind because I didn’t want to totally humiliated; we ended up getting free t-shirts from Brooks.

Overall the expo was nice; a good variety of vendors and good mix of information and sales booths.   At the expo I introduced my mom to the hoka one one.  She actually got a really good deal on a pair of their shoes … 10% off, no tax and free socks.

Overall I really enjoyed the expo and though it was well organized.  I also loved that we were able to go through the expo with very little crowd.

5K & Half Marathon … the Music City Challenge

The day before the race it looked like it was certain that there would be rain on the morning of the race.   Thus the Rock N Roll group started sending out alerts on the weather and race which was very helpful.   Also the day before the race I got a little sick.  We were walking around at Centennial Park and I started feeling a little strange the next think I know I was projectile vomiting; this resulted in me eating very little the day before the race (bad very bad).

Race morning I woke feeling okay – not great but okay.  We made our way from our hotel to downtown Nashville.  (There was shuttle bus but we opted to park at Nissan Stadium, reserved us a space.)   I ate a bagel with peanut butter and a banana.  Right as we parked and started walking to the starting line it started raining more steadily and continued getting heavier.   There was also a little bit of thunder and lighting, which delayed the start of 5K about 30 minutes.

The starting area for the 5K was just outside of Music Hall Center; from there it headed down Broadway then over to Tennessee state capital, along the Cumberland River and then crossover the River to the where it finished at Nissan Stadium.

After running the 5K I jogged across the river and to the starting line for half marathon, which was already started, so I joined in with corral 20.

The half marathon started on Broadway, on a downward slope, which helped my first mile to be at a pace of 6:59 minutes.   Then we headed down music row on 17th Street, along side Vanderbilt University and then down Belmont to Belmont University.  Just after passing the 440 loop, the race turned back towards downtown on 16th Street on the other side of music row.  After getting back to the downtown area we cut across downtown to the Tennessee state capital, where we ran around the Bicentennial Capital Mall, then along the Cumberland River and across the bridge to the Nissan Stadium.

I would describe the course as rolling hills. The peak elevation of the race was reached early in the race but I can definitely say the hills on the last part of the course was the hardest.

Between miles 9 and 12 it seem like you were downhill but there was constantly rolling hills.  I have to say last the worst hill toward the end of the 12th mile, just about a half mile from the finish.

Personally the hardest part of the race came between miles 8 and 9.   My shoes and socks were soaked from the rain.  By this time it was starting to “dry” up a little.  I could feel my feet were just raw and starting to form blister.  First I stop and readjusted my shoes and laces then I stop and loosened my laces.  Finally at mile 9 I stopped and took off my sock.  I twisted and got a good amount of water out of them, I tied them to my running belt but could only stand to run without for about a quarter of a mile.  After put my socks back on and got my feet re-adjusted, I realized that my arm was getting road burn along my right arm because i was running a sleeveless shirt on  – for the first third of the race I wore hoodie pull over, then took and tied it around my waste.  When I realized my arm was bleeding and the there was no aid station in near by I had to put back on my hoodie to keep my arm from getting worse and to stop it from bleeding.

I finally finished at a time of 4:15 which included both the 5K, half marathon and the jog in between.

When I crossed the finished my Apple Watch read 19.45, which also accounted for the first walk from from the car to the first starting lining.

I was totally done when I crossed the finished line.  I chugged a bottle of milk, then grab some snack foods, found my mom, collected my metal from 5K and headed to the car.   When we got back to the hotel room I laid down for a while and then took a nice long shower then followed by a nice long nap.

My mom seemed handle her 5K just fine, which a finishing time of little over an hour.  She tried to hang out by finish line but some how missed crossing (she yet to see me cross a finish line a race).

We did celebratory dinner at Chuy’s in the Opry Mill Outlet center next to our hotel.  Then we came back to the hotel and I napped some more, followed ice cream for dinner.

While it was a wet race, it was a good race.   I feel like despite my pace dropping to an aver of 14;27 for last 5 miles, I felt it was one of my stronger races.   The hills didn’t really bother me while there was a lot of them they were stubble.  I think the thing that got on this race was first the rain, which lead to wet feet and socks,  doing so much running back to back and then not feeling 100% the day before.

I loved the course.  The roads were relatively pot hole free.  There were supporters everywhere.  Runners encouraged other and people along the course were very supportive. At mile 11 I was just about done and a complete stranger cheered me and told me I could it – it truly felt amazing.

I would rank the Nashville Rock N Roll as one of my favorite races to date!!!